Richard Lawrence, a saxophonist and fundraising chairman for the San Diego Concert Band, sent me their promotional video along with his thoughts on the band and his own performing career:
I played reed instruments in various performance groups through grade school and on through college; I then stopped to concentrate on my 40(+) year career in Civil/Structural Engineering. After retiring I decided I’d like to get back into music. I found and joined SDCB in 2008. At that time SDCB was a 50 (+) member organization. Playing saxophone in the band and serving on the Board of Directors as Director/Treasurer I’ve watched and helped this organization grow, both in size and talent, to its current size approaching 100 members, and its current status as one of the premier community concerts bands in the Southern California Area.
I think my proudest accomplishments with SDCB, other than getting myself back into musical performance after that 40(+) year absence, are my involvements in bringing this band up to the level of quality performance it now enjoys; along with the efforts that I and the other members of the Board of Directors have made in establishing our Mentoring and Scholarship programs to help young aspiring musicians develop their musical talents. The all volunteer effort of this Band has been a truly win–win success for our members, for our audiences, for our community and for the young musicians we are able to help.
Click the videos below to watch some of the SDCB live: