Cape Girardeau Municipal Band concerts begin Wednesday

Between disruptive renovations of the Dan Cotner Amphitheatre in Capaha Park and COVID restrictions, Cape Girardeau Municipal Band moved is concerts last year to a new indoor venue at Cape Girardeau Central High School's Kinder Hall.

Neil Casey, band director, said the group has a long history in the Southeast Missouri region, going back to the 1920s with city sponsorship. Casey looked back on the band's history even as he excitedly anticipated its future.

"Our opening night is June 8, with regular concerts Wednesday nights at 7:30, at the Kinder Hall at Cape Central High School," Casey said. "It's a wonderful venue. We get a good crowd that likes the air conditioning and likes the bug-free environment. On a summer evening, it can be real nice to hear the band outside, but when it's 95 degrees and the bugs are out, indoors is a good change of pace. The acoustics are wonderful in there as well."

Casey said the band will perform a regular weekly concert each Wednesday in June and July. There will be a new program every week, Casey noted.

The band members are as diverse as the playlist.

"We have band members born in eight different decades, and I can't think of anyplace else in our community like this. These [band members] are on equal footing, they're playing off the same parts, the same arrangements, and it's really an educated group and it's a talented group," Casey explained. "There are people who have performance degrees playing with high school kids right next to them. It's just a great group of people with lots of talent."

Casey described the band as one of Cape Girardeau's finest institutions, one that might help keep young people within the community.

"This is just me pontificating, but you hear things like, 'What can we do to keep our young-professional demographic here in town, instead of moving away from Cape Girardeau?' But now, I get more people interested in playing than I have spots to offer them," he said. "[The band] is a great opportunity for different generations to come together. Some are college kids who will play for one summer and then move on. Then, we have people who are born in Cape, gosh, probably in the 1940s. It's a great mix. We have people from out of town playing next to people who were born here, and will probably die here. It's a neat organization with plenty of interesting people, a great group of diverse people."