Conversations with Kurt Abbas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kurt Abbas.

Hi Kurt, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story begins when I decided to learn how to play the trombone around 2010. I had a phenomenal teacher named Bill Tole who, after a few lessons, encouraged me to join the Chandler Gilbert Community College band where I had another great learning experience under the direction of Randy Wright. I played there for a couple years before moving to Vancouver, Washington where I was in search of my next band. Joining a college band there was not as convenient, but I came across the West Winds Community Band, which exposed me to my first community band experience. That lead to me joining two additional community bands: Beacock and Pops. After a couple years, I held a VP position with WWCB.

After returning to the Valley in 2020 and waiting for COVID to settle down, I started searching for a community band. I found a couple that were a fair distance away from the Queen Creek area, so I said to myself, “Someone should start a community band.” Well, I have a life policy that says, “When you say ‘someone’ – that ‘someone’ is you.” You don’t have to complete the journey alone, but you need to start it or it may not happen. So I made up some fliers because, well, I don’t generally do social media, and contacted a friend who was interested in joining. Lucky for both of us, his wife did the social media thing. I also enlisted the help of my two siblings – one for trumpet and one for drums. My friend played the clarinet, and our postings got the attention of a tuba, a flute, and a saxophone player. After that, we were off to the races.

Since our low key beginnings, we have become a small family. We share the sadness of a member who decides to leave or is going through a family crisis, and we have shared the joy of supporting our members as they conduct their own high school band or celebrate their own family’s milestones. We openly invite any members to join us for food or drink after band, and respect their space when they’re not up to it. Our personalities are very much as I would hope the band would be: Play music, but be sure to have fun along the way. We encourage those who have not played since high school to join us – that’s where most of us have (re)started, and our music selections are determined by all band members, so there is literally something for everyone. We play at community events and for assisted living centers. So, when I’m too old to continue and the band plays one last song for me, I hope to have left them on a high note.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As with any new business – profit or nonprofit – there are bound to be bumps along the way.

1) It’s easy to get discouraged when band members leave, so morale is very important. Always keep moving forward and continue to be present.

2) Marketing/media is a requirement. If people don’t know you’re there, they can’t find you. Once we found our media-friendly members, our band grew again. Related, always check your email! It’s easy to ignore when it’s usually unchanged.

3) Practice locations are a particularly troublesome piece of the puzzle. Neighbors may get tired of hearing you. Maybe you lost out on a public space. We have been lucky to have been provided a stable location for a little over a year now. This was thanks in large part to another member of our band.

4) Funding. Our location has been graciously donated and we are immensely thankful for that. As such, we have been able to continue operating on a zero dollar budget. However, we do have plans in place if this changes. You must be prepared to collect/raise dues, put a hat down for performance donations, or canvas companies and the public for larger donations.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I work as a Technical Consultant for an ERP focused company. My specialty is in MS-SQL database development, structure, and tuning. The part I like most is helping people understand their data and migrate into systems that can utilize the information they have collected to help them continue to grow their business. I am known for optimizing queries, data structures, and indexes to achieve the best possible returns on custom solutions. Among my greatest achievements is getting a process that would time out after running more than a day down to completing accurately in about 15 minutes. I have also found code weaknesses in the parent company’s code, submitted the solution, and had it implemented in their next release.

There is not one single trait that sets me apart from others, but I would hope that at the end of the day, my collection of traits helps bring some corner of the world closer to its humanity. I could lock myself in a back room and just program. I could separate myself from the technical tasks and just talk. However, I believe I bring these two things together, add a touch of humor, and get a smile of understanding as a solution is devised and successfully implemented. Customers start their conversations with me because they have to, but they continue because they want to.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I wish I could say there was some specific media, some magic bullet that helps me do my best in life, but in general it comes down to these things:

1) Read and understand history so you know where people came from.
2) Read and understand as much technology/science as you can so you can understand what’s possible.
3) Travel and get your own understanding.
4) Experience life and don’t hide in your four walls. Ignore the bullies – they don’t have anything important worth hearing. Critics frequently have something important, so don’t take it personal. If a person is always right, they are likely out of touch with reality. Someone who is encouraging has probably been there and can help you along the way.

Pricing:

• Currently Free

Contact Info:

• Other: qccommunityband@gmail.com