I'll chime in before more knowledgeable and experienced people do so that you'll get the "poor man's" perspective first .
Over the course of my life I've played in at least five community bands (from age 14 to, now, age ... uh ... let me think a moment ... 67). These have ranged from small towns, to small cities, to large cities (St. Louis, at least). What you describe APPEARS to me to be a much more intensive and I would almost say "frantic" approach than any I've encountered.
From MY perspective ...
For something like a professional-level organization, perhaps "blazing" through that many pieces is perhaps possible and fruitful. Otherwise, I think not. In the current band I'm in (which I also played in during the early/mid 90s under two other conductors), we will typically go through maybe a half dozen pieces per rehearsal. Sometime fewer because we don't blaze through them. Our conductor (a tuba-playing professor at a local state university) is VERY concerned about intonation and how each part of the music is played by each section. So there may be periods of five or ten minutes where he works with just the high woodwinds, or just the high brass, or just on the intonation in a particular passage, etc. I love this approach. It's the only hope to having the band play things correctly and to have them sound good.
In contrast, several years ago (and for a couple of years) I played with another band in the area. Here, the conductor took the approach of "Play it through once or twice and call it done." No time was spent on tuning or intonation. No time was spent on working with a section through a particular passage. The comment at the end of rehearsing each piece was "That's great. Let's move on to ...". But it wasn't great. It didn't sound good. It was out of tune and obvious mistakes were being made -- and were being made in performances (which were attended largely by families of band members).
This year, the current band I'm in is having a record number of performances. I know because I now run the web site and was just updating the performance list. Between now and July 4 we have SEVEN performances, several of them in significant venues (such as a large church-organized music program, a state botanical garden, "town square" concerts, etc.). At any given time (preparing for the next set of concerts) we may have maybe 8 or 10 pieces (not counting Christmas music, which is a specific seasonal thing by itself). This set changes (in whole or more likely in part) across our concert year as we we give performances. We're in the process right now of changing from our "winter" set of pieces to our "spring" set.
The music we play is generally in the grade 4 to grade 5 spectrum of difficulty. Sometimes some grade 3 stuff, particularly for special (xmas, patriotic, etc.) occasions. Every year the conductor has us do at least one piece (maybe a couple) that is a "stretch" for our abilities. Somehow, he manages to bring us up to the level of performing it well. This takes effort. We have had a few people leave the band (fairly soon after joining it) because they didn't care for the time spent on tuning, intonation, and working with sections to get things right. Their choice. They're looking or something else.
Another band I played in for about a year was a local New Horizons (sometimes referred to as a "geezer") band. You might think of joining one of these at least for a while, and then maybe moving on. I don't see one in Tucson, but just in Mesa and Phoenix. That may be too far for you to go.
Anyhow, that's been my community band experience. There is a wide range of possibilities, approaches, and issues in community bands. With luck you can find one that will fit you. My sister lives outside of Tuscon (somewhere in the desert near Catalina) and she's been going to Tuba Christmas performances the last few years (as audience, not participant). So I suspect there's some tuba/euphonium action to be had there in one way or another.
Last edited by ghmerrill; 01-08-2015 at 08:55 AM.
Gary Merrill
Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)