Category Archives: VBF News

Thanks for a successful Give-to-the-Max Day!

A great big THANK YOU to all of the 74 Vintage Band Festival donors during the month of November. We surpassed our $5,000 goal for Give to the Max Day by 30%!! That’s only 13% of our goal of $50,000 for next year’s 4-day festival, but it’s a great start. Thanks also to Doris Welke whose Early Giving donation won Vintage Band Festival a Golden Ticket worth $500. Thanks Doris!

There’s still plenty of time to make a year-end donation to keep us moving towards that 2022 goal. Please visit our website to donate online or send a check to 204 W. 7th St. #130, Northfield, MN 55057.

We hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving weekend!

www.vintagebandfestival.org #GTMD21 #vbf2022 GiveMN.org

Vintage Band Festival awarded $10,000 SEMAC grant

On November 10, 2021, the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) announced that Vintage Band Festival has been awarded a $10,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant for use in staging the 4-day Vintage Band Festival 2022. The grant was one of five awarded to Rice County non-profits organizations. Here are the other four:

• Faribault Parks & Recreation — $5,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage grant for Faribault Concerts in the Park series.

• I Cantanti Chamber Choirs — $5,000 General Operating Support grant for facilities & staffing.

• Northfield Arts Guild — $9,925 Arts and Cultural Heritage grant for focused arts learning, home school/after school.

• Paradise Center for the Arts — $10,000 Arts and Cultural Heritage grant for Marquee Children’s Theatre.

Vintage Band Festival will use the grant to help fund a number of brass and wind musical ensembles from Minnesota that will be invited to perform in Northfield in July of 2022. SEMAC has been generous to our organization over the past 15 years and we are grateful to our elected representatives for continuing to support the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was established in 2008. This initiative benefits all Minnesotans!

Thanks to VBF Secretary Joy Riggs for her skillful writing in the SEMAC application!

Tuba Christmas in Northfield 2021 is CANCELLED!

Today’s public service announcement: the Vintage Band Festival Board has recently CANCELLED Tuba Christmas in Northfield for 2021. The event was to have been held on Saturday, December 4, but has been cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols at the venue. We’re saddened by this change in plans, but feel this is the correct decision at this time.

Thanks for your understanding. We’re hoping for a better situation in 2022!

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.

VBF 2021 Official Commemorative Program

Hot off the press! The Vintage Band Festival 2021 Official Program contains everything you need to know to have a great day in Northfield on July 31: band photos and profiles, the complete schedule for the day, donor recognition, words from the Board of Directors and our Founder, and of course, our many advertisers.

Thanks to everyone who worked on putting this together, especially the fine folks at By All Means Graphics, VBF’s graphic design shop since 2006.

Click the link below to download the program. Paper copies will be available free of charge at the Festival.

VBF 2021 Program FINAL

Banda La Verdadera returns for VBF 2021

BANDA LA VERDADERA

This high-energy Minneapolis band is making its third appearance at Vintage Band Festival. Banda La Verdadera plays a type of traditional Mexican music that features brass instruments, woodwinds, drums and singing. The band performs a variety of pieces, including rancheras, boleros and cumbias. It often performs for weddings, parties, and other events.

Banda La Verdadera is sponsored by Nan and Dave Shumway. Banda La Verdadera plays at 1:30 pm on July 31.

Banda La Verdadera

Roseville Big Band comes to Vintage Band Festival

ROSEVILLE BIG BAND

The Roseville Big Band is a 19-piece swing band in the Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey style, with the Rosetones vocal quartet recreating the tight harmonies that made the Modernaires and Pied Pipers popular adjuncts to the Miller and Dorsey bands. 2021 Vintage Band Festival audiences will enjoy our Gershwin tribute and other timeless music from the Big Band Era of the 20^th century.

In a typical year, they give 12 to 15 performances, including the Carleton College Mid-Winter Ball, the Minnesota Commemorative Air Force’s USO-style hangar dances, and concerts in parks and senior residences. Dr. Glen Newton has led the Roseville Big Band since 1989. He formed the Rosetones vocal quartet in 1996 to complement the band’s instrumentals and vocal solos and duets.

Roseville Big Band is sponsored by Merchants Bank and Dennis and Janet Hahn. Roseville Big Band plays at 8:15 pm on July 31.

Roseville Big Band

Copper Street Brass will be in the house at #VBF2021

COPPER STREET BRASS

The six members of Copper Street Brass have style, substance and a flair for innovation, which has allowed them to transcend the brass quintet box and evolve into something fresh. Copper Street Brass was founded in 2008 as a professionally trained classical chamber music ensemble (which means it performs without a conductor) with two trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba. The group presents exclusively its own music, expressing its artistic voice through a dazzling fusion of brass, keyboard, guitar, percussion, and electronic instruments to appeal to a universal audience. The band is a veteran performer at Vintage Band Festival.

Copper Street Brass is sponsored by Lois and Noel Stratmoen and Deb and Rod Christensen. Copper Street plays at 6:45 on July 31.

Copper Street Brass

Jazz and more jazz at #VBF 2021

Brass and wind instruments are essential elements of jazz ensembles. There is no better example of this fact than in the bands that play New Orleans jazz, whether that’s traditional style or music that is played in the streets, funerary events or Mardi Gras celebrations. Joining us for Vintage Band Festival 2021 are two of Minnesota’s best jazz bands, Southside Aces and Jack Brass Band. They’ve both been to Northfield on multiple occasions and we’re delighted to welcome them back once again. Jack Brass Band plays at 10:30 and Southside Aces plays at 5:30 on July 31.

SOUTHSIDE ACES

The Southside Aces perform traditional New Orleans jazz. The six-member band began as the brainchild of clarinetist Tony Balluff and sousaphone player Erik Jacobson. The Aces possess a diverse repertoire, with a roll call that includes the names of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington and Bix Beiderbecke. The Southside Aces have performed at the Vieux Carré and Dakota jazz clubs, Crooners Supper Club, Twin Cities Jazz Fest, and the Minnesota Orchestra Sommerfest. The band has also played events in Chicago, Denver, and Des Moines. The Southside Aces are appearing for the third time at Vintage Band Festival.

Southside Aces is sponsored by Mary Rosenberg. Southside Aces plays at 5:30 pm on July 31.

Southside Aces

JACK BRASS BAND

Based on the traditions of New Orleans brass bands, the Jack Brass Band is an ambassador of the Crescent City’s rich musical history. The eight-piece band plays “Feel-Good Music” for audiences of any age, for any occasion. The Jack Brass Band 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 plays with a groove that will make you want to get up and dance!

Jack Brass Band is sponsored by Community Resource Bank. Jack Brass Band performs at 10:30 am on July 31.

Jack Brass Band

Trumpets and tubas at #VBF2021

Two brass ensembles that will perform at #VBF2021 each specialize in a specific instrument. Twin Cities Trumpet Ensemble produces a wall-of-sound made by 24 trumpets. The Above Average Tuba Quartet consists of tubas, the lowest of the low-brass instruments. Both groups will provide maximum listening entertainment.

ABOVE AVERAGE TUBA QUARTET

The Above Average Tuba Quartet was formed in 2013 by members of the Lake Wobegon^© Brass Band and is making its Vintage Band Festival debut. Leader Roger Gomoll noted that tubas and euphoniums are related instruments. The euphonium is considered to be a “tenor tuba” and plays an octave higher than the larger bass tuba and double bass tuba. He also said, “Tubists and euphoniumists tend to gather in larger groups around Christmastime, when as many as 100 or more festively dressed players perform Christmas carols as part of the nationally organized Tuba Christmas concerts. It’s been said but not verified that the U.S. Geological Survey office tracks the frequency and location of these concerts with their seismic instruments.”

Above Average Tuba Quartet

The Above Average Tuba Quartet performs at 9:30 a.m. on July 31 at Bridge Square, Downtown Northfield.

TWIN CITIES TRUMPET ENSEMBLE

The Twin Cities Trumpet Ensemble is the only regularly performing, 24-trumpet musical ensemble in the United States. It boasts a vast repertoire, ranging from the Renaissance to the present, and exemplifies the transformative power of music through the performance of music written or arranged for three or more trumpets. It has performed numerous concerts in the tri-state area, including performances at Como Lakeside Pavilion in St. Paul, the Lake Harriet Band Shell in Minneapolis, and several churches. Led by James Olcott, the Twin Cities Trumpet Ensemble has performed at Vintage Band Festival several times.

Twin Cities Trumpet Ensemble

Twin Cities Trumpet Ensemble performs at 12:30 p.m. on July 31 at Bridge Square, Downtown Northfield.