THE NELSON TOWN BAND

The Nelson Town Band, under the direction of Donna Morse, has been instrumental (pun intended) in carrying on the tradition of a local town band. We play on town commons, church lawns, and parades throughout the Monadnock Region of southern New Hampshire, with occasional forays into Vermont.

The band is made up of players of all ages from the town of Nelson, NH and surrounding towns. Typically, the younger members are active in their school bands and many are very accomplished musicians who plan to pursue a serious study of music. Several of the older members have dusted off their instruments after many years and are discovering how much fun it is to play again.

The band practices every Sunday afternoon starting in March, and opens their season in Nelson with a Memorial Day concert, parade around the common, and a trip up the hill to the cemetery. The performance schedule becomes more vigorous as the summer goes on. We enjoy playing at the Maplewood community for elder folks, the ice cream socials on the Nelson Congregation Church lawn in July and early September, and the parades for the many old home day celebrations and other local events. In December, we put on a special holiday concert in the Nelson Town Hall.

Income from the concerts and parades goes to support students going to music camp, to other area musical programs in need of funding and to purchasing music for the band. We are very excited to announce that we are now in a partnership with the Nelson School(K-5) to both financially and musically support their emerging band program. The Nelson Town Band has also been able to contribute generously to purchasing new band chairs, a tuba and a stage piano at Keene High School, new uniforms for the Keene Middle School band as well as to other music programs in need.