While most high school musicians put away their instruments after graduation, Dr. Chuck Siepp, a 1975 graduate of Plant City High School and trumpeter, has built a career around it and he’s coming back to Florida to perform a duet with organist Randall Sheets.
In addition to several other locations throughout Florida, Chuck Seipp and Sheets, known as the Seipp/Sheets Trumpet & Organ Duo, will be performing at First United Methodist Church, located at 72 Lake Morton Dr. in Lakeland on Sun., Nov. 5 at 4 p.m.
“The band director at Plant City High at the time was John Kroeze and it was a great experience,” he said.
After high School, he attended Kansas University, where he assumed he would follow in his brothers’ footsteps. “They studied music then went on to be college professors,” he said.
While Seipp did earn master’s and doctoral degrees and did some teaching, he preferred performing to teaching.
This desire led him to a 32-year Army career, where he was a member of the United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own” and stationed in Washington, D.C. He performed with the Concert Band, Orchestra, Ceremonial Band, Herald Trumpets, The Army Brass Quintet and was a featured soloist. He retired as a Sergeant Major.
He’s performed at national, presidential and historical world events, at concerts and special events in Washington, D.C. and for funerals and wreath-laying ceremonies in Arlington National Cemetery. He performed during the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and at President Ronald Reagan’s first and second inaugural parades and then at the U.S. Capital Rotunda when his body lay in state upon his death. “We were in the backdrop to history,” said Seipp.
One of his most notable performances was after 9/11, when the band traveled to New York City to play at Lincoln Center. “It was the most electric feeling I’ve ever been involved with,” he said. “The country at that time needed patriotism, it was the most amazing feeling I’ve ever felt in my life.”
The next day they performed at ground zero. “Those are some of the experiences that a normal musician wouldn’t be able to experience unless they were in one of those military bands in Washington D.C.,” said Seipp.
For the past several seasons, Seipp and Sheets have performed as many as 25 programs yearly to enthusiastic audiences across America for church concert series, universities and organ guild chapters.
“It was an honor performing in the military and something I’m very proud of,” said Seipp. “That’s what I try to take to our concerts.”
Included in the community program, which will also be coupled with visual with specialized videos, is five patriotic selections.
Concert tickets cost $7 per person and can be purchased through a link on the church’s website. For more information visit firstumc.org.