MANISTEE — Manistee Community Band and Festival Chorus music director Ryan Biller said the 55th anniversary concert and reception next week is the perfect opportunity to reflect upon the band's long history.

"From our records that we have, the first concert was presented on Jan. 19, 1969 ... by the first conductor, Robert Pettengill," Biller said. "It featured marches by (John) Sousa (Karl) King, 'Romeo and Juliet,' and 'Bossa Nova' (by Harold Walters). It was originally sponsored by the Rotary Club. From my understanding, the first director was Robert Pettengill."

Biller said moving forward the community band will honor the late Pettengill by having an award in his name.

"We're calling it the Robert Pettengill Community Music Involvement Award," Biller said. "It's just someone who goes above and beyond and either is in the community band potentially, someone who supports community music and who's maybe always at the concerts, someone who volunteers — it's kind of wide open. It's just for someone who supports community music here in Manistee."

The award will be given out during the 55th anniversary reception, scheduled for 6 p.m. July 12 in the ballroom of the Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts.

Biller said the Meraki Saxophone Quartet will perform during the reception.

"(It) is a saxophone quartet that places nationally. They're fantastic," he said. "... I'm very excited to bring them. Not many people in this town have probably heard a saxophone quartet before — especially a classical saxophone quartet — so it's going to be a new experience for them."

Biller said honorary memberships will be given out at the reception.

"We have some people who aren't necessarily able to play with us any more, people who ... volunteer a lot with the community band or things like that who maybe aren't necessarily musicians," he said. "We still want to honor them, as well. We're going to give out two or three honorary memberships this year."

Grayling High School student Jamison Moran, concerto soloist winner, will play the saxophone at the event.

"You will have no doubt why he won when you see him playing," Biller said. "He is fantastic."

Tickets are $25 and include both the reception and concert. They can be ordered from the Ramsdell's website.

"At that reception there is going to be finger food, dessert-type stuff and in between each piece we're going to talk about the history a little bit," Biller said.

Biller said he is proud to be carrying on the tradition of those who led the community band before him.

Previous directors of the Manistee Community Band are:

Some community band members who played decades ago are still a part of the band today, according to Biller.

Biller said the band went on a hiatus after the 2011 season until he took over in 2019 — unaware of the Manistee Community Band's history at that time.

"I kind of found out after," he said. "... Once I kind of started talking about it and knew some of those people (who were in the band before), I was like, 'I want to do this thing,' and they were like, 'Well we actually had this thing before.'

"... The interesting thing is that some of the music that I've seen on some of the programs is stuff that we'd still play today."

Next week's concert will feature both the band and festival chorus, and multiple conductors.

"I mentioned Kay Danforth as a member off the band in 2002, and she will be conducting at the concert as well — a piece that they played back then — which is pretty cool," Biller said.

Biller said a lot of good music is being played locally.

"We're just trying to make people more aware of the community band and what community music is. When I say community music, I'm not just talking about our community band," he said. "It's community music — music that's happening in the community. The band and the choir are just one small fraction of that."