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The LaGrange Community Band is set to perform its third annual Christmas concert on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at First Baptist Church on the Square.

The all-volunteer community band is known for the Fourth of July concerts it has held every year since the band started in 2010.  The band currently performs around four concerts per year. Along with the Christmas concert and Fourth of July kickoff at Sweetland each year, the band performs a spring concert and at the Lafayette birthday celebration in September.

The band stays busy throughout the year, holding practices twice a month.

LaGrange Community Band Conductor Neal Brumbeloe said the group is made up of musicians with a wide range of abilities. The players come from about a 50-mile radius but the core is from LaGrange, he said.

“We have everything from college-age players to adults. Our oldest player one time was over 90 years old,” Brumbeloe said.

Brumbeloe said it’s a misconception that players in the band aren’t able to play professionally.

“Most of the people in our group are very accomplished musicians,” he said, noting some of them do play professionally.

“We have people who play with professional symphonies that play in our organization, and we have college band directors and college instructors,” Brumbeloe said. “It is simply a group where people can continue to play their music and enjoy playing their music because they enjoy doing it and doing it for other folks to listen to.”

The musicians with the community band just enjoy performing.

“The thing about music is that with sports, most people come to a point in their lives really can’t continue to do sports. But playing a musical instrument is something that most people can do until the day they pass away.”

Brumbeloe has been conducting music for about 50 years.

“My wife and I are about to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I started as a band director the year before we married,” he said.

The band originally started at the request of the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) but has since become independent.

Brumabeloe said in 2010 the DDA asked him to put together a group together to kick off the annual Fourth of July celebration in LaGrange.

“We started out just at the behest of the DDA, and now we’re our own group. We’re independent now, and we work on our own,” Brumbeloe said.

“Four years ago, 2019, we became a full year-round band playing four or five concerts a year,“ he said. “We’ve come a long way.”

The LaGrange Community Band Christmas concert will be held at First Baptist Church on the Square in the New Life Building on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m.

The concert is free with refreshments available after the show.

For more information on LaGrange Community Band, visit their website at lagrangecommunityband.org.