State College Little German Band marks more than 60 years of music, tradition, and community
The State College Little German Band, the oldest continually performing community band in Centre County, is comprised of a wide variety of 35 local musicians, music educators, and retirees playing a wide variety of Bavarian-style music, including marches, waltzes, and polkas. Dressed in traditional Bavarian attire, the band incorporates such instruments as the bass horn (tuba), trombone, clarinet, trumpet, and drums. Aside from performing, the band has produced a number of LP records
With the dawn of autumn comes the Little German Band’s busy season from late September to early October, with a full schedule playing Central Pennsylvania Oktoberfests in State College, Boalsburg, Bellefonte, Millheim, Mifflinburg, Altoona, and Saint Marys, to name a few.
In 2023, Evonne E. “Vonnie” Henninger published the history of the band, “The State College Little German Band — More Than 60 Years of Oompah Music,” which is available to purchase from the band at their events.
“My husband played baritone and bass with the Little German Band from Aug. 1964 until May 2016 — one week before he passed away,” Henninger says. “I managed the band for six years, from 2009 to 2015, following the unexpected death of band director Guy Rachau.”
The Little German Band was first comprised of local businessmen who were also musicians, many of whom were HRB-Singer employees. The band has since grown to include many volunteer members. The band first performed in 1960, playing Christmas carols in the German “oompah” style on the streets of State College.
The band was founded by its original three members — Richard Greene, Hubie Haugh, and Albert Brogdon, who wrote much of the music the band played. After performing throughout Centre County for five years, the band had grown to 26 members and played nearly 40 concerts a year.
Little German Band business manager and tuba player Tom Reyburn went to his first Little German Band concert as a toddler in the mid-1960s.
“I went to my first concert at the Tot Lot Park in Park Forest (State College) with my mother and later at concerts at the Central PA Arts Festival with my parents when I was growing up,” he recalls. “My future brother-in-law and his fatherin-law played with the band.”
After being stationed around the world and upon deciding to retire to Happy Valley in 2015, joining the Little German Band was something Reyburn decided he wanted to do.
“I contacted Vonnie and she needed a tuba player for the Millheim Oktoberfest the weekend we returned to Happy Valley,” he says. “Like most newbies in the band, I was sight reading throughout my first gig.” Henninger later checked with a mutual friend about Reyburn and his qualifications for being band manager. “Since Tom hadn’t arrived in State College yet, I wanted first ‘dibs’ with him,” she says. “I offered him the management job and he accepted. Tom has been a blessing.” During Reyburn’s tenure, the band did the paperwork to qualify for nonprofit status, which allowed them to participate in Centre Gives, a project of the Centre Foundation.
The Little German Band has performed in both home-made dirndls — colorful women’s dresses common to Austria and Bavaria and comprising a bodice, blouse, skirt and apron — and lederhosen — leather breeches for men, often paired with suspenders.
“Some of the band-owned lederhosen marked ‘Made in West Germany’ are a tribute to the durability of German cowhide,” Reyburn says. “But time takes its toll, and leather pants and dirndls are not inexpensive to replace.” Over the past six decades, the band has accumulated hundreds of musical scores. “When I joined the band, these were collected in multiple three-ring binders for each musician,” he says. “As a tuba player, I found it difficult to quickly change binders to be ready for the next number. It was a significant project to cull our music down to 50 to 60 favorites in a manageable three-ring binder.” The Little German Band has performed all across Pennsylvania and in several other states but never abroad. “In 1979, the Little German Band decided to make a two-week trip to Austria in May 1983,” Henninger says. “Since most of the members were working full-time, it was not possible to get enough members available to make the trip.” The Little German Band has played weekend performances in Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and all of Pennsylvania, including at the Barnesville, Pa., Octoberfest, a major event for the band for several years. Back in the day, the band marched in the German-American Steuben Parade in New York City. Some of the original members later went on retirement tours to Germany together, bringing home sheet music to add to the band’s collection and repertoire.
“The highlight was two trips (1966 and 1967) to parade in the annual Von Steuben Day Parade marching down Broadway with thousands of German viewers — many crying as the band played familiar German music,” Henninger recalls. These days, the band stays close to home, with a 2026 schedule that includes performances in Lock Haven, Altoona, Milesburg, and Williamsport, as well as Oktoberfests in Boalsburg, Millheim, Mifflinburg, and Bellefonte. In the past decade, the band has has made bus trips to St. Marys for the town’s 125th anniversary parade and festival.
“We sat on hay bales on a flatbed trailer and played through in their parade before playing all afternoon at the festival,” Reyburn says. “In 2018, the band was invited to perform for the National BMW Motorcycle Rally in Tioga County, which turned into a very wet and soggy evening playing in the County Fairgrounds Livestock Arena.”
Over the years, the Little German Band has played in Harrisburg for special political events, at Wayne Harpster’s Farm in Spruce Creek for President Carter in 1989, at the State College Arts Festival for 25 years, and for the U.S. Gymnastics team during an exhibition at Penn State.
The band has traditionally performed at noon on Memorial Day at the Boalsburg Village Conservancy’s Memorial Day celebration since the U.S. Bicentennial celebration.
“They have played on the diamond in Boalsburg for Memorial Day since 1976,” Henninger says. “This year is 50 years.”
Henninger says there are a number of aspects to the Little German Band that make it very unique.
“It’s the authentic German lederhosen uniforms and the flavor of the German music,” she says.
“Also, now in their 66th year, the LGB is the longest active band to play in Centre County. When the Lemont Band ended in 1954, it had held the record with less than 65 years. The band has an active membership of 30 players, and usually 18 to 20 show for a gig.”
So what does Reyburn think makes the Little German Band so special? “Gemütlichkeit” is the best way he can describe it.
“It’s a German-language word used to convey the idea of a state or feeling of warmth, friendliness, and good cheer,” he adds. “There’s nothing like oompah music on a sunny fall Saturday, a good beer, and a wurst, and a pretzel.”
When conductor Dave Strouse signals the band to repeat the tune (e.g., “Pennsylvania Polka,” “Liechtensteiner Polka,” or “Too Fat Polka”) because there are dancers having a great time, grandparents are spinning their grandchildren around the dance floor.
“We have two dozen musicians — that’s a big sound for a Little German Band,” Reyburn says. “It’s just fun music to play. People are having fun.”
The band plays a lot of “scratch music” — notes quickly handwritten on a music staff.
“‘In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus,’ ‘Lili Marleen,’ and ‘Auf Wiedersehen,’ were written by musically talented guys in the band who were stationed in Germany after WWII or during the Berlin occupation and wanted to recreate that beer hall music and atmosphere back here in the States,” Reyburn says. “I take my Tyrolean hat off to some of the original band members who took quill in hand and wrote some of our original music.”
Some of the music has been copied and recopied into a shadow of its former black-and-white self.
“It’s a testament to the talent of the musicians in the band that they can interpret and perform some of the tunes,” Reyburn says. Some of the music the band wrote back in the day was not original, such as “Edelweiss” from “The Sound of Music.”
“The band recorded the song on an LP record, and soon after its release, they got a letter from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s lawyer,” Reyburn says. “The band paid the ASCAP fees to be allowed to perform it, and we’ve been getting our money’s worth for decades.”
Other songs like “John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt” and “In Heaven There Is No Beer” are perennial crowd singalong favorites.
“These should get old, but we keep getting requests at Oktoberfests year after year,” Reyburn says.
Henninger’s book lists several hundred musicians who have played with the band over the past 60-plus years, which in many cases has transcended generations. Reyburn believes it’s a sense of family and being part of something that has been part of the community that has kept the band going for decades.
“Musicianship runs in families,” Reyburn says.
“Over the years, I’ve run into dozens of folks who played with the band or their kids played with the band. Third and fourth generation musicians have sat in with the band.”
In the early years, the band’s musicians were only men, but wives started attending in dirndls and then began performing with the band.
“There are a lot of talented musicians who play with the band,” Reyburn says. “Former Penn State Blue Band members, local music educators, and former and current musicians of the U.S. military service bands (Navy & United States Air Force) sit in with us when they are in town visiting family.”
“Many Centre County high school band directors have played in the LGB, and people who played in high school bands and want to continue to play can join the Little German Band,” Henninger adds. “It is a fun band.”
After over six decades of performing, the Little German Band continues to entertain folks throughout Central PA and provide them with all the simple joys of the autumn season they could possibly ask for. “Live music on a crisp and sunny fall afternoon, good German food and drink, and friends will keep the Little German Band performing for decades to come,” Reyburn says. “We hope that readers will take a fall afternoon in Boalsburg, Altoona, Millheim, Milesburg, Mifflinburg, or Bellefonte to come out and enjoy our music and gemütlichkeit!” T&G
Jason C. Klose is a Central PA writer of Arts & Entertainment/History/Life.
