WIND SYMPHONY CONSIDERS RETURN

As the stirring opening notes of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" sound, the metal shell enclosing a floating stage retracts to reveal the American Wind Symphony Orchestra blowing to beat the band.

It's dramatic stuff presented by conductor-riverboat pilot-Fulbright scholar Robert Boudreau, a man who has spent the past 33 years reinventing the American showboat tradition.

Boudreau, whose orchestra is based in Pittsburgh, was in town this past week to talk to civic leaders about bringing his boat, the Point Counterpoint II, and the orchestra's 45 musicians back to Cape Girardeau next summer. He showed them videotaped highlights of the orchestra's 1989 concert tour of Europe and Russia.

After some years absence, returning to the Mississippi on the heels of the greatest flood in the river's history is no accident, Boudreau said.

"Towns like Dubuque, they really need this kind of thing," he said. "People don't realize how devastating this is to economies and individuals."

"...We felt this could bring a little bit of sunshine," he continued. "It's an opportunity for people to come together and work together in a particular project to raise the spirits.

"It does that."

Discussions last week focused on ways to raise the $15,000 needed to bring the orchestra here, and on trying to coordinate the performance with Riverfest -- they'll be here too late -- or with a planned balloon festival late in July.

The orchestra was last here in 1988 but without the boat, which was held up by low water. The musicians performed at the Municipal Band Shell in Capaha Park instead.

The orchestra played on the riverfront in its five previous appearances here.

Boudreau is very much a man with a vision. Since 1957 he has commissioned more than 350 works by a list of composers who include Penderecki and Villa-Lobos. Through self-promotion and determination, he has brought free symphonic music to musical backwaters in America, Canada, the Caribbean and Europe. And it's been done with panache.

Time magazine once said, "It just may be that there is no greater innovative force in American music than Robert Boudreau."

In each town they visit, the young musicians -- many of them from foreign countries -- stay in the homes of host families, preferably those of student musicians. While there they perform in small chamber groups and sometimes conduct workshops.

Broudreau said the philosophy behind the orchestra is summed up by the words "getting to know you. It's people coming together. We use music to do that."

Music, he says, is "another means of communication. It lowers the threshold of concern on the point of people saying `Hi.'"

When Boudreau formed the orchestra in 1957, it played concerts for rural folks on a derelict coal barge. Now the musicians, who travel by van, play aboard a self-propelled boat that Boudreau and members of his family pilot themselves. One son, Josh, plays trumpet in the orchestra.

Boudreau's wife Kathleen helped him collect the works in the art gallery on the boat, which also has a small theater. She also has a 1,000-ton pilot's license.

"I always say, She is the master and I am the mate," he offers. "She has given her life to this project."

Cape Girardeau community leaders will attempt to find a civic organization to spearhead the drive to raise the money through corporate and private donations. They also discussed staging a river art festival at the same time.