The Flint Concert Band is the oldest community band in Flint, Michigan, and was founded in 1948 by Gerret Ebmeyer and several other local musicians. Mr. Ebmeyer was more than the Founder and first Conductor; he also excelled as a trumpet player, music teacher, public school Band Director, and administrator.
After the first concert in 1949 the band played regularly at Flint Central High School auditorium for 20 years. Mr. Ebmeyer conducted through 1974. Other conductors have been Frank Tamburrino, Barry Wentz, Ken Duquaine, Mel Keranen, Mike Wolfe and currently Bruce Nieuwenhuis.
The Flint Concert Band is a community band open to all musicians. They play music from a variety of genres, including marches, jazz and show tunes, along with traditional concert band pieces. Members come from all walks of life, but are brought together through their shared love of musical performance.
One of the original members of the band, Norbert Burwell, continues to play with the band to this day.
Famous quotes containing the words flint, concert and/or band:
“I see you boys of summer in your ruin.
Man in his maggot’s barren.
And boys are full and foreign in the pouch.
I am the man your father was.
We are the sons of flint and pitch.
O see the poles are kissing as they cross.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“... in the cities there are thousands of rolling stones like me. We are all alike; we have no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing. When one of us dies, they scarcely know where to bury him.... We have no house, no place, no people of our own. We live in the streets, in the parks, in the theatres. We sit in restaurants and concert halls and look about at the hundreds of our own kind and shudder.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)