St. Paul’s Arborators play in the treetops: ‘We’re the world’s only tree-climbing brass band’

The trees are alive with the sound of music — thanks to the Midway-Frogtown Arborators Band.

The ragtag group of amateur musicians have performed in some unusual venues, including on the Green Line light rail, at an Ax-Man Surplus store and in a motorcycle repair garage.

But their natural music-making habitat is in a treetop, going out on a limb dozens of feet off the ground.

“We’re the world’s only tree-climbing brass band,” bragged band member Philip Potyondy.

That’s because the Arborators was started by a group of arborists, nursery growers, park employees, local tree enthusiasts and urban forestry advocates.

“We all have some connections to tree care,” said Potyondy, a cornet player and a sustainable forestry coordinator with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

Self-employed arborist Chad Giblin lives in St. Paul and is a founding member of the group, which was formed in 2009.

Giblin, a tuba player, said the players are essentially a community band, a throwback to working-class bands in the early 20th century representing different businesses or trades. (Arborator is a word that means someone who plants, prunes or cares for trees.)

“The company band is sort of a thing that goes back in time,” Potyondy said.

Their repertoire, which band members describe as “European dance music,” reflects those traditional roots — polkas, waltzes, marches and schottisches.

One of their standards is the “St. Paul Waltz,” first published in 1864 by German-American composer A.J. Vaas, and later popularized by Minnesota polka legend “Whoopee John” Wilfahrt.

Over the years the band has played at the Minneapolis MayDay Parade, at weddings, bars, breweries, coffee shops and record stores. Its members have also provided entertainment at urban forestry conferences.

But their signature event is getting up into a tree canopy to make music in a local park at Arbor Day celebrations.

That’s what the group did last Thursday at an event at McRae Park in Minneapolis.

Wearing helmets and climbing harnesses, the Arborators set up numerous ropes on a generous-sized Douglas fir in the park. Then they climbed into the branches carrying their instruments: A tuba, trombone, flute, saxophone, clarinet, cornet and a stringed instrument with a metal horn called a Stroh violin.

They also hoisted a bass drum on a rope and invited a reporter up into the tree to bang on it.

While the tree swayed in the breeze, the Arborators played a lively set of music including the “Beer Barrel Polka” and the march “Under the Double Eagle” to the audience below, enjoying lawn games and tree planting activities sponsored by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Forestry Department.

“This is our gimmick. This is our schtick,” said Russell Kennedy, a saxophonist and a consulting arborist with Rainbow Treecare company.

Kennedy said the performance is a way to promote caring for trees and the value of urban forests.

“Music is a great way to reach a lot of people,” he said.

“We do our best to make some noise,” said Rachel Giblin, Chad Giblin’s wife and a clarinet player with the band. She said the challenge of playing music while hanging from a tree limb or trunk has some similarities to playing while marching in her high school band.

“There’s extra physical factors, by all means,” she said.

The band, which played for about 20 minutes, probably spent more time setting up the lines and getting the instruments and themselves up the tree. Spectators looked on curiously as a tuba ascended on a line. Some of the musicians climbed nearly 40 feet into the tree.

“I think people are like, ‘Oh wow. That’s different,’” said flautist Chrissy Chookiatsirichai.

While they’re used to the heights, they carry one concern: “Not dropping your horn. Not dropping your instrument on the way up,” Kennedy said.

But the audience below seemed to like the music while the musicians got to enjoy “exhilarating, excellent views,” Chookiatsirichai said.

“It’s a good confluence of two worlds. I love music and tree climbing,” said Alissa Cotton, a violinist who works as an arborist for the city of St. Louis Park.

Nick Neylon, a trombonist and landscape designer, said playing polkas perched in a tree is both ridiculous and fun.

“It’s pretty magical to be in a tree, period,” he said. “And being able to play music with your friends and geek out about trees.”