This fall, Hillsboro Band Director Sam Matucheski made an amazing and unlikely discovery while cleaning out the middle/high school band room: a lost musical score with deep roots in the community.
The recovered manuscript is a polka written by Richard Hansberry, a member of the Hillsboro German Band. Mr. Matucheski was fascinated by the historical significance - a community member had written a piece titled, "My Hometown - Hillsboro March", and Mr. M felt compelled to find out more about the man behind the music.
Turning to the Wisconsin Historical Society, Mr. Matucheski discovered an image of the Hillsboro German Band, with Hansberry present, dated 1939. On the far right of the photo is Edwin Shear, who is credited with composing the words to "My Hometown", which were not recovered with musical score.
Since joining the district in 2023, Mr. Matucheski has worked to reinvigorate and expand the band program, committing to engaging the students and instilling a sense of pride in their community and musical history.
After discovering the manuscript, Mr. Matucheski set to work. His first order of business was to preserve the original score, which he did by scanning the original manuscript and then digitizing the music by hand into composition and notation software, a painstaking process that ensures the score remains accessible to Mr. Matucheski’s students and future generations.
The high school band will begin learning the piece in the coming weeks, and Mr. Matucheski is still hoping to find out more about the man behind the score, Richard Hansberry. “There's two spellings we find for Richard Hansberry, but I was able to recover additional information about a Richard Hansberry from Hillsboro that became the principal trombonist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I imagine it's the same Richard. Maybe someone in the community will read this article and have more information to share about Richard Hansberry, or the Hillsboro German band.”
If you have any historical insight into Richard Hansberry, or the Hillsboro German Band, please reach out to Mr. Matucheski by email: sam.matucheski@hillsboroschools.org.