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The Oldest Band in the U.S. Is Hosting Free Concerts Across Denver Parks

This band has been building community in Denver for over 100 years.
Image: people watching the Denver Municipal Band outdoors
The Denver Municipal Band is throwing a free concert series. Photo Courtesy of Denver Municipal Band

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This summer, the Denver Municipal Band is showcasing its storied history and wide array of music with a series of free concerts throughout August at the city’s parks as well as at the historic Savoy theater. The band formed all the way back in 1861, before Colorado had become a state, making it the oldest professional concert band in the U.S. So many years later, the band is still carrying on traditions while continuing to evolve and contribute to the culture of the city.

“One of the big opportunities for the band, and our challenge, is we have such an incredible history and these really amazing traditions and we're going to stay rooted in those but at the same time look forward to how we can be relevant for every new generation coming up,” says Joseph Martin, the band's conductor. To that end, much of the band’s work consists of programs that bring music education to the people of Denver, such as the free classes it put on at Raices Brewing a few years back.

The band also continues to grow through its repertoire, blending the kind of material that Denver’s early settlers might have heard in the 1860s with contemporary styles of jazz as well as material from musicals.

“We've evolved over the years. We've seen that we need to be a lot more versatile with what we present to the public and be able to answer specific needs that a community may have,” Joseph continues. “We have old veterans that stand up and salute and they want to hear 'Liberty Bell March' and we'll play that for them, and then we'll play excerpts from Andrew Lloyd Webber or something like that—do Jesus Christ Superstar and a little bit of Evita—and then we'll do [Franz] von Suppé’s 'Ride of the Light Calvary,' a little operetta overture, and we've got a little of everything [in the realm of] jazz.”
click to enlarge people watching the Denver Municipal Band outdoors
Photo Courtesy of Denver Municipal Band
The band is able to cover such a broad range of music by performing in different variations of the ensemble, from the forty-piece concert band (which Martin describes as the “flagship of the organization”), to a twenty-piece jazz band as well as brass quintet. "Everyone's going to find something they like and maybe it's a new favorite that they hadn't heard of before,” Martin says.

Martin is acutely aware that the band's ethos goes much deeper than the songs themselves. “I feel like I can look back in history and see the same challenges that my predecessors back in the 1860s faced," he says. "How do we create an atmosphere where people are coming together?”

He emphasizes how important the band was for the fledgling city. It wasn’t "Denver like what we're looking at now; [it was] just a bunch of tents where people are selling shovels and potatoes to any miners that want to take their luck going up the mountain," he explains. "It’s kind of this hodgepodge, no one’s really invested. The first thing that [the city] had to get going was [to hire] a professional band, because in their mind they had to have something that brought people together. So it felt like a city, a community, a neighborhood, rather than just a way station for people to move in and out.”

More a century and a half later, the Denver Municipal Band is able to expand its efforts to serve the community in more ways than ever — not only through its series of free concerts, but through a robust educational program in which the band tailors its role to the specific needs of various public schools across the Denver area. This can mean one-on-one coaching with student musicians, playing side-by-side concerts with school bands, or giving performances at schools to create a spark for young musicians. “There's kids that need to be inspired — all of us as professional musicians had that moment where we had contact with someone who played music for us and we were like, ‘Wow, that's possible for me!’” says Martin.

In addition to working with local schools, the Municipal Band has run similar programs at youth centers, assisted-living facilities, homeless shelters, and even teamed with Raices Brewing to offer six weeks of drum and guitar lessons, open to all ages and free of charge. As Martin states, “We've got an incredible offering of music for our people, but it shouldn't be separated by income — it should be equitable for everybody.”

Perhaps what most exemplifies the Denver Municipal Band’s commitment to the whole of Denver’s population, however, are the concerts it provides jails. “One of the most important things I've ever done is conducting with the Municipal Band at the [Denver County] jail around Christmas time,” says Martin. “We play for the women and [many of them] don't even have charges. They're just waiting for their court date and they can't afford bail, so they're just forgotten and left out there. So we go in and play some Christmas music and make them feel like they're part of the community and say, ‘Hey, you're important. You've got a community that needs you back.”

From now through the beginning of September, the people of Denver can experience the music of the Denver Municipal Band first-hand across the city’s parks. For Martin, it’s another opportunity to bring the history and tradition of the band to the community: “All you’ve got to do is bring a picnic, bring your dog, bring your kids and bring your smile.”

See the Denver Municipal Band’s full summer schedule on its website.