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2023 marks the 155th season of the Michigan City Municipal Band.  The 2023 concert series will consist of ten free Thursday concerts, beginning June 8, and ending August 10.  All concerts begin at 7:30p and last about an hour. 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.

Highlights of the summer concert series include special guest soloists and two commissions by award-winning composers. Soloists will be GySgt. Hiram Diaz, euphonium, from the US Marine Band (August 3); and Anne Marie Bice, soprano (June 22 and 29, and July 13). Other soloists and special events will be announced during the season.

The world premiere of Blue Water, Blue Sky by Catherine McMichael will take place on August 3. Also on August 3, the Concerto for Euphonium and Band by Tom Davoren will showcase the band with world-class euphonium soloist GySgt. Hiram Diaz, in three beautiful and dazzling movements.

In addition to being outstanding performers, many of the band members are also successful conductors. Some of those conductors will be featured on individual compositions throughout the summer.

Jeffrey Scott Doebler is the conductor for the MCMB, and Quincy Ford is the assistant conductor. 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. He is founder and conductor of Windiana: Professional Concert Band of Northwest Indiana. Mr. Ford, principal saxophone in the MCMB, is retired director of bands from Michigan City High School.

Thursday, June 10, 2021 Concert

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The Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will begin its 153rd season on Thursday, June 10, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park.

The MCMB 153rd Season will consist of ten free Thursday concerts, beginning June 10, and ending August 12. All concerts begin at 7:30p and last about an hour. The band plays a wide variety of music, with concerts designed to entertain audience members of all ages.

The June 10 concert repertoire will be:

Dedicatory Overture by Clifton Williams

Air for Band by Frank Erickson

Credo by William Owens

Washington Post March by John Philip Sousa

Stitches in Time: A Second Piece (premiere) by Meredith Brammeier

Mexican Hat Dance by Felipe A. Partichela

Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim, arr. Michael Brown

Whip and Spur Galop by Fred S. Allen, arr. Ray Cramer

My America arr. Joyce Eilers

Beau Monde (premiere) by Jack Stamp

Dedicatory Overture is being played in honor of those who have lost their lives since the MCMB last performed in 2019, including former band members Steve Hornyak, Bud Westphal, Dr. Charles Janovsky, and Michael Boo. By playing specific favorites of each musician, later in the season, these gentlemen will be honored individually.

Stitches in Time: A Second Piece is the MCMB’s 2020 commission. The three-movement composition is based on quilt patterns. Composer Meredith Brammeier teaches at California Polytechnical Institute in San Luis Obispo, and earned degrees from the University of Southern California, Eastman School of Music, and Princeton University.

Beau Monde is the MCMB’s 2021 commission. It is an exciting and creative adaptation of the famous hymn For the Beauty of the Earth. Dr. Jack Stamp, the composer, served for many years at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is also the founder and conductor of a professional concert band called Keystone Winds. In retirement, Dr. Stamp is teaching at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

To help keep musicians and audience members safe, band members will follow strict safety protocols, including bell covers on woodwind and brass instruments, physical distancing, and masks.

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.

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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?

8-10-23 America the Beautiful

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.

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