For information contact Dr. Kenneth Kohlenberg at 937.512.2753 or kenneth.kohlenberg@sinclair.edu
The Community Concert Band and Community Wind Symphony were organized in 1977 by Dr. Clarence Walls who served the division of Fine & Performing Arts for 27 years first as chair of music and then as dean. Professor Kenneth Kohlenberg has conducted the Community Bands since 1987. The Community Bands are composed of woodwind, brass and percussion musicians from Sinclair and the greater Dayton area. Membership includes students from high schools and colleges, music educators and instrumentalists from a wide variety of professions. Rehearsals are scheduled each Monday evening for the Concert Band and each Wednesday evening for the Wind Symphony from 7:15 to 9:00 p.m. during the fall, winter and spring quarters. The Youth Wind Ensemble was formed in 1999 for area high school musicians and is supported through the Sinclair Foundation Val P. Hattemer Endowment. Auditions are held in the fall for the Youth Wind Ensemble and rehearsals are from 7:00 to 9:00 on Tuesday evenings during the winter and spring quarters. All groups concertize regularly on campus and throughout the greater Dayton area during the academic year. Performances include the best of traditional and contemporary literature for both the large Wind Band and smaller ensembles. The Community Bands have commissioned and premiered works by Claude T. Smith, Steven Reineke, David Gillingham and John Parcell. The Wind Symphony has recorded two record albums on the Coronet label, two compact discs on the Mark label, and has appeared in concert at the 1983, 1987, 1990, 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2010 Ohio Music Education Association state conferences. The bands have drawn high praise from guest artists who have performed with the groups, including composers and conductors: Donald McGinnis, Claude T. Smith, W. Francis McBeth, James Curnow, Eugene Migliaro Corporon, John P. Paynter, Robert Jager, Martin Mailman, Fisher Tull, Frank Ticheli, Jack Stamp, Timothy Mahr, Andrew Boysen, Jr., David Gillingham, Stanley DeRusha, Quincy Hilliard, James Barnes, Steven Reineke, David Shaffer, Rodney Winther, Robert Sheldon, Robert W. Smith, Brant Karrick, Mark Camphouse, Samuel Hazo, and soloists: Armando Ghitalla, Anthony Gigliotti, Dennis Smith, Joseph Lulloff, Roger Behrend, Fritz Kaenzig, Karrin Meffert-Nelson, Margaret Gage, Ada Saunders, Scott Belck, Barrick Stees, Sandra Tiemens, John Kurokawa, Frank Kaderabek, John Rider, Brian Bowman, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, Walter Verdehr, Dale Underwood, Vincent DiMartino, the Band of Flight's Wright Brass, Timothy Olt, Amy Porter, Nan Raphael, William Purvis, Dan Bentley, Harry Watters, Ashley Hall, Kevin Bobo, Richard Begel and David Zeng.
Please take a look at the list of Guest Performers, Composers and Conductors who have appeared with the Community Bands by clicking the link on the left!
Kenneth Kohlenberg
Professor of Music Kenneth Kohlenberg conducts the Community Concert Band, the Community Wind Symphony and Youth Wind Ensemble and teaches a variety of music courses. He is also the conductor and music director of the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra. Before coming to Sinclair, Dr. Kohlenberg held similar positions at
Dr. Kohlenberg hosted programs on Dayton Public Radio, 88.1/89.9 FM, from 1990 to 2000. He has contributed over thirty articles for eight volumes of Teaching Music through Performance in Band, published by GIA. Dr. Kohlenberg is a frequent clinician and guest conductor throughout the Midwest. His professional memberships include Music Educators National Conference, College Band Directors National Association, Ohio Music Educators Association, National Band Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Pi Kappa Lambda.
