Burlington Iowa Municipal Band

The Burlington Municipal Band plays a one hour concert each week during the summer. Most of our concerts take place at the band shell in beautiful Crapo Park, overlooking the Mississippi River. While the band concerts begin at 7:30 PM, there is occasionally other entertainment preceding the concert, and families are encouraged to come early to enjoy the fine summer evening in the park.

Occasionally inclement weather forces the cancellation of our concerts. News of concert cancellations is broadcast on a number of local radio stations. Concert cancellations will also be posted here on this web site. Is the concert likely to be rained out? Check weather radar here.

Each year, the band has openings for a few musicians. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Burlington Municipal Band, contact Mark Eveleth by telephone at (319) 753-6900 or by e-mail at evelethm@mchsi.com.

The Burlington (Iowa) Municipal Band is a community concert band which has served and enriched the life of this city for seventy-five years. The band's first concert was presented in Crapo Park in May of 1927 after the citizens of Burlington had expressed the desire that such a band be formed. The band's roots extend back to the nineteenth century since it was formed through the combining of the existing Orchard City Band and the privately operated Fischer's Band under the leadership of J. Henri Fischer, a prominent musician of the era.

The band today enjoys a membership from a wide variety of backgrounds. The band contains homemakers, physicians, music teachers, business men and women, ministers, retired people, college students, and a few outstanding high school musicians. All share the common enjoyment of playing their instruments and providing the community with a wholesome family activity.

With continued support from the City of Burlington, the Municipal Band continues to perform free Sunday evening concerts in Crapo Park during the summer months. These concerts are presented from 7:30 until 8:30 P.M. at the Crapo Park Bandshell, located on Grandview Drive within the park. This site provides concert goers a magnificent view of the Mississippi River and the Illinois farmlands spread below, and a wide lawn where listeners can choose to sit on park benches provided near the bandshell, or bring their own lawn chairs or blankets, perhaps to sit near the illuminated Foehlinger Fountain. The concerts are well attended by people of all ages, and many visitors to Burlington make it a point to return each summer to hear at least one concert.

This website is now maintained by members of the Burlington Municipal Band.

We thank the staff at the Burlington Public Library for the original site design.

Questions and/or comments can be directed to -- webmaster@muniband.org

The summer 2002 season is well under way. During the season this site will, as usual, list upcoming concert programs and special events. We plan to make significant improvements to the site this season so we hope that you will access this page often as changes are made.

Prior to the regular band concert the Southeast Iowa Brass Quintet will perform. They will play from 6:45 until 7:15 and have chosen a varied program which we are sure you'll enjoy. Members of the quintet include band members Derrick Murphy, trumpet; Jim Priebe, trombone; and Arnie Rabe, tuba. The other quintet members are Steve Rod, French horn, of Mt. Pleasant, and Susan Hucke, trumpet, of Fairfield.

In addition, the band will play "National Emblem March" by E.E. Bagley; Selections from Richard Rodgers' "Carousel" (on the day after Rodgers' 100th birthday); "A Tribute to Glenn Miller," a medley of great swing tunes from the 1940's arranged by Henry Gass; "America Exultant," a traditional "trumpeting march" by Al Hayes (another pseudonym for Henry Fillmore the great march composer) which features our trumpets and drums; "Guadalcanal March," another Richard Rodgers piece arranged by Erik Leidzen; Carmen Dragon's moving arrangement of "America the Beautiful;" and, of course, "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by Sousa.

We hope that you will take the opportunity to support live music provided by many musical organizations in the Burlington Area during the fall, winter and spring months. Members of the Municipal Band participate in or direct many of these groups, and we would love to see you. These groups include the school bands, orchestras and choirs in Burlington and surrounding communities as well as the Southeast Iowa Symphony, Southeast Iowa Band, Bel Canto Chorale, South Hill Brass, Southeast Iowa Brass Quintet, and the Southeast Iowa Woodwind Quintet. You may often find band members directing or participating in the pit bands of the Players Workshop and/or area school musical productions as well.

We wish to thank the Burlington Fine Arts League. Their generous support has allowed us to purchase a new microphone and stand, enhancing the sound quality for our audience. We also wish to thank Jean Burgus for her generous contribution to the band, made in memory of Harold Burgus. Her gift will be used to purchase music for the band.

Note from the webmaster: We update this web site at least once a week during our summer concert season. Since the program for each Sunday concert is finalized at our rehearsal on Monday evening, we generally post the week's update sometime on Tuesday. Unfortunately, if you are viewing this page on a Monday, what follows will undoubtedly be the information for YESTERDAY'S concert.

Firefighters and a fire truck from the Burlington Fire Department will join us for a special performance of "The Hampden Firemen," - a march by G. R. Rehrer. The march will feature a special "musical presentation" by the Fire Department, which you will not want to miss. In addition, the fire truck will be available for kids (and interested adults as well) to "check out."

Jim Priebe will be the director on Sunday June 30. The band traditionally gives the concert prior to the 4th of July holiday a patriotic focus, and this year will be no exception. We are especially pleased that we're going to have some special guests to help us celebrate.

To begin the band concert, The Burlington Police Department Honor Guard will once again be on hand to present the colors for our National Anthem, and band member Sharon Gygi will be the vocal soloist.

Again this year we are going to have a flag parade. We are asking members of the audience young and old to bring an American flag to the concert and to join in marching around the grounds in front of the band shell as the band plays Irving Berlin's "You're a Grand Old Flag." Some pictures of last year's flag parade can be seen here on this web page.

We will be honoring our veterans by playing "Armed Forces Salute," a medley of service songs arranged by Bob Lowden. We'll ask veterans to stand to be recognized as the theme for their branch of the military is played.

Sharon Gygi will return later in the concert to sing another famous Irving Berlin song, "God Bless America." We hope that our audience members will join her in singing.