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The Rockville Concert Band was founded in 1957 with Frank R. Troy, Jr. as its original director. He was followed during the years 1975 to 1977 by co-directors Steven and Carol Barnes, and Dr. Robert Tennyson from 1978 to 1994. The band director since 1995 has been Dr. Vincent Patterson. The band is supported and funded by the City of Rockville, Maryland, through the Department of Parks and Recreation. Currently, the total membership in the band is about 70. Band members volunteer their services with rehearsals taking place once a week throughout the year. The band members "in their other lives" have various backgrounds including the sciences, medicine, music, teaching, and computer technology.
All types of music are played by the band including classical transcriptions for band, original compositions for concert band, Dixieland, marches, selections from Broadway musicals, and music from the big band era. The band performs about 16 concerts each year. Typically one indoor concert is played each month during the fall, winter and spring seasons at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre (Directions to F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre) located in the Rockville Civic Center. Part of the indoor concert season is the holiday concert in December and the Children's Concert in March. Our outdoor season includes concerts at the Memorial Day ceremonies for Rockville, the Rockville fireworks program on July 4, and the Antique and Classic Auto Show in October on the grounds of the Rockville Civic Center. The band has also played outdoor concerts at Wheaton and Cabin John Regional Parks, at the Maryland Community Band Day, and at Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach, Delaware.
Two memorable events for the band were European concert tours. The first, in 1989, was a fifteen-day tour with concerts in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and a final concert in Rockville's sister city of Pinneberg near Hamburg, Germany. The second, in 1994, was a seventeen-day tour with concerts in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and the Czech Republic. Both of these tours were wonderful opportunities to raise our level of musicianship, to become closer as a group, and to "see the world."
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