‘Quaint’ concerts brainchild of conductor

Kimberley McGee

Friday, June 8, 2001 | 8:58 a.m.

Just about dusk on the next two Sunday evenings, the strains of "Stars and Stripes, Forever" will be heard across the green lawn of a Las Vegas park.

The old-fashioned tune will be familiar to most, and followed by Beatles medleys and Broadway ballads by the Las Vegas Summer Band as part of the city of Las Vegas' Sunday Concerts in the Park.

The 50-member band intends to keep concert-goers on their toes as they lounge on the grass at valley parks.

Diane Koutsulis, conductor of the Las Vegas Summer Band, said the concert will surprise some who expect a simple symphony concert.

"We play the marches, the heritage of bands and the standards such as 'Stars and Stripes,' " Koutsulis said. "But we intersperse things that the community will readily recognize."

The concerts are for them, after all.

The summer series was founded in 1988 by the city as a means to strengthen the community through the arts.

The concerts were well received.

Patricia Harris, field consultant for the city, has been a part of the summer park concert series since its inception.

"We thought we'd go out into the parks, just like when they had the old bandstands," Harris said.

The family-friendly concerts drew hundreds and continue to do so.

The LVSB has played the city summer concerts for the past 10 years, the past seven under Koutsulis' tutelage.

The majority of the bands' members consist of doctors, lawyers and college students who can't completely release their passion for playing. Although busy with their day jobs, they find time to rehearse at least once a month before the summer series. Koutsulis found the band 10 years ago and eventually became its conductor.

"Wherever they came from, they were part of a band and they continue to want to play," she said. "For them, that artistic part of their lives is lacking so this adds an extra dimension to their life."

As well as for the audience.

"I think the audience member can enjoy the music," Koutsulis said, "and it still adds a special creative spark to your life."

That spark for Koutsulis began as a child in Chicago.

The daughter of Greek immigrants, she said, "There was always music around."

Although Koutsulis joined the church choir and eventually became part of the high school band, she had not experienced bandstands in the park.

"This was the northside of Chicago, there were not a lot of parks," Koutsulis said.

But the idea was quaint, she said, a throwback to simpler times when big bands entertained in the park on weekends.

Koutsulis moved to Las Vegas 19 years ago to work as a music director for Las Vegas High School. In 1991 she moved to Green Valley High School as the art-department chair.

"I teach music every day and I feel like I get up every morning and get to work in something that is like play," Koutsulis said. "Music is my life, it's what I do."

Sharing that is an extension of what music means to her.

Recently an older man in the audience of a park concert took Koutsulis aside to praise the band -- but he had one request.

"He asked me to please not take out the Disney medley," Koutsulis said. "There's a lot of music that people have a relationship to and we connect to that."

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