About the Concord Band
The Concord Band was founded in 1959 as a marching unit for Concord's Patriots’ Day parade, and has been, since 1970, exclusively a concert organization. The sixty-five-member Band performs more than fourteen concerts each year at 51 Walden and at its summer home at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts. The Band also plays at Concord's "Picnic in the Park" on Independence Day and has played summer concerts in the towns of Belmont and Hudson, Mass., and, for the first time in 2002, in Nashua, New Hampshire. The Concord Band also participates regularly in the annual Boston Festival of Bands held in Faneuil Hall each June and has played at an annual meeting of the Eastern Division of the Music Educators National Conference.
Members of the band represent more than forty area communities and a wide variety of professions. Band members have played in the organization for an average of nearly 15 years; twenty have been members for 25 years or more. Many are alumni of prestigious college, military, or professional bands.
In addition to its two CDs, A Winter Festival and The Best of 1992-1994, the Band has also recorded four vinyl LP albums of band music, now collectors' items.
51 Walden Performing Arts Center
Dedicated on Patriots’ Day, 1975, 51 Walden is a center for encouraging and displaying the creative talents of arts-minded townspeople and area residents, and provides permanent quarters for The Performing Arts Center charter cultural organizations: The Concord Band, The Concord Orchestra, The Concord Players, and Opera 51. 51 Walden is a non-profit organization charged with the responsibility for maintaining and improving the building and premises. 51 Walden is managed by people who plan and implement renovation programs, capital fund raising projects, and who provide liaison with the various user groups.
The Concord Band is available for sponsored concerts, for both fund-raising and entertainment purposes. Annual sponsors of such concerts include the Emerson Hospital Auxiliary and the Concord Rotary Club.