‘I just love this band’: Kelowna City Concert Band has deep roots in Okanagan

Older than Kelowna itself, the Kelowna City Concert band still carries a tune, 125 years later.

The Kelowna City Concert Band has had members that include the city’s first mayor, H.W. Raymer.

Now the band boasts 70 members, consisting of 12 flutes, 10 clarinets, a robust saxophone section, bassoons, bass clarinets, trumpets, trombones, a euphonium, a tuba and a french horn.

“I just love this band,” said Dennis Colpitts, conductor.

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“They just love to play, they love to be together and they love making good music, and a bonus is us being able to come out and play for members of Kelowna.”

The band that started in 1894, before Kelowna was incorporated in 1905, now consists of professional and non-professional musicians of all ages, ranging from 14 to 80 years old.

The band has kept running all these years later with only two short breaks — during the First World War and the Second World War.

The historical band is now preparing for their annual Christmas concert, Thursday, Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church in Kelowna.

1:57 Daphne Odjig, grandmother of Canadian Indigenous art celebrated in Kelowna