Our 68th Season includes 15 works that will receive their first NCB performance

Our 2023/24 Season features a remarkable number of inaugural performances by the Band. In total, fifteen works will receive their Northshore Concert Band premiere.

Our season opens on Sunday, October 29, 2023, with an evening performance at the McGrath Family Performing Arts Center in Wilmette, with Treats & Tricks. You won’t want to miss this special chilling and delightful concert exploring magic, mystique, and transfiguration through music. The three works in this program that will receive their first NCB performance are Joe Hisaishi’s Howl’s Moving Castle (arranged by Yo Goto), Danny Elfman’s Music for a Darkened Theater (arranged by Michael Brown), and Erika Svanoe’s Barnum and Tesla's Tandem Bicycle.

On February 18, 2024, we return to Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston for our celebrated Lifetime of Music concert. Outstanding middle school musicians from the Chicagoland area will join us onstage for this unique performance. Works that will receive their first NCB performance in this program include Cindy McTee’s Notezart, Florence Price’s Adoration (transcribed by Cheldon Williams), Shuhei Tamura’s City Girl Sentimentalism, Omar Thomas’ Caribana Afterparty, and Kevin Day’s Rocketship!

Jay Kennedy’s Catapult receives its first NCB performance on April 14, 2024, during Making Waves at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. This afternoon of dazzling music for winds will also include inaugural performances of Carter Pann’s Hold This Boy and Listen, William Bolcom’s Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Band, Amanda Aldridge’s On Parade (edited by Kaitlin Bove), and Omar Thomas’s Shenandoah.

On June 8, 2024, we conclude our 68th season at the McGrath Family Performing Arts Center with Life Cycles, a revitalizing journey through timeless works and an examination of the cyclicality inherent in human life. This program will feature Jennifer Jolley’s Ash and James Beckel’s Symphony for Band both of which will receive their first NCB performance.