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To support their efforts to provide arts programming in the Minot area, the Brass Band of Minot recently applied for and was awarded a $2200 Community Arts Access grant by the North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA).
The Brass Band of Minot was among 15 recipients of Community Arts Access – Tier 2 funding for the fiscal year of 2019. The grant program offers financial support for arts events and programming and supports organizations and artists in communities with populations of 6,000 or more. A total of $33,600 was awarded by the NDCA during this grant round.
The grant will help provide funds to support and assist the band with the preparation for and performance of four concerts in the next year. The first concert of the season will be a Brass Band Favorites concert at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14 featuring a variety of music including music from "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" and the Dixieland-style "Just a Closer Walk." The season's second concert, at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 11, will be a musical celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the end of World War I with patriotic pieces and music that was popular in 1918. All Brass Band of Minot concerts are held at Minot State University's Ann Nicole Nelson Hall.
The Brass Band of Minot was started by a group of dedicated musicians in the Minot area in 1994. They established North Dakota's first and only British-style brass band to share unique sound and instrumentation of this music with musicians and music-lovers in the north-western part of the state. Several of the original members are still playing in the band today, and one of them, Gordon Troxel, has conducted the band since 2009.
Brass band players represent a large range of backgrounds, ages, and abilities from high school students to retired music educators and hail from Minot, Minot AFB, New Town, Powers Lake, Rugby, Stanley, and Williston.
This project 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 North Dakota Council on the Arts is the state agency responsible for the support and development of the arts throughout North Dakota. For more information, contact the Council on the Arts at 328-7594 or visit www.nd.gov/arts.