Author Archives: Dan Bergeson

Vaudeville 1919! at Vintage Band Festival

The North Star Cinema Orchestra will present Vaudeville, 1919 at the Kracum Concert Hall in the Weitz Center for Creativity on the Carleton College campus on Sunday, August 4 at 7:00 p.m. The presentation is a re-creation of a Vaudeville show featuring authentic songs, jokes, skits, and magic lantern slides from 100 years ago. The show will also feature the orchestra accompanying Back Stage, a 1919 film starring Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton.

Featured in the program are singers Victoria Vargas and Rick Penning. Also featured will be Chester, the Wonder Dog, who will perform in a dog act.

Other members of the orchestra are: Martha Jamsa, flute, Nina Olsen, clarinet,  Lynn Deichert, trumpet, Liz Ericksen, violin, Matt McCright, piano, Connie Martin, bass, and David Miller, percussion. Matthew Zimmerman is the projectionist. The ensemble is directed by Ron Rodman, Dye Family Professor of Music at Carleton College, and Director of the Carleton Symphony Band.

Admission to the concert is $10, but is free to youth under 18 and seniors over 65. Admission is also free for anyone with a VBF pin. Proceeds go to the Vintage Band Festival.

The concert is sponsored by the Carleton Dean of the College Office and the Carleton Music Department.

VBF 2019 Minnesota Bands: St. Cloud Municipal Band

The St. Cloud Municipal Band is believed to have started after the Civil War (1865), when union soldiers brought their instruments back home. At that time they were called the St Cloud Union Band, which later changed to the St. Cloud Municipal Band. We do not know for sure when the band came into existence, but in an obituary dated from 1875, it was stated that a member played with the band “for a number of years” by that time. The band was supported by community groups until the 1940s, when it became a program of the city of St. Cloud, Minnesota. However, by the early 2000s, the city no longer wanted the liability of the band anymore, so it asked the group to form its own nonprofit organization. This the first time that St. Cloud Municipal Band has appeared at Vintage Band Festival.

St. Cloud Municipal Band

VBF 2019: Music to Accompany Golf/Baseball

Vintage Base Ball

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Old Main Green, St. Olaf College

Game #1 10am–Northfield Silver Stars vs. Minneapolis Quicksteps

Game #2 11:30am–Minneapolis Quicksteps vs. Rochester Roosters

Game #3 1pm–Northfield Silver Stars vs. Rochester Roosters

Music soundtrack by New Prague Area Community Band, Rush Wagner conducting

 

 

John Falck Memorial Golf Tournament

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Northfield Golf Course

Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band 12:15pm

Alexander’s Ragtime Brass  5pm

The John Falck Memorial Golf Tournament is a private event sponsored by Three Links Care Center. For information on how to register for this event, please click here.

Three Links Care Center 120th Anniversary

 

Three Links Care Center in Northfield is celebrating its 120th anniversary in 2019. Vintage Band Festival is pleased to welcome Three Links as a Stage Sponsor of this year’s festival.

Three Links Care Center’s heritage began in 1899 as a home for orphans and elderly known as the Minnesota Odd Fellows Home. Throughout its 120-year history, Three Links has continually evolved to serve the changing health care needs of the Northfield, Minnesota area community. Today, the continuum of care and services is located on three campuses: the Three Links Campus  and Millstream Commons Assisted Living in Northfield and the Villages of Lonsdale in Lonsdale.

As a nonprofit, Three Link’s services and living options include adult day services, home care, independent senior living apartments, assisted living, transitional care, skilled nursing care center, memory care, end-of-life care suites and more. These services are framed around the mission of Three Links—to create peace of mind for those they serve. Three Link’s commitment to honoring individuals through their life journey is evident in their core values of community, accountability, respect and empathy.

 

 

Volunteer for Vintage Band Festival 2019

Do you like brass band music? Do you like people? Answer yes to those questions and you may wish to volunteer to help us with Vintage Band Festival 2019. We’ll be presenting music all over Northfield, Minnesota from Thursday, August 1 to Sunday, August 4 and we would love it if you would join us in this great adventure!

VBF 2014 Information Tent

We need stage hands, audience greeters, information tent staffers, equipment minders, shuttle drivers, band hosts, concert emcees, and more. Both of the outdoor stages need folks to open up the venues in the morning and close them down in the evening.

If this sounds like fun to you, click on this link to sign up now!

VBF 2019 International Bands: À Râse dè têre

It’s time to start highlighting the amazing roster of bands for 2019. We’ll begin with an international ensemble from Belgium: À Râse dè têre.

À Râse dè têre (literally meaning “at ground level” in Walloon language) was created in 2005. They play dance tunes called “arguèdènes” in the Walloon dialect spoken in southern Belgium. Traditionally, the melody line is orally transmitted and the accompaniment is improvised. A flugelhorn, cornet, euphonium, and helicon form a balanced ensemble that is well suited to this musical genre in vogue from the mid-19th century until the turn of the 20th century. The group is composed of four passionate amateur brass musicians: a museum curator, a psychologist, a postman and a police officer. They received their initial musical training in Belgian village bands before improving their skills in music academies or conservatories. They learned numerous “arguèdenes” on the job when they were young bandsmen, alongside older musicians. They want to perpetuate this rustic and old-fashioned music and thus prove that it can also be charming and full of subtleties. The band leader is Géry Dumoulin. This is the first time that À Râse dè têre has performed at Vintage Band Festival.

À Râse dè têre

Vintage Band Festival awarded $10,000 SEMAC grant

On May 21, 2019, the Board of Directors of the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) awarded 42 grants for a total of $269,205 in funding to applicants throughout southeastern Minnesota. This included 24 Arts & Cultural Heritage grants for $217,935, nine Presenter/Production Assistance grants for $25,520, and nine Small Towns/Rural Areas grants for $25,750.

In this grant cycle, Vintage Band Festival received a $10,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage grant for Vintage Band Festival 2019. We are thrilled to make this announcement and want to thank our grant writer, Board member Joy Riggs. This is not the first successful grant application that Joy has written for us and we are so grateful for her skill and dedication to this effort. Previous grants awarded to Vintage Band Festival 2019 were from the Wenger Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Vintage Band Festival 2019 will take place in Northfield, Minnesota and surrounding communities August 1-4, 2019. Follow this link to find the complete daily schedule at the two outdoor stages and a roster of the participating bands.

Vintage Band Festival Spring Fund Drive

It’s time for our annual spring fund drive here at Vintage Band Festival. The generous and loyal financial support from businesses, foundations and individuals like you continues to make it possible for us to present such amazing musicians and ensembles and not charge admission. We are fortunate to have the Wenger Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board as our principal funders, but their support accounts for just 40% of our $100,000 budget for 2019. The rest will need to come from other grants, and businesses and individuals such as you.

We are incredibly excited for Vintage Band Festival 2019. The roster we have assembled consists of three international groups, seven domestic ensembles from outside Minnesota and an amazing array of Minnesota bands from around the state. This year there will be 11 bands that have never performed at Vintage Band Festival before, two of which are from Europe.

Thursday evening, August 1, the headliners will be Mariachi Mi Tierra and McNasty Brass Band. Friday night we welcome back Copper Street Brass and then we’ll have a victory dance with Bend in the River Big Band. Saturday night will feature Southside Aces and Hornucopia: A Tribute to Horn Bands in the Rock Era.

There will be a number of living history bands with us this year, some that are familiar and several that are new. We will have the 1st Brigade Band from Watertown, Wisconsin, Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band, and the Independent Silver Band from Mount Vernon, Illinois. New to Vintage Band Festival in 2019 will be the 1st Nebraska Volunteers Brass Band, Arizona’s Territorial Brass and the Imperial Cornet Band from Baltimore, Maryland.

Check the VBF website often for the complete schedule and breaking news.

The goal for our 2019 spring fund drive is $20,000. Currently, we have raised $9,650. If you have recently made a gift to Vintage Band Festival, our sincere thanks! If it’s been awhile, won’t you please consider a gift at this time? A successful spring fund drive outcome is essential to the success of our summer festival. A gift in any amount is always welcome, but gifts of $100 or more are critically important right now. Donors are featured prominently in the festival program and onsite at the Bridge Square Main Stage. In addition, we will be hosting an exclusive donor reception in July, just before the festival begins.

If you are donating by check, send your gift to:
Vintage Band Festival
204 7th St W #130
Northfield, MN 55057

If you want to make your gift with a credit card, go to www.vintagebandfestival.org and click on the big green “Donate” button.

Spaghetti Dinner to benefit Vintage Band Festival

 

 

The 4th Annual Vintage Band Festival Spaghetti Dinner Benefit will be held Saturday, April 27, 2019 at the Northfield Eagles Club, 304 Water St South, from 5-7pm. Dinner includes spaghetti marinara with parmesan cheese, green salad with multiple dressing choices, French bread and butter. Cash bar available.

Live music will be played throughout the evening. Music provided by Bridge Square Band and ensembles from St Olaf College and Northfield High School.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children and will be available at the door.

 

 

 

 

Historic Brass Society Early Brass Festival August 2-4, 2019 in Northfield

 

The 2019 Early Brass Festival of the Historic Brass Society (HBS) will be held in conjunction with Vintage Band Festival in Northfield, Minnesota. The Early Brass Festival will take place August 2-4, 2019, primarily at the Weitz Center for Creativity on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield.

Founded in 1988, the HBS is an international music organization concerned with the entire range of early brass music, from Ancient Antiquity and the Biblical period through the present including the development of jazz and its influence on brass instruments, literature and playing techniques. The history, music, literature and performance practice of early brass instruments such as natural trumpet, natural horn, early trombone, cornetto, serpent, keyed bugle, keyed trumpet, early valve horn, 19th century brass instruments are some of the main issues of concern to the HBS.

In addition to a membership meeting and musical performances by attendees, the HBS gathering will feature more than a dozen scholarly presentations on variety of topics. The complete schedule for the three-day event follows. To register, download the Early Brass Festival registration form.

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Friday, August 2, 2019

8:30-9:00- Meet and Greet; registration

9:00-9:30 – Glen Newton  –The Mississippi River Brass Band

9:30-10:00 – Petter Carlson, Stockholm – Band Music of the Stockholm Summer Spas (ensemble)

10:00-10:30 – Jari Villanueva, Baltimore- Band Music of World War I  

10:30-10:45 – Break

10:45-11:15 – Robert Apple, Memphis-The Keyed Trumpet’s use in Early 19th Century Brass and Wind Band Music

11:15-11:45 – Michael O’Connor, Florida- Thomas Coates brass band composer and leader (ensemble)

11:45-12:15 –  Don Johnson Jr – Chamber Works and Pedagogy for Keyed Trumpet in the Early Classical Period (ensemble)

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Saturday, August 3, 2019

8:00-8:30 – Meet and Greet (coffee)

8:30-9:00 – HBS meeting

9:00-9:30 – William Hall- The 1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry Regiment Band, 1861-1862 (ensemble)

9:30-10:00 – Don Larry – Arizona Territorial Brass Band History

10:00-10:15 break

10:15- 10:45 –  Géry Dumoulin, Brussels  – The arguèdène tradition in Wallonia (Belgium): an entertainment practice at the crossroads of brass band, dance, and folk music traditions (ensemble)

10:45-11:15 –  William Reynolds, Illinois-Circus Band Memories

11:15-11:45 – Friedmann Immer, Germany- New Thoughts on the Keyed Trumpet

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Sunday, August 4, 2019

8:30-9:00 – Meet and Greet (coffee)

9:00- 9:30 – Joy Riggs, Northfield- An Iowa Regimental Band’s 1906 Tour of the South

9:30 -10:00 – Bruce Gleason – European Battlefield Trumpets, 16th-19th Centuries

10:00-10:15 break

10:15-10:45 – Scott Muntefering – Women’s Bands in Iowa: the Keota Ladies’ Band (1908-1918) and the Knoxville Girls’ Band (1915-1919)

10:45-11:15 – Nolan Hauta , Iowa – New Horizon Bands 

11:15               Closing