Dr. Paul and Doris Rosene Band Fund

Great performers are rare. Great teachers of performance are even more rare. 

That is what led former Pittsfield High School band students of Dr. Paul and Doris Rosene to establish the Dr. Paul and Doris Rosene Band Fund as a permanent endowment to be held at the Community Foundation. 

The fund will benefit individual band students in Pittsfield starting in 2022 and will continue in the future to honor the Rosenes as the musical influences that they were. 

 

Annual distributions from the endowment will help students that might need something as simple as valve oil for a brass instrument or reeds for an oboe, to something as expensive as an instrument overhaul. The more the endowment grows, the more band students it helps. 

 

Dr. Paul Rosene taught at Pittsfield High School from 1957 to 1967. His wife of 69 years, Doris, was the band director at Higbee Junior High during that same time. Doris was also a musical influence in the community.

 

Following his time in Pittsfield, Dr. Rosene accepted a position at Illinois State University. He taught at ISU until 1990. He did significant work in music therapy and received his Doctorate from ISU in 1976. 

After his retirement in 1990, he and Doris moved to Orlando, Florida. There Dr. Rosene became known locally and nationally for his work with bell choirs. 

Doris Rosene passed away in August 2020. At age 92, Dr. Rosene remains active at his home in Orlando and plays trumpet and French horn in his church band.