Join the Band

Please make sure to check our Facebook page for the most up-to-date information about rehearsals and concerts. (You can access this page even if you do not have a Facebook account.) You can also email us at HopkintonTownBand65@gmail.com if you have questions about joining!

Welcome to the Hopkinton Town Band! We are so pleased that you are interested in joining us.

Our mission statement is: To learn new music, improve the old music and to have fun – and not necessarily in that order.

We have two concert seasons each year: summer and winter. The summer concert series starts around Memorial Day in May and ends around mid-August. The winter concert series starts in late November and continues to the Christmas holidays. In summer we play 18-20 concerts, mostly outdoors, and in winter we play about a dozen concerts, all indoors. The band has more than forty members, and we have thirty (give or take) musicians at each of our concerts.

We rehearse for the summer concert series weekly starting in mid-March, ending just before our first concert in May. For the winter concert series we start rehearsing in mid-September and wrap up before our first concert in November. Rehearsals are most always in the Maple Street Elementary School in Contoocook, on Wednesday nights, from 7 pm till 9 pm. We don’t meet from the end of the year till mid-March. We also have very few concerts scheduled from mid-August till mid-November, except for the NH Festival of Community Bands in October, and possibly a nursing home or two.

To join the band, simply come to a rehearsal (best to join in March or September). There are no mandatory rehearsals or concerts, but we hope band members will attend as much as possible, after all, we’re friendly and it’s fun! We ask players to tell us which concerts they will be able to play in so we have a sense of instrumentation for the performances.

For summer we have a collection of about 90 to 100 arrangements, selecting 8-12 for each concert. The collection includes most typical concert band pieces, such as big band arrangements, show tune overtures, popular tune medleys, marches, and some classical pieces. For winter the collection changes to include many holiday arrangements. This music is provided. If you want to take a music book home to practice there is a sign-out process and you must bring it back for the next rehearsal or performance.

For rehearsals, music stands are provided. For concerts you need to bring your own; the books are big, heavy three-ring binders so it should be quite sturdy. Dress for most performances is white shirt with dark pants/shorts/skirt. Players will receive a very cool HTB patch for their concert shirt at the end of the “rehearsal season”.

There is no fee or dues to play in the band.

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