Burlington Iowa Municipal Band

Each year, the band has openings for a few musicians. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Burlington Municipal Band, contact Jim Priebe by telephone at (319) 752-7305 or by e-mail at bmbfoundation@muniband.org.

The Burlington (Iowa) Municipal Band is a community concert band which has served and enriched the life of this city since 1927. The band's first concert was presented in Crapo Park in May of that year after the citizens of Burlington had voted for the implementation of the Iowa Band Law, a statute that allows cities to levy a tax “for the maintenance and employment of a band for musical purposes.” The city fathers of that time chose not to levy the tax as instructed by the vote, but to fund the band from the city's general fund instead. The city discontinued that funding in 2011 and the band is now supported by private donations through the Burlington Municipal Band Foundation. The band's roots extend back to the nineteenth century; it was formed through the combining of the existing Orchard City Band and the privately operated Fischer's Band under the leadership of J. Henri Fischer, a prominent musician of the era.

The band today enjoys a membership from a wide variety of backgrounds. The band contains homemakers, physicians, music teachers, business men and women, ministers, retired people, college students, and a few outstanding high school musicians. All share the common enjoyment of playing their instruments and providing the community with a wholesome family activity.

The Municipal Band performs free Sunday evening concerts in Crapo Park during the summer months. These concerts are presented from 7:30 until 8:30 P.M. at the Crapo Park Bandshell, located on Grandview Drive within the park. This site provides concert goers a magnificent view of the Mississippi River and the Illinois farmlands spread below, and a wide lawn where listeners can choose to sit on park benches provided near the bandshell, or bring their own lawn chairs or blankets, perhaps to sit near the illuminated Foehlinger Fountain. The concerts are well attended by people of all ages, and many visitors to Burlington make it a point to return each summer to hear at least one concert.

We hope that you will take the opportunity to support live music provided by many musical organizations in the Burlington Area. Members of the Municipal Band participate in or direct many of these groups, and we would love to see you. These groups include the school bands, orchestras and choirs in Burlington and surrounding communities as well as the Southeast Iowa Symphony, Southeast Iowa Band, Bel Canto Chorale, South Hill Brass, Southeast Iowa Brass Quintet, and the Southeast Iowa Woodwind Quintet. You may often find band members directing or participating in the pit bands of the Players Workshop and/or area school musical productions as well.

We invite you to preview each week's concert for interesting information about the music and the conductor by clicking on the "This week's concert" button below. This information is normally available by the Wednesday preceding the concert. For even more updates and information, visit our Facebook page.

Once again, we will be attempting to "live-stream" all of our concerts. Our efforts to live-stream our 2022 concerts met with mixed results, but improved throughout the summer. To view the concert live stream, click on the button below, or do an internet search for "Burlington Municipal Band live stream." (This may need some tweaking as we continue to iron out any bugs.)

For 2022, we introduced two small but important changes. In the past, our concerts at the band shell in Crapo Park occasionally had to be cancelled due to bad weather. Now, in the event of bad or threatening weather, we will move our concert indoors to the James Madison School auditorium. Due to the time necessary to move and set up our equipment, the decision on concert location will be made by 5:30 PM Sunday evening, and posted on this web site, the band's facebook page, and also announced on radio station KBUR.

To Steve Hexom for introducing our concerts each week and for sharing information about the band with his radio audience on KBUR. And to Standard of Beaverdale for continuing their sponsorship of those broadcasts.

To Jennifer Hexom for her work as the band’s manager, and Steve and Jennifer’s daughter April Carr, who assists her mom with the band’s music library duties. To Marcia Korb and Dawn Cazin for putting our programs together each week, to Pat Cazin for printing them and to SG Construction for underwriting that cost. To Dawn Cazin and Jennifer Arnold for posting photos and videos to the band’s Facebook page! To Gerry Runyon for his copy machine expertise and his invaluable work helping us set up!

To the Burlington Municipal Band Foundation’s officers and board of directors for their work throughout the year and to Tom Bell (occasionally referred to as "the finest swordsman in all France") for handling the traffic barricades before and after each concert and for being the band’s webmaster. To Derrick Murphy for setting up the PA system and the live streaming camera and for contributing to our Facebook postings. To “Summer Snow” for making those delicious shaved ice treats available at our concerts!

To Ryan Gourley and the staff of the Burlington Parks Department for their work of maintaining the bandshell and enhancing everyone’s quality of life by making our park such a beautiful place! To Tri States Public Radio stations WIUM and WIUW for listing and announcing our concerts on their community calendar! To Julie Nickell, staffer of the Hawk Eye and to Elizabeth Pappas of the Burlington Beacon for their coverage of our concerts. To Jim Priebe for serving as the band’s publicity person, contacting the media each week, and writing the concert previews for our website and Facebook page.

To the Burlington Community School District, Superintendent Rob Scott and the Board of Education for allowing us to have our rehearsals and store our equipment in the James Madison building. To the school district’s Superintendent of Buildings and Gounds Brent Krieger and his staff for facilitating our use of James Madison. To our hauling/loading crew, Philip Rush, Pete Korb, Scott Teater, Jonathan Chelf, Jack Hanks, and Chandler Carper for their hard work each week, and to Marcia Korb who provides and drives the big white van that carries so much of our equipment.

To our underwriters for the financial support they have given us. They include Marc and Monica Wagenbach, Two Rivers Bank and Trust, The Des Moines County Community Foundation, and the City of Burlington. We are no less appreciative of the many other individuals and businesses whose names appear in your programs. Their support enables us to continue these concerts each week and we are tremendously grateful!

Thanks to our band members whose musicianship and hard work of practicing at home make it possible for them to play our concerts with just one rehearsal! And last but certainly not least, thank you to the members of our audience. We are truly grateful for your loyalty! We know that you make our band possible! And during the months ahead we’ll all be looking forward to next summer when we will see you again!