Boulder Concert Band logo by Clyde Mason

Things to Know:

Pops in the Parks Concert Schedule

Rehearsal for summer Pops in the Park concerts start on Monday, April 20, 2026. If you only play in the summer, don't forget to pay your dues (link above). Watch this space for the schedule and repertoire.

Great News!

We are the 2025 Runner-Up in the American Prize non-collegiate band division for our performance of William Grant Still’s To You, America! Congratulations everyone! This is a quite an honor; a testament to your talents and musicianship — WELL DONE. Get more information about the American Prize band winners here.

Our 2025-2026 Symphonic Season

April 18, 2026 – “Celebrations!”

We concluded our Symphonic Season in April with music that dances and evokes literary themes, including Danzón No. 2 by Arturo Marquez, Of Sailors and Whales by W. Francis McBeth (based on Melville’s Moby-Dick, and Riften Wed by Julie Giroux. Also featured were Andrew Snyder and Sam French, a Smith-Corona-Marchant manual typewriter and a Service Bell on Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter. It was a very exciting performance, and we look forward to our summer Pops in the Park, as well as to our next Symphonic Season in September, 2026.

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Our Mission

The mission of the Boulder Concert Band is to provide our community with outstanding, inclusive, live performances of traditional and modern symphonic wind ensemble repertoire. We bring together accomplished amateur and professional musicians to advance musical excellence, support and partner with local artists, and intentionally program works by living and historically underrepresented composers.

If you are new to the band, and will be playing in our Symphonic Season, please see Membership & Expectations below.

Vaccination against COVID-19 is no longer required to participate in band, based on advice from our medical advisor. Masks are optional but if you are more comfortable wearing one, you are welcome to do so.

The Band can provide optional instrument covers and playing masks, donated by WYOmusic.
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Pops in the Parks Schedule & Info

If you are new to the band, or haven’t performed with us for a couple of years, you will need to audition with your section leader in order to join us for the summer.

We understand it’s summer, and you might have to miss a rehearsal or a concert or two. We ask that you not miss more than three summer rehearsals without the OK from your section leader and the director. Collaborate with your section leader to make sure all parts are covered if you are going to miss a concert. Section leaders have a text message group that will be used to communicate quickly with sections. Please be sure your section leader has your mobile number!

We are an adult band (18 and over) but occasionally accept very talented younger folks in the summer. Contact a Board member for info on proficiency requirements and auditions.

Summer dues are $30. If you played during the indoor season and paid your $60 dues, that fee includes the summer Pops in the Parks session. You can give a check to our Treasurer, Stephen Bray, in the trombone section, or to Vice-President Marilyn Kroner in the horn section. To pay by card or debit, you can pay at Zeffy or use the link below (Zeffy doees not charge the band a processing fee); or pay via PayPal. Just be sure to note that the funds are for dues.PayPal does charge the band a payment processing fee.

If you are a new summer member or have not played with us for a few years, you will need a summer band shirt with our current logo. Shirts will be provided starting the first summer rehearsal. Your first shirt is free, complements of the band. If you want more than one, you will be charged $30 for each extra shirt. Band shirts are worn with khaki (tannish-colored) bottoms in summer. Contact Marilyn Kroner via email if you need a band shirt.

You will need your own music stand for rehearsals and performances. In addition, you will also need to bring a chair for the Pops in the Parks performances. (July 4 and Frasier Meadows usually provide chairs). Bring a stand light if you want, as it gets dark earlier in late summer. Water, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, bug spray, and rain gear may all come in handy! Clothespins, clips or Plexiglas can help hold your music down when the breeze picks up. Some band members use a black binder or folio with inserts for their music.

Call times for Pops in the Parks concerts are 30 minutes before the concert starts. Be in your seats at 6:45 for a 7 pm start time. Please come earlier to help our percussion section unload the truck (and also help load the truck after the concert). It is a LOT of work for our percussion section and they have to do it every single week in the summer.

It’s unusual for us to cancel a Pops in the Parks concert due to weather. Sometimes it stops raining right before we play, or it will start to rain three pieces in. Show up. If the weather is unusually bad and we have to cancel in advance, section leaders will be notified first and they will contact you via their section text message group. (Please make sure your section leader has your mobile number.) Then we will post on Facebook, Facebook Boulder Concert Band Members Page, and Twitter (X).

It has been policy with the City that we play a “rain date” the next evening, Tuesday. Please check your e-mail for any change regarding this date. Once again, if there is no message between 5:00 and 5:30 P.M., assume that we are playing at the same time and location as the scheduled Monday performance. If you cannot play Tuesday evening please notify your section leader.

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Membership & Expectations

Members of the Boulder Concert Band are drawn from the community at large. To be a member in good standing one must be at least 18 years of age (unless approved by the conductor and the board). There are three types of membership:

Active - Dues-paying members in good standing, who attend a majority of the rehearsals and performances during a concert season. Active members may hold office, serve on committees and take an active part in all business and social affairs of the Boulder Concert Band.
Inactive - Members who, for personal or professional reasons, do not meet at least one of the two criteria for being an active member. Inactive members may not be able to participate in the activities and membership of the Boulder Concert Band.
Honorary - Members who are non-dues-paying personnel who are generally recognized as outstanding in their field, or have performed an outstanding service for the Boulder Concert Band. It is not necessary for an honorary member to possess any qualifications as a musician.

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Auditioning for the Band

New members can join the band following an audition, provided there are openings within a section. If you would like to audition for the band, email us and let us know! Prospective new members are invited to participate in a rehearsal before making a final decision to join. See Rehearsals and Performances below. A brief audition with the section principal will be held at a subsequent rehearsal. Has it been a while since you have played? Consider starting out during our Pops in the Parks session, which has a more relaxed atmosphere.

Rehearsals and Performances

The Boulder Concert Band rehearses on Monday evenings, September through May, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Harvest Baptist Church, 7493 Old Mill Trail, Boulder, CO 80301.

Symphonic Season performances are at Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder, CO 80303. We will play a Memorial Concert on the Sunday morning before Memorial Day in May, at North Boulder Park, 800 Dellwood Ave., Boulder CO 80301. Pops in the Parks concerts are presented on Monday evenings, June through early August, at a different City of Boulder park each week. We may play additional Fourth of July concerts at Chautauqua Park and for the City of Louisville fireworks celebration (currently at Coal Creek Golf Course). A private concert may also be presented in mid-August to the residents of Frasier Retirement Community.

Call times for concerts are set so that the band will be in place ready to warm up and tune before the concert. There may be important information provided during that time as well.

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Attendance

Regular attendance at rehearsals and concerts is essential to quality ensemble music. If you are unable to attend a rehearsal for any reason, please notify your section leader and explain the reason you are unable to attend. No more than three rehearsals can be missed in a concert cycle. If you should have to miss more than three rehearsals, it will be at the discretion of your section leader and the conductor whether you will be permitted to perform the concert in that cycle.

Summer Band

Consistent summer band attendance is also encouraged, but we recognize that vacations and other events can prevent a player from attending every weekly concert. We also have an inclement weather policy, which applies throughout the year, but is especially relevant to our weekly Pops in the Parks concerts.

If we have to cancel a performance because of weather conditions, we will notify you by e-mail via the Boulder Concert Band’s email list between 5:00 and 5:30 P.M. the evening of the concert. We hope this is far enough in advance to save you an unnecessary trip. If e-mail is not convenient, please feel free to call any board member or your section leader. If there is no message, please assume that the concert is on.

Section leaders also have a text message group that will be used to communicate quickly to sections. Please be sure your section leader has your mobile number!

It has been policy with the City that we play a “rain date” the next evening, Tuesday. Please check your e-mail for any change regarding this date. Once again, if there is no message between 5:00 and 5:30 P.M., assume that we are playing at the same time and location as the scheduled Monday performance. If you cannot play Tuesday evening please notify your section leader.

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Dues

Membership dues are $60.00 per year. Dues shall be paid in full to the treasurer of the Boulder Concert Band no later than September 30 each year.

Dues for members playing only in the summer are $30.00, payable by the first summer concert.

All members are entitled to a membership certificate, provided by the Boulder Concert Band treasurer upon request, in exchange for the membership dues payment. The Board of Directors may waive the dues requirement for individual members upon good cause shown. Please contact a Board member if you are unable to pay dues for any reason.

You now can pay your dues online via Zeffy, and the band is not charged any processing fees. An extra donation to support the Zeffy platform is optional. Use this link, and choose automatic renewal if you want to pay your dues automatically each year!

You can also pay your dues online via PayPal; however, PayPal will charge the Boulder Concert Band a processing fee for each transaction.

Simply click the PayPal logo below, log in with your PayPal account, and enter the amount you wish to send. Please leave a “Message to Seller” with your payment, indicating “Dues.”

If you do not have a PayPal account, you can either create one by following the “Create Account” link on the PayPal page, or pay as a Guest using your credit card by clicking the button on the donation screen.

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Concert Attire

Symphonic Season Concert Attire

• Women - Long black dresses or skirts or slacks, long sleeve black tops.

• Men - Black suits or tuxedo with white shirt and black bow tie.

Pops in the Parks Concert Attire

• Official Summer Band shirts with tan or khaki pants/shorts. The Boulder Concert Band will provide shirts for summer band members. Pick one up at the summer rehearsals, speak to a Board Member, or email us.

Section Principals

Each section of the band will have a principal player with primary responsibility for performing solo parts. Principals are expected to perform at all concerts during the winter season. Principals also will work with the conductor to audition new musicians interested in joining the band. Sections are free to negotiate principal player positions and the rest of the section hierarchy themselves. Contact the conductor or a Board member if a third party evaluation is needed.

Section Principals responsibilities: contacting their sections if rehearsals or concerts are cancelled or postponed; timely reporting to the director of who will miss rehearsals; keeping their section of the roster updated; ensuring everyone in the section is following any COVID-19 face and instrument mask requirements; and contacting the Board if anyone in the section has a known exposure to COVID-19, is ill in any way, or exhibited any COVID-19 symptoms.

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Band Email List, Roster, & Facebook Members Page

The Boulder Concert Band has an email that goes out to all band members. Many of our important group communications, such as weather cancellation communications and information about concerts, take place via this list. Subscribe to the band members list to receive the most up-to-the-minute information via email. Please be sure to add the email address ‘mkroner@comcast.net’ to your allowed senders contacts.

We have a Boulder Concert Band Members Page on Facebook. We will post up-to-the-minute info there. If you are a Facebook user, please join and follow the page!

We may also use X (Twitter) to send out timely communications to band members. Links to all of our social accounts are at the bottom of this web site.

We also maintain a Roster of current (and past) band members to facilitate communication within the band. Any band member can edit and update this roster, but we especially appreciate section leaders keeping the roster up-to-date a couple of weeks before each concert. This enables the program designer to list concert personnel correctly. Feel free to request access to the roster if prompted.

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Listening Library

Band members can download Boulder Concert Band recordings here from our 2024-2025 season:
October 26, 2024
December 7, 2024
February 22, 2025
April 19, 2025

Visit our YouTube channel for videos of previous concerts, including Katie Hughes’s brilliant performance of Rhapsody in Blue.

2025-2026 full concert recordings will be available soon!

If you have read this far, you deserve a treat. Here is the Godzilla Eats Las Vegas! presentation featured on the February 17, 2024 concert.

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ACB Journal

“The Journal of the Association of Concert Bands” is one of the benefits the Boulder Concert Band shares by being a member of the Association of Concert Bands. Sometimes the Journal might even feature someone you know, or a band organization that is familiar to you. The June, 2024 issue features an article about Col. Hal Gibson (U.S. Army, Ret.) of Melbourne, Florida, who recently conducted a concert celebrating his 100th birthday! This Journal of the Association of Concert Bands, Vol. 43 No. 2, used by permission, was originally published in June 2024. For more information about ACB, please see www.acbands.org

Current band members can join ACB for only $40 per year between July 1 and October 31, which is half price for the remainder of the year, and you can get your own hard copy of the “Journal”. Complete information and a membership application are on the last 2 pages of the “Journal”.

View Boulder Concert Band Constitution and By-Laws