Blossom Festival Band

Considered one of the finest ensembles of its kind in the nation, the Blossom Festival Band performs each summer in Northeast Ohio, continuing a long and well-loved tradition of outdoor band concerts in the United States. The ensemble has its roots in historic American band music and some of its legendary leaders. Band music has been a part of each summer’s musical offerings at Blossom since 1969.

That year, Fourth of July band concerts were presented as part of the second annual Blossom Music Festival. From 1969 to 1973, these band concerts were conducted by Meredith Willson (composer of Broadway’s The Music Man), who at age 17 had toured with the Sousa Band as a flutist.

Based on the success of these concerts, a genuine symphonic band and concert program was organized under the direction of Leonard B. Smith, another of this country’s most respected band directors (he was music director of the nationally known Detroit Concert Band for many years and a widely acclaimed cornet soloist). Smith made his Blossom debut conducting “The Golden Symphonic Band of Blossom Music Center” in “A Salute to Labor Day” on September 4, 1972. The success of that concert provided the impetus to schedule a series of concerts during the 1973 summer season, with a newly selected band of 65 instrumentalists from the Cleveland area.

David Zauder (1928–2013), a former student of Smith and longtime member of The Cleveland Orchestra’s trumpet and cornet section, served as a guiding spirit for the Band and regularly performed as a soloist with the ensemble. Smith served as director from 1972 until his retirement in 1997. The Blossom Festival Band was then conducted by Loras John Schissel, founding music director of the Virginia Grand Military Band and senior musicologist at the Library of Congress. Schissel led the ensemble for 25 years, from 1998 until 2023.

In 2004, the Blossom Festival Band recorded its first album, under the direction of Schissel. It was released as a CD by the Musical Arts Association (parent organization of The Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Music Festival).

FLUTES
George Pope*
Kyra Kester
Kimberly Zaleski
Sally Sherwin

OBOES/ENGLISH HORN
Thomas Friedle*
Gretchen Myers

B-FLAT CLARINETS
Georg Klaas*
Thomas Reed
Alix Reinhardt
Joseph Minocchi
Katie Smith
Denise Soulsby
Justin O’Toole
Meghan Colbert
Natalie VanCuren
Patrick Hickey

E-FLAT CLARINET
Justin Wisner

E-FLAT ALTO CLARINET
Elizabeth Carney

BASS CLARINET
Lisa Antoniou

BASSOONS
Mark DeMio*
Todd Jelen

SAXOPHONES
Howie Smith*
Todd Gaffke
Kent Engelhardt
George Shernit

HORNS
Kristin Andlauer*
Kent Larmee
Thomas Park
Ken Wadenpfuhl
Lisa Fink

CORNETS
Gil Hoffer*
Michael Mergen
Michael Miller
Sarah Viens
Jack Brndiar

TRUMPETS
Mark Maliniak*
Heather Zweifel

TROMBONES
John Sebastian Vera*
Christopher Graham
Whitney Clair
Evan Clifton

EUPHONIUMS
Gail Robertson*
Rebecca Ciabattari

TUBAS
Kenneth Heinlein*
Andrew Tatman
William Ciabattari
John Caughman

TIMPANI
Dylan Moffitt*

PERCUSSION
Bruce Golden*
Julie Angelis-Boehler
Hunter Wirt
Matthew Larson
Thomas Morris

HARP
Ina McCormack*

BASS
Thomas White*

KEYBOARD
Jacob Bernhardt*

LIBRARIAN
Elizabeth Carney*

* Principal