Historical Profile
The band
performs twelve to twenty concerts per season in a wide variety
of settings. Our outreach concerts are designed to bring music to
the elderly and infirm while our community service concerts provide
music for commencement ceremonies and other civic functions.
Several years ago an enterprising
group of civic-minded residents,
led by Ed Gillespie, undertook a project to build a
band shell in Lake Lansing Park South that provides the band
with a summer home for concerts in the park. Working with the Ingham
County Parks Commission, the band shell opened for performances beginning in June 6, 2003.
Where in the world is Okemos, Michigan?
Okemos (pronounced by the locals
as OAK-a-muss) is a suburban Lansing community located about six miles
southeast of the State Capitol in Meridian Township (Ingham County).
Meridian Township, from which the band takes its name, has a population
of about 39,000 which is divided into two unincorporated places;
Haslett in the
northeast and Okemos in the southeast. Meridian Township is named for
the Michigan Meridian, the north-south reference line established prior to
statehood, from which all lands in the state are surveyed. The Red
Cedar River (after which the band has named its annual community band
festival) bisects the township from east to west.
Founded in 1977 as part of the Okemos
(MI) Community education program, this band became an independent
non-profit [paragraph 501(c)3] organization in 1983. Its mission has
been to provide metropolitan Lansing area musicians a forum for
community service and musical expression. Membership is open to
all adults with high school level playing experience on a
non-auditioned basis.
The band's season runs from Labor Day
through June and offers its members five sessions in which to
participate. Each session has its own unique focus concert(s):