All year long you’ll be blown away by the musical charm of the Coronado Concert Band. Most notable are their annual performances as the inaugural band for Concert in the Park and the 4th of July Concert. The wind ensemble is led by Music Director Fred Lee who takes great joy and responsibility in his role.
Fred recalls, “In 1998 I was approached by a couple members of the band. I knew them from the musicians’ community that I socialize with. The band was looking for a conductor. They were about a year or so old at that point and it was a very small group. Mostly locals of the Coronado community. Some had come from Coronado High School’s music department and as adults had gotten back together- sort of as a reunion.”
Fred explains that he had his hands full as a full time teacher as a band director. He was also the assistant conductor of the Coastal Communities Concert Band. “I’d been with that group for about 20 something years. It’s a fairly small community of musicians in San Diego so a lot of the musicians play in multiple groups. They talk to each other and my name was put out there as a potential candidate for the job. I was contacted directly and asked if I would like to come in and audition with the group; that’s how I got on board.”
How the Coronado Concert Band Has Evolved
Over the years, Fred has been proud to see the success of the growing organization. “What’s changed the most over the years is the size and the quality of the group. It has improved greatly from when I first took it over.”
Coronado Concert Band began as a very small group that played a few events in Coronado. Fred reminisces, “I remember doing a couple of performances at the Coronado Public Library very early on. We did a concert following the Christmas parade that first Friday of December and now we’ve got between six and eight concerts per year.”
Diversity of Coronado Concert Band
The mission of Coronado Concert Band is to create opportunity for musicians of all ages to come together in an ensemble to exchange ideas, develop skills, and have fun while producing quality music for the entertainment of the greater community. The band is made up of about 60 musicians whose talents make the band incredibly unique. The current ratio of men and women is about 50/50.
In terms of instrumentation, Fred explains, “It’s pretty standard. We have a full percussion and every instrument is covered.” Instruments include flutes, clarinets, saxophones, double reeds, French horns, trumpets, trombones, euphoniums, and tubas. “That’s one of the great things about the band, the really ideal instrumentation. It allows us to perform a whole variety of literature.”
Multifaceted Representation
Fred says, “The group has always been multi-generational. At times, there have been students as young as 13 or 14 years old playing in the group. We’ve also had musicians who were into their 90s in the group. That’s one of the things that makes a community ensemble so special.”
The band is made up of both preexisting relationships as well as forming new ones over the years. “It is really quite wonderful- we’ve had some families where parents and their children have played in the group together.”
Fred says, “We have musicians who come from all over San Diego County. Some as far north as San Marcos, Poway, and Oceanside. There are of course local community members who reside in Coronado that play in the group.”
As for additional diversity, Fred says, “We have people who play in the group who are from the military. There are people in the group who are retired. We have people who are doctors and attorneys, and from pretty much every walk of life.”
The Type of Music Performed
Fred’s passion for the music is contagious as he speaks about types that the band plays. “It is quite varied! Many of the concerts that we do are specific to an occasion. In Coronado, for example, November we have our Veteran’s Day concert. We’ll be playing a tribute to our veterans and members of the armed forces. We combine in that event with the Coronado community choir and Musica Vitale.”
In a military town, Fred knows the Coronado Concert Band makes the community proud with their three patriotic shows a year. “We love to salute the members of our armed forces. We do that on Veteran’s Day and on Memorial Day at the opening of the promenade concert series each year. Also, on the 4th of July.”
To showcase their diversity, Fred highlights their Holiday and Broadway song performances. “Of course we perform our Christmas in the Village concert following the Coronado Christmas parade. We perform in Balboa Park each year as part of their Twilight in the Park Concert series. We generally do all Broadway and Hollywood music from motion pictures and Broadway. That’s a really fun concert!”
Community Outreach
Another unique performance is the combo concert they put on every year with Coronado schools as part of their community outreach. “We combine with them on some music. Then they perform alone, and we perform solo. That show is in the high school auditorium during the month of August.”
Adding a little spice to their repertoire is when the band performed with a local mariachi group in the Coronado Performing Arts Center. “The Garibaldi Mariachi from Southwestern College joined us for a program where we showcased music of Mexico and Central America. There is a world premiere of a work that was written for concert band and mariachis. It was very well attended and received.”
It doesn’t stop there. “We also do music for specific occasions, such as a Disney show a couple of years ago.” Fred smiles, “One of the things that I most enjoy about conducting the group is also being able to select the repertoire for the group. It’s quite varied. We also do classical literature and traditional literature written for concert band.”
He continues, “Obviously we do quite a few marches – that’s a huge tradition with bands. There’s a lot of literature written in the last 100 years or so specifically for wind bands. We perform a lot of standard literature but also British band music by American composers. We’ve done several concerts featuring the music of American composers.”
Coronado Concert Band Celebrates 25 years in 2024
A monumental occasion for the band was commissioning original work. “Most recently we commissioned a work from a local composer Ryan Beard in honor of our 25th anniversary. He wrote a special march for us that is a tribute to the City of Coronado. It’s called the Crown City March and it’s published and being performed by other ensembles as well.”
Joining Coronado Concert Band
The band is always open to new members. Fred says, “We do have some people who join the group who played instruments through their youth and maybe as young adults. Then they put down the instrument for a number of years – in some case even decades! At some point in their life, they’ve come back to performing music. They’re looking for a group that will allow them to get back into performing.”
Fred is proud that Coronado Concert Band is that kind of group for returning musicians. “We don’t have an audition process; we have an open door policy. We’re always inviting new musicians to come and join us.”
The joining process is easy. Send an email to [email protected] and let them know a little bit about yourself; what instrument you play and your availability Thursday evenings for rehearsal. They’ll get right back to you with an invitation to join at their very next rehearsal.
A Message from Fred
Fred concludes, “It’s an eclectic variety of styles. The musicians in the group really enjoy the variety of music that we play. The literature is selected for the event and for the enjoyment of the audience. That’s always in the forefront of my mind when programming a concert. We perform music that we know people will enjoy and remember.”
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