Submitted Photo The Brass Band of Minot begins its 2022-23 concert season on Sunday with Wayne Schempp as its new conductor.

The Brass Band of Minot’s 2022-23 season opening concert, “A Patriotic Concert for America,” will start a new season with a new conductor at Minot State University’s Ann Nicole Nelson Hall at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The concert will feature marches and fanfares mixed with a variety of music to showcase the unique sound of the British-style brass band sound.

The Brass Band of Minot is North Dakota’s only British-style brass band. British-style brass bands use both familiar brass instruments and less familiar ones, such as altoniums, fluegelhorns and cornets, to create a unique brass band sound that can be used to play music in a wide variety of styles. The tubing on most of the instruments gets gradually wider from the mouthpiece to the bell, which provides a darker and richer tone that is remarkably flexible. Percussion players round out the band and help provide concert-goers with a great experience. For the musicians, playing in a British-style style brass band is more challenging than a standard concert band but also more rewarding with a greater variety and independence of parts.

This concert will be the first for the band’s new conductor, Wayne Schempp, who has been a mainstay of the band’s cornet section for about 25 years. Schempp holds a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s degree in management, both from Minot State University. He is retired but works part-time as a funeral assistant at the Thomas Family Funeral Home and conducts the Cathedral Choir at First Lutheran Church. Former conductor Gordon Troxel retired over the summer and this concert is in part dedicated to him as a fond farewell. Troxel played euphonium with the band from its start in 1994 until he became conductor in 2009.

The concert will open with an appearance from the American Legion Post 26 Honor Guard and a special guest vocalist who will join the band for the “Star Spangled Banner.” The first piece of the concert will be E. E. Bagley’s “National Emblem,” one of America’s best and favorite marches, as arranged by a former conductor of the Brass Band of Minot, Daniel Hornstein.

The program also includes a musical depiction of the Civil War, a German march favored by the U.S. Marine Band and other popular, patriotic songs.

Brass Band of Minot concerts are free and open to the public, though cash and check donations are welcome and help pay for the band’s expenses. The band also is supported in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The band’s 2022-2023 concert season will continue with concerts on Nov. 20, Feb. 5 and April 2.