As Williamsport’s world-famous Repasz Band highlights both national and local history through the summer of 2026, one Central PA ensemble will get special attention on July 5.
The Williamsport Scottish Rite Imperial Teteques Band, once the nation’s oldest Masonic band, will be honored with a free 7 p.m. concert that Sunday — performed where the Teteques played for many decades: the Scottish Rite Auditorium, 348 Market St., Williamsport.
Founded in 1897 and lasting nearly 120 years before disbanding in 2016, the Teteques were America’s first Masonic band. The ensemble emerged from an 1894 brass group nicknamed the “Triple Tongued Quartet” — later abbreviated to TTQ, or “Teteques,” as a monicker for the entire band.
An early Teteque supporter and benefactor was local businessman and sports-booster J. Walton Bowman — for whom Williamsport’s historic baseball field is named.
“The Imperial Teteque Band played a variety of music including traditional marches, contemporary and classic compositions for concert band and wind ensemble, transcriptions of movie scores, novelty tunes, and patriotic arrangements,” says Williamsport Scottish Rite Business Manager & Events Coordinator Ellie J. Hubbard. “Their original compositions influenced and impacted the musical world well beyond the region.”
While the band included both Masons and non-Masons of all ages, it was strictly an all-male ensemble until 2000. Among the women who joined was 62-year Repasz member Judy Shellenberger — who also serves as the Repasz business manager.
“I was a younger musician,” she recalls, “and I learned a lot from playing with the older, experienced Teteque musicians — especially when playing in a jazz or swing style.”
“I enjoyed the Teteque Band,” agrees 52-year Repasz trumpeter Philip W. Herfort. “Especially since they were playing the same concert for three days in a row filling the Scottish Rite auditorium.”
Herfort adds that much of Teteque’s success during his tenure was due to business manager Carl Sweeley — son of local musician Charles, who worked on the well-known “Repasz Band March.”
Speaking of which: While Repasz’s summer program covers patriotic tunes for America’s semiquintennial, it also frontlines local composers and arrangers. Of particular significance that evening will be the “Imperial Teteques” two-step, written for the titular ensemble in 1908.
That march was penned by Frank H. Losey, who served as editor-in-chief for the Vandersloot Music Co., located on Third Street in Williamsport — with an office on Tin Pan Alley in Manhattan.
According to Wikipedia, Losey is “credited with over 400 compositions and 2,500 arrangements…. In 1919, Thomas Edison selected Losey to be the music adviser for Edison’s phonograph company. He was also approached by Henry Ford to arrange music for the Ford Orchestra in Detroit.”
Other local music figures on the Repasz summer program include Albert J. Nacinovich, Preston Gowers, C. D. Henninger and John Hazel — with marches written in honor of Brandon Park, Eagles Mere and the Millionaires (the city’s one-time Tri-State League baseball team).
Former Teteque players who attend July 5 will be honored from the stage.
That concert is free and open to the public. Other summer shows include 7/7 at the Williamsport Home (6:30 p.m.); 7/10 at WeCare in Montoursville (6 p.m.); 8/2 in Brandon Park (7 p.m.); and the Little League Parade on Aug. 18.
