Los Alamos Big Band

About the Los Alamos Big Band 

The Los Alamos Big Band is a 16-instrument 1940's Glenn Miller-style swing band. The band plays fabulous music for dancing at  public events, weddings, conventions, and more.

The Los Alamos Big Band has been playing at dances throughout Northern New Mexico since 1984 under the direction of Jan McDonald, who for many years was the bandleader at Los Alamos High School. The band features the danceable music of the Big Band Era such as “In The Mood”, “String of Pearls”, “Sing, Sing, Sing” and “Moonlight Serenade.” They also play other danceable music such as “Moon River,” Latin numbers like “Besame Mucho,” and even Rock Around the Clock.”

The band also has a wide variety of vocal numbers. Starting in March 2008 the featured vocalist will be Paula Ward of Los Alamos, NM. The principal backup vocalist is Michelle Trieste of Denver, Colorado. Sometimes the band is joined by the Mountainaires, a vocal quartet of Terry and Steve Coggeshall (San Diego, CA) and Cathy and Renee LeClaire (Los Alamos, NM). The Mountainaires sing such Big Band hits as “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, “Route 66”, “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”.

The Big Band started in 1984 when Dick Souder retired from Chrysler in Michigan and started working at LANL. Dick headed a Big Band in the Detroit area called “The Executives.” His only regret about coming to the Land of Enchantment was that he missed his Big Band.  Skeptics said a semi-professional Big Band  could not survive in a small town like Los Alamos, but Dick teamed with Jan McDonald and later Ralph Bennorth to organize the band and start playing at dances throughout Northern New Mexico. Each year the band gives the “Souder-Bennorth Memorial Scholarship” in memory of Dick and Ralph to a worthy high school student from Los Alamos or Espanola. Many of these students have gone on to become professional musicians.

Although half the band members work in Los Alamos, others come from Santa Fe and the Espanola Valley. Many band members have music degrees. Others  have technical degrees. There is even a physician (Mike Wagner, trumpet) and a retired attorney (Gerald Becker, saxophone). The band has always had a drum, bass, piano, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, and 5 saxophones who also double on clarinet for the full Big Band sound. Throughout the years the band has played for numerous dances, county festivals, weddings, Los Alamos National Laboratory events, conventions, and even two funerals. One of the more memorable weddings was in Mora, New Mexico, where the bride and groom rode off to the wedding cottage on horseback to the sound of the band. Other gigs have been from Farmington to Taos to Belen with many gigs in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. But most gigs have been in Los Alamos, particularly Gordon’s Friday night summer concerts each year, the County Fair and Rodeo, and recently several  dances each year at the IHM Parish Hall.