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The Full Story
About
The formation of a professional concert band in the current economy is a bold move. For success, that band would need to depend upon the positive associations experienced through participation in school band activities by up to 20% of the American population. There would likely be some in that number who would financially support professional wind bands. Some of that number may have been so financially successful that they could provide significant funding. Professional bands are not new in American culture. At one time, they were the driving force in the development of American cultural values, especially through the nineteenth century. Names like Gilmore, Sousa, Conway, Kryl, Pryor, Simon, Clarke and so many others provide a portal through which one is able to discern the depth of and regard for the concert band's impact in their time. Knowledge of the professional band's history can positively affect the perception of the modern concert band as a viable vehicle for artistic expression. Thanks to the work of Edwin Franko Goldman and the many who followed, the band now has an artistically deep repertoire able to support and compliment the concert band's musical capabilities.
Patrick S. Gilmore, Father of the American Concert Band
Mission
Pinnacle Winds is striving to accomplish the following several goals:
1. To be the first, full-time, civilian professional wind band in America this century.
2. To promote the wind band's best repertoire with a focus on both established masterworks and more recently composed artistic-level works.
3. To provide educational outreach to school music programs to enhance learning possibilities.
4. To provide a model for building an audience that values the band's artistic repertoire.
5. To provide more employment opportunities for the many outstanding instrumentalists being graduated from universities and conservatories with degrees in music performance.
6. To create a positive economy associated with the presences of a professional concert band in a region of the United States.
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Vision
The Pinnacle Winds project is not just about creating a full-time, civilian professional wind band in Kansas City, thus providing 52 new chairs for great players, it is about providing a model for the establishment of 12 total such bands across America, creating over 600 new chairs for deserving instrumentalists. In the process, the rapidly emerging repertoire for wind band will become more widely recognized as artistically valuable and the wind band ensemble will become seen as the equal to any ensemble combination in the art music world.
Part-time professional bands in America
1. Dallas Winds, Jerry Junkin, Conductor
2. San Francisco Wind Symphony, Martin Seggelke, Conductor
3. The New York Wind Symphony, Richard F. Regan, Conductor
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