Ann Arbor Concert Band

The Ann Arbor Concert Band was established in 1978 with a four-fold purpose:

  · Provide public concerts with broad audience appeal
  · Foster interest in amateur music performance
  · Provide a place for member musicians to perform music for their own satisfaction
  · Provide continuing education to the member musicians and to the public
.: the band :. .: director :. .: aacb board :. .: contact :.

 

 the band

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.

 director

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.

 aacb board


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.

 contact

Interested in joining the Ann Arbor Concert Band? Send us an email!

contactus@aaband.org

Ann Arbor Concert Band
P.O. Box 1843
Ann Arbor, MI 48106

(P) 734.478.7515

 
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