The Denver Municipal Band is the oldest continuous-playing professional concert band in the U.S.
Around since before Colorado was a state, the Denver Municipal Band has been performing for the Denver area for more than a century.
We were founded in the late 1860s by Alex Sutherland, bugler at the "Charge of The Light Brigade." Surviving the ordeal, Sutherland settled in Denver where he was active in many of the city's early musical activities. Originally constituted as the GAR Post Band, it performed early municipally funded concerts throughout the 1870s and 80s, changing its name to the Denver Municipal Band in 1891 when it began its continuous history of Denver Municipal Funding.
















The band has always been fully professional, hiring and playing with some of the best musicians of the time period, including being conducted by major bandsmen Frederick Innes, trombone soloist for Sousa, and the renowned solo cornetist, Hermann Bellstedt, Jr. (1858-1926).