ABOUT US

The Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will begin its 157th season on Thursday, June 5, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park. The MCMB is sponsored by the City of Michigan City.

The MCMB’s 157th season will consist of ten free concerts, beginning June 5, and ending August 7. 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 on Thursdays at 7:30p, and will last about an hour. On June 19, the concert will take place at 4:30p as part of the Michigan City Juneteenth Celebration. The Juneteenth MCMB concert will be followed that evening by a performance of The Reggie Foster Experience.

Highlights of the MCMB summer concert series include special guest soloists and three commissions by acclaimed composers. Guest artists will be GySgt. Hiram Diaz, euphonium, from the US Marine Band (July 31); Carnessa Carnes, narrator (June 19); Anne Marie Bice, soprano (June 26, July 24, and August 7), Richard Liwosz, clarinet (June 26); Dr. Lauren Hartman, soprano (July 10); Charles Steck and Ryan Rabe, trumpets (July 24). Other soloists and special events will be announced during the season.

The MCMB will present the premieres of three commissions:

Winds Across the Water by Erika Svanoe (June 5 and again on July 10 and August 7)

Yearning to Breathe Free by Michele Fernandez (July 24 and August 7)

Rhapsody for Euphonium by Kevin Day (July 31)

Erika Svanoe is a composer and conductor from Wisconsin. Winds Across the Water contains melodies and intervals inspired by Dr. Svanoe’s impressions of the Michigan City Lighthouse, and the breeze felt by standing at the edge of Lake Michigan in Washington Park. Michele Fernandez is a composer and conductor from Florida. Yearning to Breathe Free is a tribute to The Statue of Liberty, as we prepare to celebrate USA 250 in 2026. Kevin Day is a composer from California. His Rhapsody for Euphonium will showcase the band with world-class euphonium soloist GySgt. Hiram Diaz from the US Marine Band, “The President’s Own.”

On June 19, the MCMB will also reprise its 2024 premiere of Michigan City composer Dan Schaaf’s composition Remembering Naomi. The work honors Naomi Anderson, African-American suffragist and Michigan City Native. Naomi’s words will be narrated by Michigan City’s Carnessa Carnes.

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: Tracy Bermingham (June 12), Jacen Smith (June 26), Sarah DeRossi (July 10), Paul Wagner (July 24), and Julie Plant (August 7). The band will also recognize two just-retired members—Roger and Susan Smith—who played in the band for 69 and 57 years, respectively (June 26).

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.

Thursday, June 22, 2023 Concert

Posted on by

The third concert of the 155th season of the Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will be held Thursday, June 22, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park.

The June 22 concert repertoire will be:

Sound Off March by John Philip Sousa
Quiet City by Aaron Copland
Blinding Lights by The Weeknd
I Saw Him Standing There by The Beatles
Bridge Over Troubled Water by Paul Simon
Danca Brasileira No. 2 by Ricardo Alves da Silva
Benediction by John Stevens
Rhythm Stand by Jennifer Higdon
Tribute to Whitney Houston arr. Michael Brown
A Patriotic Festival arr. Mark Williams

Frank GastIn addition to being outstanding performers, many of the Michigan City Municipal Band members are also successful conductors. On five concerts this season, conductors from within the band will be featured, each leading one composition. On June 22, Frank Gast will conduct Blinding Lights by popular artist Abel Tesfaye, known professionally as “The Weeknd.” Mr. Gast serves as director of bands at Michigan City High School. He is a graduate of Ball State University and Chesterton High School. Mr. Gast plays trumpet in the Michigan City Municipal Band and has been a member of Windiana Concert Band.

John Philip Sousa composed Sound Off March in 1885, when he was conductor of the US Marine Band. He formed his own professional band in 1892. While on tour in 1914 and 1924, the Sousa Band played concerts in Michigan City. Since Sound Off March was on the program for the 1924 tour, it is likely that this composition was played by the Sousa Band in Michigan City.

Aaron Copland was considered by many to be the “dean” of American composers, and the harmonies and melodies in his music are recognized as the sound of American classical music. One of his most haunting and beautiful works is the lyrical Quiet City. Quiet City allows us to showcase two of the virtuoso soloists in the Michigan City Municipal Band: Andria Kessler on English horn, and Rick Carlson on trumpet.

Anne Marie BiceGuest soprano soloist, Anne Marie Bice, is a voice professor from Valparaiso University. Ms. Bice has extensive performance experience, sings in a wide variety of styles, and has been soloing with the Michigan City Municipal Band since 2015. Prof. Bice will sing music by The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.

Brazilian musician Ricardo Alves da Silva serves as resident composer for the Banda Sinfonica Paulista in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His composition, Danca Brasileira No. 2, was commissioned as part of a series sponsored by the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, an organization dedicated to international music education.

The harmonies and the placement of the accents in this work give us the feeling of a Brazilian dance.

John Stevens is a retired tuba professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His Benediction, composed originally for tuba/euphonium quartet, showcases the beautiful blended sounds of the concert band.

Jennifer Higdon teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, as well as three Grammy Awards. Dr. Higdon’s music has been performed around the world, and she has been commissioned by ensembles that include the National Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Indianapolis Symphony. According to Dr. Higdon, Rhythm Stand “pays tribute to the constant presence of rhythm in our lives, from the pulse of a heart beating to the rhythmic sounds of the world around us.”Continue reading→

The Star-Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

6-19-25 Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won

Stony the road we trod
Bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast

God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee
Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand
True to our God
True to our native land
Our native land

GET IN TOUCH

Please share your memorabilia or stories about the band...