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The Casco Bay Concert Band (CBCB), a non-profit organization of about 70 adult musicians from 19 to 93, was formed in February 1980 as the Peoples Community Concert Band, under the auspices of the Peoples United Methodist Church of South Portland, Maine. The first performance was May 5, 1980, at the Peoples United Methodist Church. Band members come from various musical backgrounds, professions, and localities from all around Casco Bay. More than a third of the members are music educators and professional musicians, while the majority of the members continue their music as an avocation. The result is a group of music ambassadors, with a mission to demonstrate that the arts, and music in particular, are a lifelong pursuit and opportunity for enjoyment. The study and performance on a musical instrument need not end with an individual's graduation from school. To that end, Casco Bay Concert Band is committed to providing high quality, low cost musical experiences for audiences of Greater Portland, and role models and leadership for the music programs in the K-12 public schools in southern Maine. CBCB, incorporated in 1986, has an active executive board of seven members. CBCB does not require auditions for membership. Rehearsals are on Monday evenings from 7:00 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. at Gorham High School, beginning the Monday after Labor Day and running through the third of July.
The Casco Bay Concert Band cooperates with the Portland Concert Association in a biannual program that hires a guest conductor to give workshops in the local schools and conduct joint concerts with the University of Southern Maine and Portland Youth Wind Ensemble. Past years have featured such prominent guest conductors as:
- Frederick Fennell (Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra)
- Richard Suddendorf (University of Western Michigan, retired)
- Alan McMurray (University of Colorado)
- Jerry Junkin (University of Texas)
- Stanley Hettinger (University of New Hampshire)
- Thomas Everett (Harvard University)
- Richard Floyd (University Interscholastic League, Austin, Texas)
- Peter Martin (University of Southern Maine)
- Eugene Corporon (University of North Texas)
- John Boyd (Indiana State University)
- Jack Stamp (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)
- Robert Spradling (Western Michigan University)
Each March the band supports Music In Our Schools month by performing a joint concert with an area high school band. On three occasions the band has hosted R. B. Hall Day, an annual festival of community bands that is free for all. In 2001, CBCB hosted the festival in Gorham where it was attended by more than 500 tourists and area residents. These are only a few examples of the ways the Casco Bay Concert Band contributes to the Greater Portland community.
The Metropolitan Wind Ensemble of Boston recognizes top community bands in New England, and has invited Casco Bay Concert Band to perform every year at the Boston Festival of Bands at Faneuil Hall.
CBCB has featured such musicians as Ronald Baron (principal trombonist, Boston Symphony Orchestra), Dr. Peter Tanner (Percussion instructor, University of Massachusetts, former marimba soloist, the United States Marine Band "The President's Own"), Randy Judkins (Visual Comedian), Kenneth Radnofsky (New England Conservatory and Boston Symphony), and the Phil Rich Big Band. The band has premiered several works, including Robert Carabia's Gershwin, Jazz a la Mode, Mark Frederick's Songs of Garmonbozia, Aeritin and Salvation, and Terry White's Concerto for Doubles. In 1990, to commemorate the band's 10th anniversary, it commissioned and premiered Maine Vigils by the noted American composer, Daniel Bukvich.
Every year, CBCB presents a scholarship to a Maine student who is looking to continue with music beyond high school Kaiya Hansen is the 2007 recipient. Kaiya is fifteen years old and resides in South Portland, Maine. She has been playing the flute for five years, beginning with the Dyer Elementary School fifth grade band. She has participated in the Memorial Middle School Jazz Band and the Second Jazz Band at her high school. Kaiya made the 2006/2007 Honors Festival Band as a second flute and is planning on trying out again this year. During the summer, she went to MSYM and made it in the symphonic band.
Now a sophomore at South Portland High School, she is in the wind ensemble and participates in the marching band.
The Casco Bay Concert Band performs regularly its regular season of three concerts at the Gorham Performing Arts Center at Gorham High School, and is engaged for several more concerts throughout Maine each year. The already low admission price of $7.00 is further reduced for seniors, and students of all ages are admitted free to all concerts. The performance schedule, musical selection, low cost, and accessible facility are designed to appeal to a broad audience of families, students and retirees of Greater Portland.
Directions to Gorham High School, 41 Morrill Ave., Gorham, ME
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