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The Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will begin its 158th season on Thursday, June 4, 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 158th season will consist of ten free concerts, beginning June 4, and ending August 6. The band plays a wide variety of music, with concerts designed to entertain audience members of all ages. The concerts last about an hour. The MCMB also plays for the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Greenwood Cemetery, and in the Michigan City Summer Festival Parade.

The MCMB is pleased to announce that our newly-appointed assistant conductor is Frank Gast. Mr. Gast serves as director of bands at Michigan City High School, and also plays trumpet in the MCMB. Quincy Ford served as the MCMB assistant conductor from 2014-2025. Mr. Ford will continue conducting the MCMB in the annual Summer Festival Parade, and he will maintain his position as the MCMB’s principal saxophone.

Highlights of the MCMB summer concert series include special guest soloists and two commissions by acclaimed composers. Guest artists will be MSG. Hiram Diaz, euphonium, and MSG. Brandon Eubank, trumpet, from the US Marine Band (July 23); Michelle Howisen, soprano (July 9); Anne Marie Bice, soprano (June 11, August 6), JD Flynn, baritone saxophone (June 4). The June 18 concert will celebrate Juneteenth, and the July 2 concert will have a special focus on the USA Semiquincentennial. Other soloists and special events will be announced during the season.

The MCMB will present the premieres of two commissions:

Portraits of Joy by Edna Alejandra Longoria (June 4 and again on July 23)

Variations on La Comparsa for euphonium and band by Dennis Llinas (July 23)

Edna Alejandra Longoria is a versatile composer from Texas. Portraits of Joy was “inspired by the spirit of Michigan City and her soon-to-be-born daughter Elisa.” Mrs. Longoria imagined walking through Washington Park at various times of the year, watching children play, experiencing the Festival of Lights, admiring the beauty of sunrise over the lake, and hearing the historic Michigan City Municipal Band.

Dennis Llinas is a Cuban/Colombian composer and conductor who is serving as director of bands at the University of Oregon. He’s appeared professionally around the world, including last January in Fort Wayne, where he conducted the Indiana Music Education Association Honor Band. Dr. Llinas grew up hearing and performing the music of the great Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona. Like MSG. Diaz, Dr. Llinas has Cuban heritage. When commissioned by the MCMB to compose a solo for euphonium and band in the form of “theme and variations”, Dr. Llinas immediately knew he would use Ernesto Lecuona’s famous La Comparsa. The title refers to musicians who appear in Latin American community festivals.

In addition to being outstanding performers, many of the MCMB members are successful conductors. Two of those conductors will be featured on individual compositions throughout the summer: Caitlyn Coller (July 30) and Dakota Maze (August 6). The band will also recognize one of its just-retired members—Mary Lee Riley—who played clarinet in the band for 63 years (June 11).

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 reduced parking fee for the band concert.

Jeffrey Scott Doebler is the conductor of the MCMB, and Frank Gast 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. Gast serves as director of bands at Michigan City High School.

The band’s announcer is Rick Carlson.

Thursday, July 13, 2023 Concert

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The sixth concert of the 155th season of the Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will be held Thursday, July 13, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park. The concert will feature soprano soloist Anne Bice, and will honor retired MCMB horn player and secretary/treasurer JoFran Bendix.

The July 13 concert repertoire will be:

Indiana Folks March by Hale A. VanderCook
American Overture Band by Joseph Willcox Jenkins
How Far I’ll Go by Lin Manuel Miranda
Pocahontas Medley arr. John Moss
Be Still My Soul arr. Robert W. Smith
Alleluia! Laudamus Te by Alfred Reed
Cupid Shuffle by Cupid (Bryson Bernard)
Pickles and Peppers by Adaline Shepherd
Beyond the Lighted Tower by Roger Cichy
Audience sing-along: God Bless America by Irving Berlin

In addition to being outstanding performers, many of the Michigan City Municipal Band members are successful conductors. On five concerts this season, conductors from within the band are being featured, each leading one composition. On July 13, Phil Hahn will conduct Pickles and Peppers by Adaline Shepherd. A retired music educator, Mr. Hahn served as director of bands in the Boone Grove schools. Mr. Hahn plays horn in the Michigan City Municipal Band, Windiana Concert Band, South Shore Brass Band, German Band, and Valparaiso Community/University Concert Band. He is a frequent conductor of the Valparaiso Community/University Concert Band. Mr. Hahn earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Valparaiso University. Composer Adaline Shepherd Olson was born in Iowa, then spent most of her life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mrs. Olson was a pianist and a self-taught composer. Her most famous work was a ragtime selection, Pickles and Peppers. The composition sold over two million copies, and was used as the theme song in the 1908 unsuccessful presidential bid of William Jennings Bryan.

Hale VanderCook was probably the second most famous conductor of the Michigan City Municipal Band—second only to Dr. Guy Foreman, who led the band for an astonishing 60 years. Mr. VanderCook conducted the Michigan City Municipal Band, known then as the Ames Union Band, for several seasons around the turn of the 20th century. He went on to found the VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, which remains well-known for training music teachers. Maestro VanderCook was also a successful composer. Among the works that he wrote while leading Ames Union Band was Indiana Folks.

American Overture for Band by Joseph Willcox Jenkins was composed in 1953 for the US Army Field Band and its commander, Colonel Chester Whiting. Mr. Jenkins was a staff arranger for the US Army Field Band and the US Army Chorus. He later taught at Duquesne University.

Anne Marie BiceAnne Marie Bice is a voice professor from Valparaiso University. She has extensive performance experience, sings in a wide variety of styles, and has been soloing with the Michigan City Municipal Band since 2015. In her final appearance with the MCMB this summer, Prof. Bice will sing music from two movies: Moana and Pocahontas.

Robert W. Smith’s setting of Be Still My Soul is a gentle lyrical selection that allows the band to demonstrate the beautiful and blended tone of the ensemble. The melody is known to many as a hymn and because it is the main theme from the composition Finlandia by Jean Sibelius. Robert W. Smith teaches at Troy University in Alabama, and has published over 600 compositions and arrangements.

Alleluia! Laudamus Te is a canticle of praise by Alfred Reed. Dr. Reed was one of the most successful composers of band music in the second half of the 20th Century, and was one of the first leaders in the creation of collegiate academic degree programs to prepare students for the music industry.

The stage name of pop singer Bryson Bernard is “Cupid.” A native of Louisiana, Cupid’s most famous hit is 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?

6-11-26 – A Patriotic Festival

A Patriotic Festival Sing Along

I’M A YANKEE DOODLE DANDY

I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,
A Yankee Doodle, do or die:
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam,
Born on the Fourth of July.
I’ve got a Yankee Doodle Sweetheart,
She’s my Yankee Doodle joy:
Yankee Doodle came to London,
Just to ride the ponies.
I am a Yankee Doodle boy.

AMERICA (MY COUNTRY ‘TIS OF THEE)

My country, ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrim’s pride:
From ev’ry mountainside,
Let freedom ring.

AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL

O Beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea.

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on!

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