Join us for the annual jazz concert in Pulaski Park

 

 

The Denver Municipal band is the oldest continuous-playing professional concert band in the U.S.  The band has been around since before Colorado was a state.  The Denver Municipal Band has been performing for the Denver area for more than a century.

 

The band was founded in the late 1860s by Alex Sutherland, bugler at the "Charge of The Light Brigade." Surviving the ordeal, Sutherland settled in Denver where he was active in many of the city's early musical activities. Originally constituted as the GAR Post Band, it performed early municipally funded concerts throughout the 1870s and 80s, changing its name to the Denver Municipal Band in 1891 when it began its continuous history of Denver Municipal Funding.

 

The band has always been fully professional, hiring and playing with some of the best musicians of the time period, including Dave Brubeck. During the early years of the 20th century, the band toured the St. Louis and San Francisco expositions and was conducted by major bandsmen including Frederick Innes, trombone soloist for Sousa, and the renowned solo cornetist, Hermann Bellstedt, Jr. 1858-1926).

 

In addition to the year-round Denver series, the band broadcast nationally via KOA and the Armed Services Network. The Band was conducted for over forty years by Henry Sachs who also composed prolifically for the ensemble. Since then, we've been broadcast by the Taste of Ethiopia to thousands of people. We join classrooms to help students play instruments. And in 2019, we're playing at the Westminster Latino Festival! 

Over the years, the band has played for a number of dignitaries, including former President Teddy Roosevelt, various Denver mayors, and Margaret Brown.

 

 

Dr. Martin's professional brass playing includes principal trombone/euphonium with the Denver Brass, trombonist with the Aries Brass Quintet and principal trombonist with the High-Altitude trombone quartet. He appears on numerous recordings with these three groups including CDs on the Delos and Klavier labels. Dr. Martin performs and provides clinics with the Summit Brass as part of the annual Rafael Mendez Brass Institute hosted by the University of Denver. He has also performed with the Colorado Symphony, the Boulder Philharmonic, Greeley Philharmonic, Cheyenne Symphony, Colorado Ballet Orchestra and numerous Broadway show productions at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.