Minnesota State Band

Description

The Minnesota State Band was organized in 1898, when State Bands existed in the States of Conn., Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mass., Montana, New York, and Ohio. Presently, the Minnesot State Band is the only remaining State Band in the nation. It follows the Sousa tradition in programming both current popular and symphonic music, along with a wide variety of musical selections for its audiences each year. It has performed for numerous State functions during the past 105-plus years, at the State Capitol in Saint Paul. Since 1986, the Minnesota State Band has represented both Minnesota and the USA in six concert tours of Europe visiting Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdon. While the band is always being actively sought after for international music festivals around the world, its priority is to maintain the Minnesota State Band tradition in American music through its many concert performances each year throughout the State of Minnesota. It is a concert band or concert wind ensemble with an instrumentation of 70 maximum positions.