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The Ann Arbor Concert Band was established in 1978 with a four-fold purpose:
· Provide public concerts with broad audience appeal
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.: the band :. | .: director :. | .: aacb board :. | .: contact :. |
The Ann Arbor Concert Band – founded in 1978 as the Ann Arbor Symphony Band
by Victor Bordo and David Juillet – has served as an ensemble for amateur
musicians desiring to perform wind band literature. The band has its roots
in the Ann Arbor School System's music program and continues a close
relationship with it today.
The band is a non-profit ensemble of musicians from the community. While it
maintains an amateur status, the standards of performance and organization
are strictly professional.
Concerts are usually presented four times during the concert season between
September and May, typically at the Michigan Theater and Hill Auditorium.
The ensemble has premiered several new works for concert band, including the
award-winning composition "Heroes Lost and Fallen" by Dr. David
Gillingham, Professor of Composition at Central Michigan University.
The Ann Arbor Concert Band fosters young wind and percussion musicians
through the Andrew J. Lum Young Artist Scholarship Competition.
Previous conductors of the Ann Arbor Concert Band have included James
Nissen, Lloyd Whitehead, David Woike, Donald Schleicher, Jeffrey Campbell,
Max Plank, H. Robert Reynolds, William D. Revelli and Victor Bordo.
David A. Leach has been Director of Bands at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School
since 2002. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music
Education at Eastern Michigan University. He began his teaching career at
Ypsilanti High School in 1988 and spent fourteen years there before coming
to Ann Arbor. He was appointed Chair of the Pioneer High School Performing
Arts Department in 2006, and Fine Arts Department Chair in 2013.
David sustains the long tradition of quality performance and repertoire in
the Pioneer Bands. During his 17 years at Pioneer, his Concert and Jazz
Bands have received consistent top ratings at district, state, and national
festivals. His Symphony, Concert, and Jazz Bands have won overall festival
championships at every national event entered. Under his baton, the Pioneer
Symphony Band has performed three times at Carnegie Hall, twice at the
Mid-Europe Music Conference in Schladming, Austria and performed on tour in
China. In 2014 and 2016 the Pioneer Symphony was selected a New Music
National Winner in the Mark of Excellence National Wind Band Honors project.
David is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the
National Band Association, and The American School Band Director’s
Association. He has been included five times in Who’s Who Among America’s
Teachers. The University of Michigan chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
honored David in 2000 with the Pendleton Memorial Award for outstanding
achievement in music education. He has been nominated four times for
Disney’s American Teacher Award, and has received honors from the United
States Marine Corps for sending his students to the Marine bands, including
two to the Commandant’s Own Marine Band in Washington, D.C. He was the 2006,
2010 and 2022 MSBOA District XII Band Teacher of the Year, and in 2014 and
2017 was a GRAMMY Foundation Music Educator of the Year quarter-finalists.
In 2016 the Michigan Chapter of the ASBDA presented Pioneer High School
Bands the Award of Excellence award for its continued commitment to
excellence.
David has won the praise of international composers such as Michael
Daugherty, John Mackey, Thomas Duffy, Alfred Reed, Jan Van der Roost and
others for his insightful conducting of their compositions. Mr. Leach has
attended the Wind Conducting Symposium with John L. Whitwell and studied
conducting with the University of Michigan Director of Bands Michael
Haithcock and Maestro Michael Adleson; former conductor with the New York
Philharmonic. In 2019 Mr. Leach was named Fellow for the H. Robert Reynolds
Conducting Institute at the Midwest Clinic.
David is a proud member of the Pioneer High School Music Department, which
has earned GRAMMY Signature School honors during his tenure there. In 2004,
2005, 2010, and 2015 the department achieved GRAMMY Signature School Gold
status as one of the top two public high school music programs in the
nation. In 2006 and 2011 the Pioneer Music Department was named the National
GRAMMY Signature School as the top public high school music program in the
nation, making it the first program ever honored twice by the GRAMMY
Foundation. Currently, David is a member of the GRAMMY Museum Music Educator
Award screening panel tasked with selecting candidates for the GRAMMY
Teacher of the Year finalists.
The Ann Arbor Concert Band is governed by a Board of Directors, made up of
nine performing members of the Band. Board members are elected by the Band.
Board responsibilities are divided into seven committees, each
headed by one of a Board member. The committees and a brief summary of their
duties are:
The Board meets regularly throughout the year to assure smooth operation of
the Band.
contactus@aaband.org
Ann Arbor Concert Band
P.O. Box 1843
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
(P) 734.478.7515