Indiana musician, 88, stays busy with music lessons

Indiana musician, 88, stays busy with music lessons

(AP) — After seven decades of sharing his musical talents with listeners and students, Florian Bolsega — Mr. B, as he is called — isn't changing his tune.

While a student at East Chicago Washington High School, he was named bandleader by the school's band director.

After graduation in 1946, the schedule was somewhat reversed as he worked his mill shift then drove to the Metropolitan School of Music in Chicago.

After about three years at the music school, the Korean War was heating up and Bolsega figured he'd be drafted, so he arranged to audition for the famous Fifth Army Band at Fort Sheridan, located just north of Chicago.

The audition went well and he was told there would be no problem getting into the band after he finished his six weeks of basic training.

The officer told him he was in the Army now, and Bolsega thought his band duty was gone.

Sheridan Fifth Army Band, he performed in a number of special events and for dignitaries, at the state fairs in Illinois and Wisconsin and marched with the band in parades in Chicago.

The closest he came to combat duty apparently was on a bus ride with the band to a Wisconsin appearance when the commanding officer asked for volunteers to go to Korea.

The commander asked him twice if he really meant to volunteer, then assigned him overseas — to Germany, where he continued his musical tour of duty and got in a little sightseeing on weekends and leaves, including a trip to Italy and an audience with Pope Pius XII.