Leon Olsen honored at MMHF

Family carries on tradition

NEW ULM -- The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame Legacy Series featured Leon Olsen on Thursday.

The program gathered at the Hall of Fame to honor Olsen, who was inducted into the World Concertina Congress Hall of Fame in 2012 and into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 2013. 

Olsen served as a Hall of Fame board member for many years and as vice president of the Minnesota Ballroom Operators Association. 

His band was nominated 17 times by the Minnesota Ballroom Operators Association as one of the top bands in Minnesota, and the Leon Olsen Show received the organization’s Band of the Year award in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Loretta Garesch, president of the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, said the day recognized Olsen’s long service to the organization and to New Ulm. Garesch was the keyboard player for many years with The Leon Olsen Show.

“I’m honored. I think it’s a great honor to have Leon in," she said, "he did a lot with it (the hall of fame,) and he’s been around New Ulm a lot. He was a board member for many years,” Garesch said.

Garesch has served as president since November.

The program was coordinated by co-executive director Bonnie Ubl, who serves alongside Dodie Wendinger.

The event gathered Hall of Fame supporters, family members and New Ulm residents who returned for the presentation. 

The Hall of Fame opened in 1989 with a promise that the people who shaped Minnesota’s musical identity will never be forgotten. 

The Legacy Series traced history from early choral leaders to community bands to the dance band tradition that defined weekend music in small towns for much of the 20th century.

This week at the Hall of Fame, the organization is previewing the two-hour film Legacy, which is shown in four chapters. Starting on Thursday Oct. 1 it continues this weekend Friday, Oct. 2. Chapter One will be shown at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. 

On Saturday, Oct. 3, Chapter Two will be shown at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The rest of the film will be presented in the upcoming weeks of October.

The presenter in the video said every great musical tradition begins with teachers and cited F. Melius Christiansen, who founded what became the St. Olaf Choir in 1912, and community leaders such as Dr. Kurt Bell, who in 1931 was part of the group that became the New Ulm Concord Singers. 

Bell received the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame Special Recognition Award in 1990. The presenter the video also cited Jeannie DeWanz, Bert London and Dr. Frank Bencriscutto among educators whose classrooms became launching pads for generations of Minnesota musicians.

Music was meant to be shared at weddings, county fairs, church festivals and community celebrations. 

For decades, families and friends gathered to dance, and bands became part of community life.

“They played the music of life’s greatest moments: first dates, wedding anniversaries, homecoming, graduations and countless evenings where memories were made one song at a time,” the presenter in the video said.

Among band leaders cited in the video were Harold Loeffelmacher, whose orchestra became one of the most recognized dance bands in the region beginning in the 1930s, Whoopee John Wilfahrt, Victor Fazendin, Red Wahl and James Red McCloud. 

The presenter in the video said those musicians did not chase fame but chased the next dance, and in doing so created one of Minnesota’s richest musical traditions.

Olsen was part of that lineage. His name was listed on ballroom and Oktoberfest schedules for decades and was familiar to residents even outside the dance hall circuit.

Dolly Opel, who attended with her husband Craig, said they live in New Ulm now after living around the country.

“We live in New Ulm now. We’re originally from New Ulm. We moved away after we got out of school and married, and lived all over the country, and then we moved back home, retired,” Opel said.

Opel said the presentation was very good and very interesting. She said she knew the names of the bands even though she did not attend many dances beyond high school.

“I never went to any of the dances around here other than the high school stuff, but yes, I know about them,” Opel said.

The program included a live performance by Jackson, Leon’s grandson, who performs as the Jackson Lee Olsen Band, joined by Loretta Garesch on keys and Alyssa, Leon’s daughter, on concertina. Jackson played in honor of his grandfather, continuing a family tradition that began with lessons and observation.

Alyssa, Leon’s daughter and Jackson’s mother, said she was proud of her son and missed her father during the tribute.

“I’m so proud. I’m so very proud of him, and oh, I just miss Dad, and I’m just so thankful,” Alyssa said.

Alyssa said Leon helped Jackson with lessons and inspired his development as a musician.

“He did well. And you know he started playing, and he just he picks it up. He watches dad and picks it up. He watches YouTube videos and plays and stuff. And yeah, it’s dad is definitely been his inspiration,” Alyssa Olsen said.

“Now he’s playing as the Jackson Lee Olsen band," she said, "walking in Grandpa’s footsteps."

The Legacy Series gathered family, musicians and community members to honor Olsen’s service on the Hall of Fame board, his decades on the bandstand and the continuation of his music through his grandson.

Friday and Saturday will include a film presentation, storytelling lecture, seminar and meet-and-greet. Visitors are invited to share their own stories with the speaker and other visitors.

Admission is $7, free for members. Programs are at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2-3 at the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, 27 N. Broadway St., New Ulm