Emergency Meeter

For the past 35 years San Francisco has had a municipal band leader but no band. When a civic celebration calls for music, Director Phil Sapiro, 63, just drops in at the musicians' union clubrooms and persuades a few pinochle players to come along. He has blue uniforms and gold-lettered caps for the recruits, but seldom time for a rehearsal.

Last week Director Sapiro was lining up bandsmen for the biggest assignment of his career: the United Nations Conference. In his cubbyhole office (behind the City Hall elevator shaft) Phil Sapiro had carefully scored the anthems of each & every United Nation. The new Russian anthem he transcribed from a piano and vocal arrangement. "But I'll check with the delegations themselves before we play a note," he said. "You know, where you really run into trouble is with those Latin American countries. They keep changing anthems every time there is a revolution --but the band will be ready for any emergency."

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