Friday, Aug. 8 has been proclaimed Randall Hall Day in Shinnston. The man for whom the tribute has been established served as Bridgeport High School band director from 1972 through 1984. He is both honored and humbled about tomorrow’s festivities at Shinnston’s Bice-Fergusson Memorial Museum.

 

“I think some people wanted to make an old man happy – and I appreciate that,” Hall said. “I also feel many people have come out of Shinnston who are equally or more deserving.”

 

Hall’s humble character has played a role in some of his greatest musical feats.

 

While living in New Jersey, he was a member of French-American composer/conductor Dr. Lucien Calliet’s professional concert band. A renowned clarinetist, Calliet worked as staff arranger for the Philadelphia Orchestra and founded the Wind Symphony of Southern New Jersey. He also arranged/composed music for several films, including “The Ten Commandments” and “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.”

Some of the first chair clarinet players were among the region’s finest, according to Hall, who said he proudly was a part of the second clarinet section – until, for various reasons, members of the first section became unavailable to fulfill their musical duties.

 

“We were all hiding behind our stands because we knew someone was going to have to move up and sight read what the prima donnas had been playing for two weeks,” Hall said. “I didn’t think Dr. Calliet even knew who I was, but he called me by name and asked me to do that.”

 

In playing the intricate solo passage, Hall said he surprised himself with the music that came from his clarinet. Obviously, Calliet was pleasantly surprised, too.

 

“He actually quit conducting and began applauding,” Hall said.

 

Hall describes that moment – and several similar ones – as being in the right place at the right time, with a little luck on the side.

That experience occurred in the late 1960s to early 1970s, during which time he served as director of a very prominent high school band in New Jersey. That period of Hall’s life occurred after he served as band director for East Fairmont High School and before his 12-year stint with BHS.

 

Both of those local jobs came with plenty of challenge and put Hall’s passion for musical excellence to the test, he said. The successful high school band programs are also to be attributed to his students, said Hall, who shared a story about his arrival at BHS in 1972.

 

“Being an athletic town, I knew I wasn’t going to have total commitment of everyone like I had in New Jersey or East Fairmont, but I always felt very honored to have a dedicated nucleus in the band,” he said. “Sometimes that nucleus might have been one-fourth, one-half or even three-fourths of the band, depending upon the year. But I felt the band got very, very good because of that dedicated nucleus.”

 

Partially responsible for Hall’s own musical beginnings was his own high school band director, Buck Shaffer.

 

“(He) was a wonderful clarinet and saxophone player and I owe everything to him,” said Hall of the former Shinnston High School director.

 

That link played a major role in the establishment of Randall Hall Day, said Museum Curator Maxine West Weser.

 

“In 2006 – when the museum first opened – we honored Randall’s mentor Buck Shaffer, who was his band teacher at Shinnston High School,” said Weser. “Woody Maley, vice-chair of the Bice-Ferguson Museum, suggested a couple of years ago that we honor Randall one of these days.”

 

In January of this year, Weser submitted a plan to establish Randall Hall Day. Being an ex-postmaster, she thought it would be appropriate to institute a pictorial postmark – just as the museum had done for Buck Shaffer eight years back.

 

“It just all worked into place,” Weser said.

 

Hall will be honored 5-8 p.m. Friday at the Bice-Ferguson Memorial Museum, located on Pike Street in Shinnston. At 7 p.m., a short program will take place which will feature the reading of a city proclamation by Mayor Sammy J. DeMarco and the unveiling of the pictorial postmark which has been specially created in Hall’s honor. There will also be open mic time during which attendees are invited to share words and remembrances about the honored guest.

 

“We invite people who have played music with him in the past, students he has taught and any others who would like to come,” Weser said.

 

Hall will also oblige in performing a few numbers.

 

“I’ll be playing ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ on flute. That’s a Latin piece written by Carlos Jobim,” he said. “On clarinet, I’ll play a jazz tune, “There Will Never Be Another You’ and a very slow ballad, ‘A Time for Love’ – a song you don’t hear very often – on saxophone. I’ll finish with a fast jazz arrangement of ‘Autumn Leaves,’ also on sax.”

 

Hall has certainly been an instrumental personality in the City of Shinnston and beyond, Weser said.

 

“Randall was the original conductor of the Shinnston Community Band and he is such a talented musician,” she said. “Who else can say they have played back-up for Jerry Vale, Fabian, Vic Contina, The Rondells and several big bands? He was also a member of the Shinnston High School Hall of Fame, the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and has produced superior ratings for several bands. That’s quite an accomplishment.”

 

The public is invited to attend Friday’s festivities, which will also include a reception with refreshments. 

 

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