The Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will begin its 156th season on Thursday, June 6, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park.

The MCMB’s 156th season will consist of ten free concerts, beginning June 6, and ending August 8. The band plays a wide variety of music, with concerts designed to entertain audience members of all ages. The MCMB also plays for the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Greenwood Cemetery, and in the Michigan City Patriotic Parade. With one exception, all of the concerts will be performed at 7:30p Thursdays, and will last about an hour. During the week of Independence Day, the concert will take place on Saturday, July 6, at the recently-renovated gazebo near the entrance to Washington Park. The rededication ceremony will take place at 6:00p, followed by the band concert at 7:00.

Highlights of the summer concert series include special guest soloists and three commissions by award-winning composers. Guest artists will be GySgt. Hiram Diaz, euphonium, from the US Marine Band (August 1); Carnessa Carnes, narrator (August 1); Anne Marie Bice, soprano (June 13 and 27, and August 8), Dr. Lauren Hartman, soprano (July 18); Jared Coller, xylophone (June 27); and the ACE Group Clarinet Choir (June 20). Other soloists and special events will be announced during the season.

In addition to being outstanding performers, many of the MCMB members are successful conductors. Some of those conductors will be featured on individual compositions throughout the summer. We’ll also recognize four of our long-time band members—Mary Lee Riley, Roger Smith, Susan Smith, Steve Watson—and our recently-retired band member, Merry Johnson, by playing one selection each in their honor.

The world premiere of Reservation Band by Brent Michael Davids will take place on June 6. August 1 will be especially exciting, with two premieres! Michigan City composer Dan Schaaf has written Remembering Naomi to honor Naomi Anderson, African-American suffragette and Michigan City Native. Naomi’s words will be narrated by Michigan City’s Carnessa Carnes. And a new concerto by Dr. Kimberly Archer will showcase the band with world-class euphonium soloist GySgt. Hiram Diaz from the US Marine Band, “The President’s Own.”

Composer Brent Michael Davids is the famous Native American composer who has written for ensembles and films, and has been commissioned by the Joffrey Ballet and the National Symphony Orchestra. Having performed other compositions by Brent Michael Davids, the Michigan City Municipal Band is honored that Mr. Davids accepted our offer to write Reservation Band. In his program notes for the composition, Mr. Davids said “I wrote Reservation Band as a tribute to Indigenous people living within tribal bands, and—equally—to salute musicians who perform in bands, on or off the reservation.”

The June 6 concert repertoire will be:

The Belle of Chicago March by John Philip Sousa
Song for Terra by Yukiko Nishimura
Reservation Band (premiere) by Brent Michael Davids
The Hoosier Slide by Hale VanderCook
YMCA by The Village People
Vuelo by Salvador Alan Jacobo
American Riversongs by Pierre LaPlante, with Andria Kessler, conductor
Railroad Suite by Lyndol Mitchell
My America arr. Joyce Eilers

Yukiko Nishimura is a Japanese-American composer from California. She studied at Tokyo University, the University of Miami, and the Manhattan School of Music. Song for Terra is a gentle and lyrical composition that demonstrates the beautiful blended sound of the concert band. About the work, Ms. Nishimura wrote: “This composition is a peace song…I wanted to create something for this planet where we could live in a peaceful mind.”

After Guy Foreman—who led the Michigan City Municipal Band for an astonishing 60 years!—perhaps the most famous conductor in the band’s history was Hale VanderCook (1864-1949), who was conductor of the Michigan City Municipal Band for several years in the early part of the 20th century. Mr. VanderCook went on to found the VanderCook College of Music in Chicago. The Hoosier Slide (1906) features the trombone section in the style of a Ragtime “trombone smear.” The Hoosier Slide was a giant sand dune in Michigan City—200 feet high—on the site that is currently the location of the Michigan City Generating Station of the Northern Indiana Public Service Corporation. The dune was a popular tourist destination, both for its views and for sliding down its face. Unfortunately, The Hoosier Slide was mined for sand to make glass, and the dune was completely gone by 1920.

Disco fans will enjoy singing and dancing along to The Village People’s 1978 hit, Y.M.C.A. A chart-topping song around the world, Y.M.C.A. was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2020.

For Vuelo, composer Salvador Jacobo was inspired by “…seeing birds and planes flying through the sky, zooming past and through towering clouds.”

Conducting American Riversongs by Pierre LaPlante will be Andria Kessler. Ms. Kessler plays oboe and English horn in the Michigan City Municipal Band and Windiana Concert Band. She is one of the band conductors in the Valparaiso Community Schools. A native of Valparaiso, Ms. Kessler earned her bachelor’s degree in music education from Butler University. She is pursuing a master’s degree in conducting at Colorado State University.

Lyndol Mitchell’s Railroad Suite contains five famous folksongs associated with the railroad. We’re playing Railroad Suite to honor active Michigan City Municipal Band clarinetist Mary Lee Riley, for her many decades of service to the band.

Finally, the MCMB will continue its tradition of closing each concert with a patriotic audience sing-along. Joyce Eiler’s arrangement of America (My Country ‘tis of Thee) allows us to enthusiastically honor our great nation.

All of the concerts are free, and everyone is welcome. School band members and young children are especially encouraged to attend. Parking on Lake Shore Drive is prohibited. Parking is available in the lots closest to the amphitheater, as well as the Senior Center. Entrance to the park is free with a Michigan City Park sticker; otherwise, there is a parking fee of $4 for the band concert.

Jeffrey Scott Doebler is the conductor for the MCMB, and Quincy Ford is the assistant conductor. In 2018, Dr. Doebler was named a Distinguished Hoosier by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. Dr. Doebler serves as director of music education and bands at Valparaiso University. He is a past president of the Indiana Bandmasters Association and the Indiana Music Education Association. Mr. Ford, principal saxophone in the MCMB, is retired director of bands and music department chair from Michigan City High School.

The band’s announcer is Rick Carlson.