Category Archives: VBF News

Leap Year Swing Dance February 29

Put on your dancing shoes for Leap Year Swing Dance, February 29, 2020. The event will be held at the Northfield Ballroom (1055 HWY 3 North) and will run from 7:30-10:00 pm. Music will be provided by Bend in the River Big Band with vocalist Linnea Nelson Marrin. Victor Albrecht, a local dance instructor, will provide free swing dance lessons beginning at 6:45. There will be a cash bar. General admission tickets are $15. Student admission is $10.

Invite your friends and neighbors. All are welcome!

This event is a benefit for Vintage Band Festival.

Don’t forget: Tuba Christmas 2019 is December 7!

Tuba Christmas 2019 in Northfield, MN.

Skinner Chapel, Carleton College, 405 1st St E.

Registration opens at 12 pm.

$10 registration fee for musicians. Music for Tuba Christmas is the book “Carols for a Merry Tuba Christmas”, which will be available for purchase at the event if you don’t have one already. Books are $20. Tuba Christmas scarves, hats and headbands will also be available for purchase. Please bring a music stand is you have one and don’t forget to decorate your instrument!

Rehearsal is at 1 pm.

Concert is at 3 pm.

Concert is free and open to the public.

Tuba Christmas in Northfield December 7, 2019

Vintage Band Festival, in Northfield, Minnesota, is presenting Tuba Christmas on Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 3 pm. The event is co-sponsored by Carleton College and will take place in Skinner Memorial Chapel on the Carleton campus in Northfield. Registration opens at noon, rehearsal will take place at 1pm and the concert will be at 3pm. The Conductor of Tuba Christmas in Northfield will be Dr. Paul Niemisto, retired music faculty at St. Olaf College.

Tuba Christmas is a national activity that takes place in more than 300 locations across the United States. In each location (churches, hotel and mall atria, outdoor settings, colleges and universities, music halls) tuba and euphonium players get together under the leadership of a local musician or music educator to play Christmas carols. The sound that results is extremely rich and moving. The participants have a fabulous experience and return to play again year after year. Participant ages range from 11-80+.

If you play tuba, sousaphone, euphonium or baritone, please join us! If you’re a teacher of students who play those instruments, please bring your whole section! Also, please bring a music stand if you have one.

Participation fee for musicians is $10. Admission for the audience is free. This is a family-friendly event!

Thanks to everyone who made VBF 2019 possible!

Several weeks have passed since the last notes of Vintage Band Festival 2019 have faded to silence, but it’s still timely to once again thank all the folks who contributed in any way towards the success of the weekend. Click on the images below to read the names of the individuals in the many categories of our organization and its operation.

Most especially, thanks to those who contributed financially to the festival. Without adequate funding, it would not be possible to stage Vintage Band Festival. Our donors rock!

       

VBF 2019 Minnesota Bands: Mariachi Mi Tierra

Mariachi Mi Tierra is the oldest Mariachi ensemble in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area. Rosalio Castro (trumpet), who formed the group in 2003, has played various Mexican styles of music since he was in his teens. Eduardo Castro (also trumpet) is the group’s director. Together, the Castros have brought together a group that produces the full sound of authentic mariachi in Minnesota. The group’s repertoire includes a number of regional and current favorites. In addition to events in the local Mexican community, Mariachi Mi Tierra plays at schools, colleges, businesses, casinos, and festivals. Mariachi Mi Tierra performed previously at the Vintage Band Festival in 2014, 2015 and 2018. Catch them Thursday, August 1 at 7 pm on the Bridge Square Main Stage, immediately following Jack Brass Band. You won’t be disappointed!

Mariachi Mi Tierra

VBF 2019 USA Bands: Territorial Brass: Arizona’s Official Historical Brass Band

Territorial Brass was formed in February 1987 and was quickly recognized by museums across Arizona as an entertaining living history resource. Dressed in turn-of-the-century costumes, Territorial Brass captures the golden age of the American town band. This twelve-member ensemble specializes in 19th century American brass band music, playing authentic arrangements from 1835, through the Civil War, to Arizona’s year of statehood. It is the goal of Territorial Brass to replicate the brass bands that were active in Arizona and New Mexico during the territorial period. This is the first time that Territorial Brass has performed at Vintage Band Festival.

Territorial Brass

VBF 2019 Minnesota Bands: Jack Brass Band

The Jack Brass Band formed in 1999 in the Twin Cities metro. Based on the traditions of New Orleans brass bands, they are ambassadors of the Crescent City’s rich musical history. The 8-piece band plays “Feel-Good Music” for audiences of any age, for any occasion. JBB has the ability and repertoire to play everything from old New Orleans jazz from Louis Armstrong’s era, to the modern street Mardi-Gras anthems with the instrumentation, feel, and energy they have mastered through countless gigs, parades, festival appearances, and trips to New Orleans to listen, learn, and play alongside the masters. The band is led by percussionist Mike Olander.

Jack Brass Band

VBF 2019 USA Bands: Imperial Cornet Band

Photo credit: Rob Mesite Photography

The Imperial Cornet Band performs music of the World War I era. Music by Sousa, George M. Cohan, W.C. Handy, Irving Berlin is featured along with selections written and performed by James Reese Europe of the famous 369th Infantry Division, the “Harlem Hellfighters” Regiment. Their programs give audiences a chance to hear what this music sounded like performed by a small band and gain insight on how music was used to further the war effort at home and on the battlefield.

The Imperial Cornet Band performs under the auspices of the Maryland Military Band and is conducted by Jari Villanueva. Mr. Villanueva and several other musicians in the band have played at Vintage Band Festival in the past as members of the Federal City Brass Band or the 26th North Carolina Regimental Band.

Mark your calendars so you can stop by and say hello and hear their concerts of WWI era music!

Thursday August 1 at 8 PM Reunion Restaurant, 501 Division St S, Northfield, MN 55057

-Friday August 2 at 10 AM “The Yanks Are Coming!” Jari Villanueva’s lecture on WWI Bands, Weitz Center for Creativity on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield.

-Friday August 2 at 4 PM Way Park, 720 1st Street West Northfield, MN 55057

-Saturday August 3 at Noon Battle of the Bands Bridge Square, Northfield, MN
-Saturday August 3 at 2 PM Bridge Square, Northfield, MN
-Saturday August 3 at 6pm Northfield Cemetery, Veteran’s Memorial Concert

-Sunday August 4 at 1030 AM Church Service at First United Church of Christ, 300 Union St, Northfield, MN

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 Band: Brio Brass

Brio Brass

Brio Brass has delighted and entertained audiences throughout Minnesota’s Twin Cities Metro area since 1999. Composed of more than 50 adult musicians, the group performs its own unique arrangements written specifically for its members. The ensemble’s large repertoire features a broad spectrum of musical styles. Audiences are entertained with fluid ballads, pop of all eras, show tunes, funky rock and lots of jazz. All of the music that Brio Brass plays has been composed or arranged by the director, Rick Rueckert. He has written more than 200 arrangements and compositions. Expect lots of humming, toe tapping and even dancing in the aisles! Brio Brass will play at the Bridge Square Main Stage for VBF 2019 on Sunday, August 4 at 2 p.m.

Brio Brass