HOULTON, Maine — The baton has been passed to a new director for McGill’s Community Band as the group returns Thursday, June 21.
Mike Hutchinson is taking over conductor duties from Kevin Mania, who led the band for four years. Mania will shift to an assistant director and manager of the band, while also lending his formidable drumming skills to the percussion section.
“I’m really needed in the percussion section this year, so we switched off,” Mania said. “It was hard to give up the director part, but it is for the best for the group in whole to give them added support.”
Hutchinson, Houlton’s Middle School band director, has been a member of the band for several years.
The band’s first concert of the season starts at 7 p.m. in Houlton’s Monument Park. Numbers for the band have dwindled in recent years from more than 100 instrumentalists to about 50 players.
“We have a few new songs for you this year including a great variation on the history of Taps, highlights from Fiddler on the Roof, and a Concerto for Band and Drum set, just to name off a few,” Mania said. “We will still have our band classics as well.”
McGill’s Community Band of Houlton was organized in 1985 as the fulfillment of David McGillicuddy’s dream. As instrumental director of SAD 29, McGillicuddy dreamed of forming a community band made up of local musicians that would perform in Monument Park on nice summer evenings as had been done in days past by the Houlton Town Band.
In 1985, approximately 55 area musicians came together to form McGill’s Community Band of Houlton. Today the band consists of musicians from Aroostook County and New Brunswick as well as out-of-state summer residents. Special guests who once played with the band also can be spotted throughout the summer.
Outdoor concerts are performed every Thursday evening at 7 p.m. (weather permitting) in Monument Park in the Houlton Amphitheater. The band also participates in Houlton’s Fourth of July parade and Midnight Madness celebration on Friday, June 29. The summer concert season ends Aug. 16.
