On October 18, I had the pleasure of conducting the Liberty Classic Community Band Festival in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I’ve guest-conducted with many bands over the years. This was my first invitation to conduct a festival, and I left with a great experience and insights into why people participate in such ensembles. Photos in this article are from the Liberty Classic Community Band Festival.

On almost any night of the week, somewhere in America, a community band is rehearsing. Its members may include teachers, engineers, farmers, retirees, students, healthcare workers, and professional musicians. They arrive after work carrying clarinets, trumpets, trombones, percussion equipment, and folders of well-worn music. For a few hours, their occupations and ages recede. They become musicians again.

Community bands provide something that professional orchestras and school ensembles cannot: a lifelong musical home for people who play primarily for fulfillment, fellowship, and service. Free from grades, auditions for academic credit, and the demands of professional performance, these volunteer ensembles make music accessible both to their members and to the communities they entertain.

Yet their importance extends far beyond weekly rehearsals and concerts in local parks. Festivals, conventions, and adult band camps bring musicians together across cities, states, and even countries. These gatherings create ambitious musical experiences, enduring friendships, and a sense of belonging that participants often describe in one word: family.

A Place to Begin Again

Many instrumentalists stop playing after high school or college. Without rehearsals on the calendar or a conductor expecting them to prepare, instruments are placed in closets and left untouched. Careers, families, and other responsibilities take over.

Community bands offer a path back.

Liberty Classic Band Festival participant Margie Smith returned to the clarinet in 2019 after decades away from serious instrumental performance. Her challenge was greater than simply rebuilding her embouchure or finger technique. Following a serious head injury in 1989, she had worked to recover her vocabulary, short-term memory, and ability to walk. Years later, when she picked up her clarinet, she discovered that she could no longer connect notes on the page with keys on the instrument.

She faced a choice: stop playing or rebuild her musical knowledge as she had once rebuilt other parts of her life.

She chose to rebuild.

Smith began with the Conewago Band and later joined the Apple Core Band. The musicians around her allowed her to make mistakes and encouraged her progress. After considerable practice, she regained confidence on B-flat clarinet. Then she encountered a bass clarinet and, as she recalls, it was “love at first sight.” Within ten days, she had one of her own.

As her ability grew, so did the list of ensembles in which she participated, including municipal bands, a college wind symphony, a clarinet choir, and several regional groups.

“What does being part of a community band mean?” she writes. “Everything!”

For Smith, music became a refuge from stress and a source of energy, humor, and friendship. Her experience illustrates one of the great strengths of community ensembles: they welcome musicians at many stages of development. A player may be highly accomplished, returning after a long absence, learning a new instrument, or simply trying to become a little better each week.

The conductor’s role is therefore different from that of a director leading a professional or academic ensemble. The community-band conductor must pursue excellence while recognizing the varied abilities, goals, and experiences in the room. The best conductors serve not merely as judges of accuracy but as facilitators who help people contribute meaningfully to a shared result.

A Community of Practice

A community band is a community of practice: people learn by doing something together. Musicians exchange advice, model good habits, encourage improvement, and hold one another accountable. Experienced players mentor those who are still developing, while younger musicians discover that music does not have to end with graduation.

That intergenerational quality is one of the movement’s distinguishing features. Teenagers may sit beside musicians in their eighties. Retirees share stands with people in the early years of their careers. Differences that might separate them elsewhere become less important when everyone is counting the same rests and preparing for the same entrance.

Rehearsal also provides relief from daily pressure. Playing music requires attention to breath, rhythm, intonation, balance, and the gestures of the conductor. There is little mental room left for workplace concerns or unfinished chores.

One adult-band participant explained that music forces her to live in the present: she must get out of her own head and focus completely on the notes and the sound of her instrument. Another described band camp as a week of being unplugged from the outside world and unable to solve problems at the office.

This concentration is not passive escapism. It is demanding, communal work that gives participants a restorative break precisely because it asks so much of them.

My own experience has taught me how strongly these ensembles depend on a conductor’s ability to unite players with different backgrounds and skill levels. For me, military, school, university, and community bands have been part of my life in one form or another.

I have spent most of my adult life performing in and leading military, university, school, professional, and community bands. After studying trumpet at the Peabody Institute and teaching band, I joined the United States Air Force Band in Washington, where I served as a ceremonial trumpeter and bugler, staff arranger, and assistant drum major. I later conducted ensembles at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Johns Hopkins University, formed an ensemble in the Maryland Defense Force, and founded the Maryland Military Band.

These experiences, along with conducting many other ensembles, have shown me that enthusiasm can unite musicians of widely varying abilities. In community bands especially, I have seen how a shared commitment creates an atmosphere in which players want to give their best. As a conductor, my responsibility is to nurture that enthusiasm, focus it, and help the ensemble achieve its strongest possible performance.

Why Musicians Travel to Festivals

Local bands meet the need for regular music-making, but festivals offer experiences that one ensemble may be unable to create alone. Musicians routinely spend their own money and vacation time to attend because these events combine musical challenge, social connection, and immersion.

One attraction is the massed band. Local ensembles sometimes perform with incomplete or uneven instrumentation, but a festival can assemble 100 or even 200 musicians. Suddenly, every section is present. A player who rarely sits beside another oboist, bassoonist, euphonium player, or bass clarinetist may find an entire row of them.

The resulting sound can be both physically and emotionally exhilarating. The deep foundation of a large low-brass section, the breadth of the woodwinds, and the brilliance of a full complement of trumpets and percussion produce an experience difficult to duplicate at home.

Another attraction is the chance to work with distinguished conductors. Guests have included renowned university professors and former leaders of premier military bands. In an intensive rehearsal, participants encounter new interpretations, rehearsal techniques, and standards of musicianship. A single weekend can become a concentrated master class. Distinguished conductors who have conducted community band festivals and adult band camps have included Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel, former commander and conductor of the United States Air Force Band; Colonel John R. Bourgeois, USMC (Ret.), former director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band; Captain Lewis J. Buckley, USCG (Ret.), former director and current conductor laureate of the United States Coast Guard Band; Colonel Michael J. Colburn, USMC (Ret.), former director of the United States Marine Band; and Colonel Timothy J. Holtan, USA (Ret.), former leader and commander of “Pershing’s Own” United States Army Band. Conductors at prestigious universities like Anthony J, Maiello have also served as festival conductors.

Shayna Malool, a Peabody Conservatory-trained vocalist who plays flute, wrote, “My Community Band at home has about 40-50 players. Liberty Classic has over 100 players, and the brass, the clarinet, and all the other sections are outstanding. It is an honor to play with such a group that produces such a mass of sound. Each year, we have retired military conductors to play under. They all have stories to tell about their music-making and travels. It is fascinating to hear those stories and to have the honor of playing under such first-class professional conductors. Then there is the Bonus of becoming friends with others who share a love of music and meeting up with them annually. I have also come across many Corgi dog lovers!”

Then there is the repertoire. A local band may spend weeks preparing a limited program, while a festival or camp can expose musicians to dozens of works. Participants sight-read unfamiliar selections, explore different genres, and polish demanding music under tight deadlines. Windjammers Unlimited, dedicated to preserving the music of the circus, is a particularly vivid example: musicians may tackle rapid, technically demanding “screamers” while recreating the sound world once heard under the big top.

The difficulty is part of the appeal. Musicians arrive as individuals, confront a formidable folder of music, and leave having accomplished something none could have done alone.

Festivals as Musical Destinations

Adult musicians can choose from a variety of gatherings, each with its own identity.

The Liberty Classic Community Band Festival in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, brings together community bands for individual performances and a massed-band finale. This year, 14 states were represented. The festival began in 2010 with Colonel Arnald Gabriel, whose career with the United States Air Force Band made him an influential figure in the concert-band world. Colonel Gabriel stepped down after years, and the conducting was handled by Anthony J. Maiello, a well-respected conductor from George Mason University. I have been honored to take the helm this year and plan to return next year.

In western Pennsylvania, the Three Rivers Community Band Festival showcases the region’s rich community-band culture. In addition to performances by participating ensembles, it gathers musicians from numerous organizations into a festival band of more than 100 players.

The Boston Festival of Bands offers free public performances by New England ensembles in historic Faneuil Hall. The Lake George Community Band Festival brings musicians to an outdoor amphitheater for a day of lakeside music. Kentucky’s Great American Brass Band Festival celebrates American and British brass traditions through performances by civilian, community, historic, and professional groups.

The Association of Concert Bands National Convention provides a broader meeting place for the community-band movement. Hosted in a different location from year to year, it combines concerts, clinics, professional exchange, and opportunities for attendees to perform together.

At Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, Band Camp for Adult Musicians offers a week of concentrated rehearsals, sight-reading, learning, and friendship. As one participant puts it, “You’re never too old for band camp.” Another describes the experience as being welcomed exactly as she is, then being lifted by the musicians around her to grow beyond what she could accomplish alone. The 2026 program featured retired Colonels Michael J. Colburn and Timothy J. Holtan as conductors of its two one-week sessions. Both brought extensive military, professional, and educational experience to the participants.

Windjammers Unlimited operates on an even wider geographic scale. Rather than functioning as a single hometown ensemble, it draws musicians from across the United States and Canada. Its winter gathering in the Sarasota, Florida area, honors that city’s circus history and includes music supporting young performers at the Sailor Circus Academy. Its summer events travel to locations connected with circus and band heritage.

The Virginia Grand Military Band offers another model of destination music-making. Founded and conducted by Loras John Schissel, it has drawn many current and former members of the premier U.S. service bands for periodic performances of traditional concert and military-band repertoire. These performances drew retired military musicians from across the country in the same manner as festivals. It is sad to see that the group no longer performs. I was honored to guest conduct several pieces over the years.

Though these events differ in format and repertoire, they share the same essential purpose: they enlarge the musical possibilities available to all.

The Family Beyond the Rehearsal Room

The musical benefits explain only part of the festivals’ appeal. Participants also come to see these gatherings as reunions of a highly specialized extended family.

In everyday life, a bassoonist, euphonium player, or circus-music enthusiast may know few people who share that interest. At a festival, that passion is suddenly normal. Conversations about instruments, mouthpieces, recordings, conductors, and repertoire continue long after rehearsals end. Musicians exchange music, sight-read informally, and renew friendships that may exist primarily through annual gatherings.

Nada Montgomery, who served for 27 years as secretary of the Association of Concert Bands, traveled widely and learned how community bands function throughout the country. The experience confirmed something she had long believed: band is family.

That statement is not merely sentimental. Montgomery met her husband, Mike, through the Association of Concert Bands and Windjammers. After his death, every group in which they had played programmed a piece in his honor. Later, she met her partner, Jim, through the same community-music world.

“Community music festivals are family, friends and music wrapped up in one big, wonderful package,” she writes.

These relationships are formed not in spite of the hard work, but partly because of it. Rehearsing difficult music requires people to listen closely, adjust, breathe, and take risks together. Each player is responsible for an individual part, yet the result exists only when those parts become a whole.

Trombonist John Hobson captures the fleeting culmination of that process: the few shared inhalations after a difficult concert, before the applause begins. The musicians are physically exhilarated, smiling at one another and absorbing what they have accomplished together. The moment lasts only seconds, but it remains in memory.

A Civic Tradition Worth Sustaining

Community bands are sometimes treated as pleasant local entertainment – music for a parade, holiday ceremony, or summer evening in the park. They are all of those things, but they are also much more.

They preserve the participatory ideal of music-making. They demonstrate that artistic growth is not reserved for the young or the professional. They give adults permission to be beginners again, provide accomplished musicians with new challenges, and connect generations through a common musical language.

They also strengthen civic life. Free concerts create shared public experiences, while festivals introduce audiences to ensembles and traditions they might otherwise never encounter. In an era when entertainment is increasingly individualized and delivered through screens, a community band remains emphatically local and collective. Musicians assemble in person, breathe together, and create something that disappears as soon as the final note fades.

The deepest reason people join, conduct, and travel with community bands may therefore be simple. Music gives them a place to belong and something meaningful to accomplish with others.

As one adult band camper said, “It’s like coming home.”

One final thought: festivals like these do not simply happen. They are the culmination of months of planning, preparation, coordination, and hard work by many dedicated people. Although audiences see the performances onstage, much of the effort happens behind the scenes – organizing schedules, preparing facilities, communicating with participating ensembles, coordinating equipment, and attending to countless details that often go unnoticed. Every volunteer, organizer, staff member, and supporter plays an essential role in creating a successful and rewarding experience for performers and audiences alike. Their dedication makes events like this possible, and they deserve our sincere appreciation and deepest gratitude.

Jari Villanueva, Catonsville, MD October 28, 2026
Jari’s full bio can be found by clicking here

Sources:

-Anderson, L. E. (2014, June 7). The community band: An American institution. ALIVE Magazine. aliveeastbay.com

-Bradley, M. J., Robertson, P., & Iery, T. (2026). Lifelong participation in community bands: Bridging formal music education and community-based engagement. SCHOLE: A Journal of Leisure Studies and Recreation Education, 41(3), 153-161. doi.org

-Cidade, J., Caramelo, J. C. P., & Costa, A. S. (2024). Civil wind bands beyond music education: A scoping review (2010-2021). Revista Electronica Complutense de Investigacion en Educacion Musical, 21. doi.org

-Forbus, R. (2022, November 28). What is a community band and why is it important? Sounds of Sawnee Concert Band. soundsofsawnee.org

-Hartz, J. M. (2003). The American community band: History and development [Master’s thesis, Marshall University]. Marshall Digital Scholar. mds.marshall.edu

-Kirk, M. (2025, July 10). What a 150-year-old community band taught me about leadership. LinkedIn. linkedin.com

-Mantie, R. (2012). A study of community band participants: Implications for music education. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 191, 21-43. doi.org

-Patterson, F. C. (1985). Motivational factors contributing to participation in community bands of the Montachusett region of north central Massachusetts [Doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut]. Digital Commons @ UConn. digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu

My thanks to Judith Schellenberger, members of the Repasz Band, and members of the 2026 Liberty Classic Community Band Festival for their contributions to this article.

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