The same year that I started as band director at SAHS and wrote the alma mater — 1955-56 — I was on a roll, and began writing lyrics to fight songs. I wrote the words “Go Red Dragons, go all the way” which I understand is still being sung at SAHS athletic events.
In January 1956, the school principal (Basil Liggett (an excellent school leader whom I admired greatly), advised me that the band had bene invited to attend the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in April in Washington, D.C.
I was flabbergasted. The band was barely scraping by, virtually without funds. Such an event would be costly, and it was left to me to find a way to pay for the trip.
Along with a few donations and fund raiser, I decided we would produce a music show with Proceeds targeted for the costs of the Washington trip. And we did. And we named the show “OPUS 56”. That was the first Opus, and the trip to Washington became a reality.
It only followed that the success of OPUS 56 would lead to “OPUS 57” and so on until I left St. Albans for a teaching position in Virginia in 1963. I’ll not soon forget the richly rewarding years I taught music at SAHS; it remains a treat to meet socially with former students and friends from those times.
The rest of the story
Alan brought OPUS to Andrew Lewis High School in Salem, VA in 1964, where he taught until 1968. OPUS continued under Dennis Reaser, a St. Albans HS student, and later friend and colleague, who followed in Alan’s footsteps at Andrew Lewis HS.
Andrew Lewis HS was merged with Glenvar HS in 1977 to form Salem High School, where OPUS continued under Dennis’s direction for many years. The 1977 Opus was dedicated to Alan. It was alive and well through about 2013-2014.
As of this writing, we are trying to determine just how long OPUS continued at St. Albans High School.
