WINONA, Minn. — On the 30th year anniversary of the death of legendary Winona musician Hal Edstrom, the Winona Middle School auditorium will bear his name. A rechristening of the middle school auditorium will be April 25. with a tribute program “For the Love of Music: Swing and Sway the Edstrom Way.” Time: 7 a.m. Edstrom was the first director of the school band in 1937. Alumni will perform. So too the high school band, choir and orchestra. Edstrom was bandmaster from 1937 to 1947, then teamed with his brother Everett and friend Roger Busdicker to form what grew into the world’s largest sheet music publishing company. Although now headquartered in Milwaukee, the company still has a major Winna payroll. By the time that Edstrom formed the Winona high school band he already was known regionally for a dance band that bore the name Hal Leonard. As story, goes the groovy Edstrom brothers Harold and Leonard Everett were afraid their father would disapprove of their style of music, so they blended their names into “Hal Leonard” for the band — as if dad would never know. Later as the high school band director, Harold Edstrom pretty much shucked the usual fare of stolid classics for swing. Students loved it. And so too their parents who had grown up n in the Big Band dance era and delighted in jitterbugging.
Edstrom. 1914-1996. He died in Winona and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.
How they toured in 1930s. The orchestra on the road.
Bandmaster. Harold Edstom in white with high school band members in dress wool uniforms. Also in white: The essential majorette, who strutted with a baton to lead band in step.