The modern Kalamazoo Concert Band, an adult ensemble, was founded in 1961. The band's membership is comprised of  over 100 adults from the southwestern Michigan area. Over 25 of these members are current or retired music educators and teachers while the rest represent a diversity of occupations. Membership in the KCB is by audition and the band rehearses weekly, performing four free concerts each season. Now in its 49th season, the KCB is one of Michigan's oldest adult metropolitan bands, created out of a need for continuing symphonic band experience beyond that of high school and college instrumental music programs. In recent years the band has earned an enviable reputation, prospering under the guidance of an active executive board, community support, and increased funding. The band's annual budget is derived from donations, annual foundation gifts, local and state grants, and program advertising. The KCB's list of patrons, contributors, and benefactors is extensive, growing every season.

Kalamazoo Bands in the late 1800's and early 1900's - The modern KCB follows a tradition of town bands and other local performing groups dating back to the late 1800's. (Follow the links in the next section for entrance to an extensive and excellent internet account of this era by Keith Howard, Web Coordinator, Kalamazoo Public Library) 

Wallace S. White was a pioneer photographer who left a legacy portfolio of a Kalamazoo of  the mid-1800s to early 1900s.  White was also a band leader. His military band was enlisted in the Michigan National Guard as the Second Regiment Band, and was regarded as Kalamazoo's most prominent band in the late 1880's to the 1890s'.  

Charles and Burton Fischer were local Kalamazoo music merchants, and led "Fischer's Exposition Orchestra". This group performed band and orchestra music locally, statewide, nationally, and eventually internationally as the onboard band on cruise ships, traveling to more than 20 countries from 1897 to 1926. Edward Snuggs, a local trombonist, gained local fame with the Fischers. Longtime residents of Kalamazoo may remember the Milham Park outdoor band wagon concerts, conducted by Snuggs for many years until his death in 1971.

Chester Z. Bronson  is pictured in white uniform, above, leading the early "KCB" (left) and the German Workingmen's Benevolent  Association Band (right).   Maintaining Kalamazoo as his home base, Bronson’s impresssive professional career included work many of the most famous band names of the era - P. T. Barnum, Patrick Gilmore, John Philip Sousa, et al. In his later years, Bronson returned to Kalamazoo to lead the formation of several still-current organizations, including the Kalamazoo Federation of Musicians, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and an early rendition of the  Kalamazoo Concert Band.

 

Also influential in Kalamazoo musical culture were active music programs in the Kalamazoo schools. In 1906 the Kalamazoo Central High School Band became the first traveling marching band in the state. In 1924, the "new" Kalamazoo Central High School featured an acoustically excellent 2,000 seat auditorium (now Chenery Auditorium, still in use) that was among the largest high school facilities in the state at that time. In 1930 the KHS band enjoyed the opportunity to perform in this venue under the direction of John Phillip Sousa.

The "Modern" KCB

So...what happened to town bands? Like many social phenomena, the post Word War II baby boom provided a major boost for community bands. The 1950s to the 70s brought rapidly accelerating numbers of school-age children with a surge in new schools and music programs. After their high school and college years, many avid and now-adult musicians still had the desire to continue playing. But how...and where? In the southwest Michigan area, many such devotees regularly appear at 2-hour KCB rehearsals on Thursday evenings from September through April. And for the future beyond our first half century, the KCB is also happy to see many "younger" members joining our group.

The very beginning of the current KCB is traced to 1961 when the Kalamazoo Concert Band Association was officially incorporated through the inspiration and guidance of Frances Irey, the first KCB Association board president. Irey, a local junior high school band teacher and church organist, died in late October, 1961 just before the inaugural KCB concert planned for November. Jerome Mandl (left), Kalamazoo High School band director, assumed direction of the group. The first concert was presented under his baton on December 5, 1961 in the Kalamazoo Central High School Auditorium (right). The next day's Kalamazoo Gazette reported the concert as: "...50 outstanding local instrumentalists, all of them experienced professional and semi-professional performers."