America's Oldest High School Band Sells Out Amargosa Opera House

The Christian Brothers Band of Memphis, Tennessee, billed as America's oldest high school band, packed the Amargosa Opera House to a sold-out crowd on Saturday, March 14, marking what the Pahrump Valley Times described as the group's California debut.

A large crowd was already gathered outside the historic Death Valley Junction venue before the 2:00 p.m. curtain. Inside, roughly nine out of ten seats were filled by people who made the drive from Pahrump, a turnout that clearly resonated with organizers.

"We had this great audience from Pahrump, and I realized that if you put the word out to your neighbors, they show up. That was really encouraging to see that 90% of the audience was from neighboring Pahrump," Conboy enthused. "We hope we can do more things like that to attract the locals, so I was really glad that we were able to be in a room full of Pahrumpians."

The performance drew attention not just for the band's storied reputation but for the setting itself. The Amargosa Opera House has its own unlikely origin story: artist Marta Becket rented the building in 1967, when it was still known as Corkhill Hall, and proceeded to repair it, build sets, and paint murals across its adobe walls. By 1970, National Geographic journalists stumbled upon her performing to an empty house and were so struck by what they saw that their account ran in Life Magazine, drawing international audiences to the remote Mojave outpost. Becket formalized the institution in 1974 by establishing the nonprofit Amargosa Opera House, Inc., which eventually purchased the entire town of Death Valley Junction. The town was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 1981, and in 1983 the Opera House replaced its worn garden chairs with 120 theater seats acquired from the Boulder City Theater.

The Christian Brothers Band's California debut placed Memphis tradition inside that layered desert history, a convergence the Pahrump Valley Times called "a notable intersection of art, music and local cultural life in the desert communities."

More information about the Christian Brothers Band is available at cbhsband.org. Details on upcoming Amargosa Opera House programming, including Phantom of the Amargosa Opera House on May 3 and Opera Through the Ages on May 10, can be found at amargosaoperahouse.org.