Building the Concert Band Audience

John Philip Sousa conducted the
Marine Band (1880–1892) and
the Sousa Band (1892–1931).

The Concord Band has multiple objectives, and we continue to make progress on most of them. For example, we continue to be one of the leading forces among community concert bands, world-wide, in the commissioning of new music for this ensemble.

The Concord Band, probably more than ever before, continues to present the very best in concert band music to the public in our area at reasonable cost. Why more than before? We now tackle great pieces of music for symphonic wind ensemble that would have been considered beyond our capability just a few years ago. For example, Aerial Fantasy, by Michael A. Mogensen, presented on our Winter, 2014, Concert program, was commissioned by the Washington, DC-based Air Force Band. Since its members are all professional musicians, they, according to Mogensen, “could play anything” he wrote—and he admits that this is a difficult piece to play.

One significant area where the Concord Band has not achieved its objective is in building our audience. And we are not alone among concert bands in this respect. Probably the best symphonic wind ensemble in New England, now that the Air Force Band of Liberty no longer exists, is the Metropolitan Wind Symphony—like the Concord Band, a community band with no paid members. However, many of its members were either trained as music performers or as music teachers. They are a wonderful group, but they have as much trouble building an audience as does the Concord Band.

Harvard Pro Musica Chamber Singers featured in Holiday Pops Concert

Music Director James O'Dell with a Special Guest

The Concord Band’s 36th annual Holiday Pops concerts will feature 16 voices from Harvard Pro Musica, a Harvard (Massachusetts) based 50-person classical community chorus directed by Andy Icochea Icochea.

The Dec. 12 and 13 Holiday Pops concerts will include the two songs, "Cathedral Bells of England" and "Hymn to America," by Clara Endicott Sears, the founder of Fruitlands Museum, which were premiered this past summer at Fruitlands. Called the HPM Chamber Singers to reflect its being a part of the larger Harvard Pro Musica, the chorus will sing several holiday numbers with the Concord Band, conducted by Music Director James O’Dell, including the Boston Pops arrangement of Sleigh Ride. Other works for band on the program include Alfred Reed’s powerful Russian Christmas Music, conducted by assistant conductor Steve Barbas, and Philip Sparke’s stirring Spirit of the Sequoia.

Tickets at tables for four (and a few for tables of six) are available for $25 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under. Both the Friday and Saturday concerts begin at 8 p.m. and are held at 51 Walden Street in Concord. Tickets can be reserved by emailing the Concord Band at reservations@concordband.org or leaving a message on the Band’s phone line 978-897-9969.

Reserve Your Tickets for Holiday Pops

The Concord Band is eagerly looking forward to its Holiday Pops concerts. Highlights will include Alfred Reed's "Russian Christmas Music"; guest soloists, The Harvard Pro Musica Chamber Singers; and a reprise from last summer's premiere of two songs by Clara Sears, founder of the Band's summer home, Fruitlands, as arranged by Jim Dalton.