Category Archives: VBF Board of Directors

Merry Christmas from Vintage Band Festival!

On December 7 we kicked off the holiday season with Tuba Christmas in Northfield, the 5^th year that Vintage Band Festival has presented Tuba Christmas on the campus of Carleton College. The event exceeded our expectations. We welcomed over 600 people in the audience and more than 60 tubists and euphonium musicians to the stage at Skinner Memorial Chapel.

Thanks to Carleton College for sponsoring our event. Thanks to Dr. Paul Niemisto for his conducting and his musical history lessons. And thanks to all those who donated and to our faithful volunteers. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Meet Paul Niemisto, conductor of Tuba Christmas in Northfield

The conductor of Tuba Christmas in Northfield is Dr. Paul Niemisto. Paul is the founder and artistic director of Vintage Band Festival. He recently retired from the Music Department at St. Olaf College, where he taught and conducted for 38 years. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and has a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.

Niemisto is also the founder of the Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America), a Finnish American brass ensemble. In addition, he is the founder and conductor of the Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra, a community symphony orchestra based in Northfield, Minnesota that has been delighting regional audiences for over 40 years.

Since 1980, Mr. Niemisto has been traveling regularly to Finland, where he has taught at the Lieksa International Brass week; Klemetti Institute Summer Youth Orchestra Course in Orivesi, Chief Conductor and Conducting Instructor at STM Summer Wind Orchestra Institute at Murikka opisto, and has given courses at many Finnish conservatories, including Kuopio, Tampere, Jyväskylä, and Joensuu. He was a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow in Finland in 1999 and 2017. In February 2000, he was awarded the Finnish Military Music Cross (soltlasmusiikkiristi) for his years of work and research in Finnish bands.

Tuba Christmas in Northfield 2025 will be presented by Vintage Band Festival at 3:00 pm on Saturday, December 7, in Skinner Chapel on the campus of Carleton College.

Jan Stevens and Lois Stratmoen, VBF volunteers extraordinaire

The next two profiles showcase two of the longest-serving Vintage Band Festival board members, Jan Stevens, our Fundraising Committee chair and Lois Stratmoen, our donor Correspondent.

Jan Stevens

VBF board member and chief fundraiser, Jan Stevens, is a person of action who leads by example. Since 1994 Jan has been involved with the Northfield Rotary Club, and specifically with the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. Jan has been a champion advocate for Northfield and after retiring from the real estate world this is what she had to say about living here:

“Northfield has everything, 45 minutes to an international airport, 5 times a day bus

service to the metro area, one hour to the Mayo Clinic Hospitals, two outstanding

colleges that bookend the north side of Northfield, culture diverse activities that rival

anywhere, recreational activities for all ages, and church and bar music that rivals much

larger communities.”

That civic pride and keen sense of the arts brings us to her involvement with VBF. It was Jan’s generous gift that enabled the Vintage Band Festival Fund to be created in 2023. The fund is part of Northfield Shares and was established to allow the Vintage Band Festival to develop a more sustainable financial strategy. Jan’s passion for our community is contagious!

Lois Stratmoen

When was the last time you received a hand-written note in the mail? VBF board member and Donor Correspondent, Lois Stratmoen, is known for handwriting notes, not only to patrons of the Vintage Band Festival, but also to Northfield area youth who are featured in the Northfield News.

Lois and her husband Noel have been citizens of Northfield for more than 50 years. Her list of civic leadership roles is impressive to say the least. Here are a few: former chair of the Northfield Hospital Board, former church council president of Bethel Lutheran Church, Board of Directors/Northfield United Way, Northfield Arts Guild member and cast member in many Guild musical productions, and co-recipient of the 2003 Northfield Sertoma Service to Mankind Award. We are honored to have the wisdom and personal touch of Lois Stratmoen serving VBF!

Meet VBF members Joy Riggs and Dan Bergeson

Joy Riggs

The Vintage Band Festival Board is fortunate to have Northfield journalist and author, Joy Riggs, as our secretary and Grants Coordinator. Joy has been integral in securing many rounds of grant funding over the years and that has been a major reason for the longevity of the organization.

Joy is the author of “Crackerjack Bands and Hometown Boosters” (the story of a Minnesota Music Man). The non-fiction book is the story of Joy’s great-grandfather and his life passion of developing community bands in several Minnesota towns. His commitment to civic pride, community participation and belief in the power of music to transform lives, continues through Joy’s volunteerism and the mission of the Vintage Band Festival. Great-Grandpa would be proud. Thank-you Joy!

Dan Bergeson

Mr. Bergeson is a doer. The Vintage Band Festival and Board members are indebted to Dan for his stellar leadership as President of the Festival since 2017, but his connection to the organization goes back to the beginning of the festival in 2006. He retired in 2018 from a 30-year career at Carleton College as Director of Auxiliary Services. You can hear Dan play his trumpet in several local brass ensembles and he recently took up the violin and the accordion. If there was a local percussion ensemble, I believe Dan would be the first gung-ho new percussionist!

Meet the new VBF Board members

At its February 2024 Board of Directors meeting, the Vintage Band Festival board elected three new members to the group, bringing the total number of directors to fifteen. We’re pleased to introduce Lee Enquist, Vicki Scott and Bonnie Jean Flom.

Lee Engquist

Lee is a recently retired Corporate Tax Director at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota where he worked for more than 20 years. He is a graduate of St. Olaf College from Fairmont, Minnesota and sings in the I Cantanti choral ensemble in Northfield. He is a dedicated donor and volunteer for Vintage Band Festival.

Vicki Scott

This winter Vicki opened a new record store in downtown Northfield called Verbena Vinyl. Previously, she was the social media coordinator at Just Food Coop in Northfield from 2016 to 2020. She has also been the marketing manager at the coop in Hastings, Minnesota. She’s written grants for her personal art projects. During the pandemic she worked as a training manager with a health care company. Vicki has an MFA in creative writing and an MA in secondary ed/teaching.

Bonnie Jean Flom

Bonnie is life-long education professional beginning with a teaching position at Longfellow Elementary School in Northfield. She later became the principal for several years at Greenvale Elementary School. After that she held positions in public schools in the Twin Cities. For many years, Bonnie was the lead singer in a popular local ensemble called Bonnie and the Clydes.

Notice of VBF Annual Meeting February 12

In accordance with the Vintage Band Festival bylaws, the 2024 Annual Meeting of Vintage Band Festival will be held on Monday, February 12, 2024 at noon at the conference room of the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce, 19 Bridge Square, Northfield, Minnesota. A brief recap of 2023 activities will be presented and the 2024 VBF officers will be elected. The meeting is free and open to the public.

The February monthly meeting of the Vintage Band Festival board will take place immediately following the 2024 VBF Annual Meeting.

VBF 2024 will be 2 days!

Historically, Vintage Band Festival has had alternating 1-day and 4-day schedules. In 2024 we’re going to experiment with a 2-night, 1-day schedule. Our plan is to present three ensembles on Friday night, July 26, beginning at 5:00 pm and ending at 10:00 pm. On Saturday, July 27, we’ll program our customary twelve hours of music beginning at 9:00 am.

The VBF board has occasionally discussed this scenario over the years and this year decided to make it happen. Part of the reason for this change is the upcoming 20^th anniversary year of VBF in 2026. Traditionally, 2025 would be a year with a multi-day event. However, since 2026 will be our 20^th anniversary celebration, we decided to move the next 4-day event to 2026 instead. Hence the experiment with a 1+ day event in 2024.

Stay tuned for more information soon on the bands that will be performing in 2024 and the complete schedule of events!

The Vintage Band Festival Fund

As a result of two recent extraordinary donations, the Vintage Band Festival board of directors has launched The Vintage Band Festival Fund. This fund will part of the Northfield Area Fund, a community fund that is under the auspices of a local non-profit organization called Northfield Shares.

Our intent is for the Vintage Band Festival Fund ( VBF Fund) to be a place where donors may wish to give a legacy gift to help insure that Vintage Band Festival will be able to present live brass and wind band music many years into the future. Our organization will continue to fundraise annually to support the next scheduled festival, but we also need to fundraise with a longer timeline in mind.

Legacy gifts can be made using retirement plan assets. They can also be part of a trust or a named beneficiary when planning for one’s estate. They can simply be one-time gifts to honor someone’s memory.

We are humbled and extremely grateful to board member Jan Stevens for her generous gift that has ennabled the VBF Fund to be created. We also wish to acknowledge the Wenger Foundation for their timely gift that has effectively doubled the size of the VBF Fund at its launch.

Donations to the Vintage Band Festival Fund can be made online by clicking on this link:

Our Community Funds

VBF on the radio: Tuba Christmas & the VBF Fund

As a result of two recent extraordinary donations, the Vintage Band Festival board of directors has launched the Vintage Band Festival Fund. This fund will part of the Northfield Area Fund, a community fund that is under the auspices of a local non-profit organization called Northfield Shares.

We are humbled and extremely grateful to board member Jan Stevens for her generous gift of $25,000 that has enabled the VBF Fund to be created. We also wish to acknowledge the Wenger Foundation for their timely gift of $20,000 that will nearly double the size of the VBF Fund. Anyone wishing to donate to the VBF Fund can send a check payable to Northfield Shares (with “Vintage Band Festival Fund” on the memo line) and send it to Northfield Shares, 205 Water Street South, Northfield, MN 55057. There will be an online option soon for anyone wishing to use a credit card.

Jan and two other VBF board members were recently featured on the Art Zany: Radio for the Imagination show on the local station 95.1 The One KYMN Radio talking about the VBF Fund and the upcoming 2023 edition of Tuba Christmas in Northfield on Saturday, December 2. The VBF segment starts at about 35:30:00 in the recording.

ArtZany! Fine Arts Boosters Fundraiser and Vintage Band Festival, 11-17-23

VBF is gearing up for 2022!

The sounds of Vintage Band Festival 2021 still reverberate in our ears four months later. What a glorious day it was! If you’re wanting to hear the music again, we encourage you to visit Northfield Public Broadcasting for the complete performances of Jack Brass Band and Brio Brass. Thanks to Sam Temple and his colleagues at NPB for providing us with these recordings.

Our plans for Vintage Band Festival 2022 are in motion. The event will be held in Northfield, Minnesota July 28-31, 2022. The budget for a 4-day festival is approximately $100,000, 50% of which will need to come from individuals like you and businesses in the area. Gifts made to Vintage Band Festival in 2021 will be used to support the 2022 festival, which will feature more than 30 brass and wind bands playing nearly 100 concerts over the 4-day period.

Many of you received a letter recently outlining the financial needs for presenting the next Vintage Band Festival. If you’ve already responded to this letter, thank you! If you haven’t or you’d like to assist in leveraging your gift in other ways, there’s another opportunity during the month of November.

The 2021 edition of Minnesota’s 24-hour giving celebration, Give to the Max Day, will take place on Thursday, November 18, and Vintage Band Festival is joining the fun. We have participated every year since the first GTMD in 2009. Remember that each donation to Vintage Band Festival in any amount is entered into the pool for Golden Tickets to be drawn every 15 minutes and also once each hour. The lucky winners get to grant an additional gift or to the organization of their choice. The 15-minute Golden Tickets are worth $500 and the hourly Golden Ticket is worth $1,000.

There is also an Early Giving period from November 1-17. Any gift to Vintage Band Festival during Early Giving is eligible for a daily drawing of $500 and then put into the pool for all of the drawings on November 18. Give to the Max Day and Early Giving donations for Vintage Band Festival can be made at https://www.givemn.org/organization/Vintage-Band-Music-Festival .

Please consider a gift today and stay current with our 2022 plans by regularly visiting VintageBandFestival.org and the Vintage Band Festival Facebook page.