Their lives are as varied as their ages, but when the Charlotte Community Band comes together, their skills come together as one. Performing for the past year under the direction of James McRae, the Charlotte Community Band and its 40 members are set to embark on another season.
The band opens the 2015-16 season with its fall concert, “Wind and Rhythm,” offered free of charge on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Charlotte Performing Arts Center. McRae said the band will be playing works by noted composers, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Frank Ticheli, Vincent Persichetti, and Gustav Holst.
The Charlotte Community Band is a traditional concert band consisting of a variety of brass and woodwind instruments. Its members range in age from as young as 16 to as old as 75.
“We’re made up of a very diverse group within the Charlotte community,” McRae said.
The band, however, is always looking for new members.
“Following our fall concert, we’ll be entering into a new cycle and looking for new positions,” McRae said. “We would never turn anyone away.”
McRae, a 2007 Charlotte High School graduate and 2011 Albion College graduate, has been involved since the Community Band’s inception as a branch of Can Do!’s Experience Art sub group. Since its early formation in 2013, the band has since become its own entity and is currently working to become at 501(c)3 non-profit.
McRae has officially been the musical director and principal conductor of the band for the past year, though he stepped forward to be interim director from the start.
“I wasn’t a music major,” said McRae, who was a member of the Charlotte High School band throughout high school as well as a member of the marching and concert bands at Albion College. “I’m not trained for this, but learned by observing.”
The Charlotte Community Band plays four concerts a year, most of which are free to the public.
