Play On: Kathy Silvestri’s love for music continues with big band music and foreign choral works

By Catherine Godbey | Living 50 Plus

A football gathering and enthusiastic recruiter for the Sophisticated Swingers triggered Kathy Silvestri’s return to music after years of playing only once a year with Auburn University’s alumni band.

“I was at a football party at a friend’s house and Jon Sedlak said, ‘Does anybody know anyone who plays saxophone?’ I said, ‘I do.’ He said, ‘Who?’ I said, ‘Me. I play saxophone,’” the 59-year-old Silvestri said. “I love music. It fills my soul. I’m so glad I have outlets for that.”

Along with performing with the Sophisticated Swingers — a staple band in Decatur for the past four decades — Silvestri sings with the Huntsville Community Chorus.

For Silvestri, the band and the chorus continue a lifelong love of the arts. That love began in the fifth grade in Lafayette, Georgia.

“We had a county-wide school band. In the fifth grade, they would let you try all the instruments. It was a big deal,” Silvestri said. “My mom wanted me to play the flute and my dad wanted me to play the clarinet. I wanted to play the alto saxophone. It seemed like more of a rebel instrument and I liked that.”

The band leaders questioned whether the petite Silvestri could handle the instrument.

“I was a tiny, little, skinny wisp of a girl. They didn’t know if I could even hold it. When I showed them I could, they relented,” Silvestri said. “That’s how I found my tribe. I was a weird little girl and kind of a little spacy, but I found my place of belonging in the band.”

Silvestri continued in the band through junior high school and high school, playing in the marching, orchestral and jazz bands and serving as the drum major her junior and senior years. For college, Silvestri decided to attend Auburn University.

“My parents brainwashed me as a small child,” Silvestri said with a laugh. “I had no choice but to go to Auburn. I am the second of three generations of Auburn graduates.”

On The Plains, Silvestri auditioned for the Auburn University band and sat 20th chair out of 20 alto saxophones.

“Where I ranked did not matter to me. I was in the Auburn University marching band playing at the games. It was amazing,” Silvestri said.

College also provided Silvestri with her first training in choral singing.

“I had sung in the choir at church growing up, but I didn’t have any vocal training. At Auburn, I joined a church choir that was directed by a music major. That’s where I first started singing properly,” Silvestri said.

After graduating from Auburn, the music stopped and life began. Silvestri and her college sweetheart, George Silvestri, moved to Decatur and began having children.

Except for once a year, when she would perform with the Auburn University Alumni Band, instrumental music was absent from Silvestri’s life.

“I think I’ve only missed four or five band reunions since I graduated. I marched pregnant three times and marched right after I had my fourth child another time. It was something I didn’t want to miss,” Silvestri said.

In 2010, Silvestri attended the football party, which brought the world of music back into her life.

Started in the early ‘80s by the late Paul Stroud, the Sophisticated Swingers originally consisted of a group of Stroud’s old classmates from Riverside High School, the precursor to Decatur High School.

“The band was initially a jam band only. They didn’t even have musical charts. We continue that tradition today to a degree,” Sedlak said. “If you listen to the Swingers, you will hear the legendary big band tunes. Today, the band’s repertoire has expanded into ‘50s and ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues as well as some classic country hits.”

When Silvestri joined the band as a tenor saxophonist, she was the youngest member of the group. Now she is the second youngest.

“I recruited a bass player who is the only other person younger than me,” Silvestri said. “What I love about being in the band and about music is the camaraderie and cooperation in making something. I love being part of a group. I don’t ever want to have a solo. I just want to play the saxophone with the other saxophones.”

The band, which numbers 10 to 11 members, includes saxophones, trumpets, a rhythm section and singers. Members range in age from 50-something to 80-something.

“Music is something you can almost always do. Although we like to get paid when possible and appropriate, it’s sure not about the money. We really enjoy,” Sedlak said.

The band practices once a month. The next concert will be April 5 at the second annual ACA/Calhoun Jazz Festival in downtown Decatur. The band also normally plays the Decatur Park Concerts and 3rd Friday.

By playing with the band, Silvestri hopes to promote and spotlight the music from the big band era.

“I love the music we play. Part of our purpose is to preserve that kind of music. I love to play those tight chords and to hear that tight sound of big bands when they sound like one instrument,” said Silvestri, who has attended concerts for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Brian Setzer Orchestra.

Individuals interested in joining the band can contact Sedlak at 256-606-6007 or colemansedlak@aol.com.

Silvestri’s close connection with music continued when her children entered middle school and high school. Two of her children joined the band — her older son went on to play tuba at Auburn — and all four joined the Decatur High chorus.

While chaperoning the all-state chorus trips, Silvestri developed a deep love for choral music.

“At the end of the all-state chorus event, they would sing the Alabama state song and the whole auditorium would join in. The musical children of course had musical parents so it was sung in six-part harmony. It was the most fantastic thing I have ever been part of,” Silvestri said.

When all of Silvestri’s children graduated high school and then college, the music and the concerts stopped.

“I told George, ‘I’m going to join the Huntsville Community Chorus,’” Silvestri said.

Since joining the chorus in 2018, Silvestri has sung with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra and in German, Latin and Argentinian Spanish.

“German was fine. I learned it in high school. But Latin was harder. And I just gave up trying to learn the Argentinian Spanish. I did try though,” Silvestri said. “That’s one of the things I have loved about being in the chorus. It has been a challenge to sing in foreign languages. But having a challenge and having to go back again and again to practice has stretched my abilities.”

The Huntsville Community Chorus will present a concert in March and will perform with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra in April.

Along with the Sophisticated Swingers and the Huntsville Community Chorus, Silvestri sings with the choir at Decatur Presbyterian Church and is a member of Carnegie Carnival’s Crewe O ‘Ye Crooked Goat pirate crewe.

Silvestri, who worked for the Carnegie Visual Arts Center, helped plan the inaugural Carnegie Carnival.

“It used to be my job. Now it is just fun. I even have a pirate name — Kate Silver. One year I was voted the meanest pirate on the ship,” Silvestri said. “One time I was making fun of Cosplay and one of my sons said, ‘Mom, you dress up like a pirate.’ I couldn’t argue with that.”

Keep an eye out for Silvestri at upcoming concerts for the Sophisticated Swingers and the Huntsville Community Chorus and at Carnegie Carnival on March 1 in downtown Decatur.