Thank you for a great Summer 2024 Season!
See you next Summer for Season 29!
Danny Lewis joined as the U City Band Music Director/Conductor in summer 2023 and is excited to return in summer 2024! Highlights from this past season included bringing in area high school music students to play with the band, as well as performing with guest artists including St. Boogie Brass Band and renowned NYC trumpeter Wayne Du Maine and other members of the U City High Jazz Band! Watch the website for details for summer 2024!
Danny spent the past eight years teaching at McCluer High School in the Ferguson Florissant School District and currently serves as the District Fine Arts Coordinator. Prior to that, he taught band at Mark Twain Jr/Sr High School for three years before returning to the St. Louis area. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Truman State University. When he isn't teaching or waving his arms in front of a band or playing trumpet, Danny can be found building guitars and ukuleles in his basement.
Essential monetary donations to support the U City Summer Band come from businesses and friends like you! We want to continue and expand our efforts to play with and mentor St. Louis area high school musicians. In making a financial donation to the band, you are supporting these efforts and supporting our community. Your financial support also helps us bring in guest artists. You can donate online with PayPal or Venmo or by check at the donations page. You can donate online using a credit card, debit card or PayPal. To donate by check, please see more information on the donation page.
The University City Summer Band is a production of the University City Music Company, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Donations may be tax deductible. Thank you for keeping the music going!
2024 concerts will take place in Heman Park (Midland & Shaftesbury Entrance)
SUMMER 2024!!
The 90-member (give or take) U City Summer Band is... Light Classics, Marches, Patriotic Music, Show Tunes, Popular Music, Jazz, and Original Music for Band.
Concerts are held at our venue in Heman Park, 1028 Midland Blvd, University City, MO 63130 (park entrance is off Midland, opposite Shaftesbury).
All concerts start at 7PM, last about 60 minutes, and include a short intermission. Seating is on the lawn. Bring a lawn chair or blanket as available seating is limited. Bring your children! Bring a picnic! There is shade for the audience (beneath the trees). There is a nearby playground and restrooms.
For our last piece at each concert, we play "On the Mall." Children are invited to come up to the front and conduct the band and receive their very own U City Summer Band pencil!
_____________________________________________________________________________
U City Summer Band Vidoes on YouTube!
_____________________________________________________________________________
The U City Summer Band was featured in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
COMPLETE ARTICLE
“It’s unlike anything else, this atmosphere,” said Frank Chross of University City, lounging in his lawn chair with about 150 others for the first University City Summer Band concert of the season.
“There’s something about live music,” said Danny Lewis, a trumpeter who took over as director of the U. City Summer Band this year. “It’s a magical thing.”
“I’m of the mindset that I want everybody to play,” said U. City’s Lewis, who teaches band in the Ferguson-Florissant School District. “We’ll find a place for you.” Recruiting and retaining younger players can be a challenge. Most band members are closer to Social Security eligibility than to their college days.
The University City Summer Band designates its second concert of the season as Student Night, inviting high school band members from across the region to accompany it. Song selection helps to both engage performers and turn first-time audience members into regulars, said Lewis. “I want there to be music that you’ve never heard and some that you know,” he said. Military marches, Broadway scores and patriotic tunes are constants. But reimagined billboard hits and blockbuster movie soundtracks also get their due. “My 8-year-old will be singing along to ‘Hakuna Matata,’” said Lewis, who himself favors “Irish Tune from County Derry,” better known as “Danny Boy.”
U. City is just a few members shy of its full pre-pandemic roster of about 90. But at the end of every concert, its ranks swell. Lewis invites the kids in the audience to the podium to grab a pencil. A dozen new conductors are born as the band closes out the show with one final march.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our first High School Student Night on Tuesday, June 20 was a HUGE SUCCESS!
Thank you to those who joined and we look forward to making music with St. Louis area high school musicians again next year!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~