Bob Rockford

Bob Rockford, the now 10-year orchestra director at St. Paul United Church of Christ in Waterloo, has built a reputation in the music world.

With a love of melodious sound that dates back to when he first picked up the clarinet in fifth grade, Rockford, 81, took a cast of local musicians at the church and created a community treasure.

“We had an orchestra that wasn’t a regular thing when I started out, and then the music director left and someone asked, ‘Bob, will you lead?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that,’” the Red Bud man said. “At the time, I thought the orchestra was a viable thing that we could keep doing so I said, ‘Let’s get a practice schedule going and do this thing regularly.’”

After nailing down the performance of a few songs in front of the congregation, the orchestra began opening up their concerts to the community. That has continued through the years with both a spring and Christmas concert.

Over time, many have shown their support of Rockford and the 22-member orchestra, even approaching him with compliments at the end of shows…>>> 

Read the rest of the story in the January 3  issue of the Republic-Times.

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