Looking Forward to 2026

Hello and Happy New Year. The Illinois Brass Band is getting ready for another busy milestone year and hope that you will celebrate with us.

2026 marks the 35 th anniversary of the founding of The Illinois Brass Band. Our everlasting thanks and gratitude to our founders, George Foster and the Honorable William Homer for carrying through on their vision to organize a brass band. We are sure they would be proud of the band’s heritage and commitment to excellence over the decades. We are in the planning stages for our 35 th anniversary celebration and gala concert to take place later this fall. We will share dates, locations and soloists as they are confirmed.

The band had a busy 2025 with a total of 22 individual performances. The run up to our annual NABBA competition included two joint performances with the Fox Valley Brass Band, followed by our first appearance at the Wurst Brass Fest, hosted by the Iowa Brass Band in Amana, IA, a few July 4 th parades, 5 summer park concerts, 4 high school concerts, a Veteran’s Day concert, 3 holiday concerts and one church service. We are now in the process of booking for the 2026 summer season, so if you are looking for a band, give us a call.

Our 2025 “Holiday Classics” family concerts continue to be very well attended and received. We are grateful to everyone who has supported these concerts over the years. Thank you! We are already planning for our 2026 editions of “Holiday Classics” with a new commission in the works to be premiered this year.

The band is now in rehearsals preparing for the 2026 North American Brass Band Association Championships to be held April 10 th and 11 th in Fort Wayne, IN. The required test piece for our section is Journey into Freedom by Eric Ball. Our choice piece must remain guarded and unnamed at this time due to contest rules as it is a blind adjudicated contest. 2026 also marks the 250 th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. During this semiquincentennial summer we will be featuring the music of American composers. Music from the revolutionary war, the civil war, the world wars, Dixieland, Broadway, film, jazz, pop, classical, Americana and patriotic selections will be featured.

Please watch our performance page for the latest updates to our schedule of performances. As always, thank you for your continued support of The Illinois Brass Band and we hope to see you at one of our local performances.

Upcoming events

Sunday, March 29, 2026 2:00 PM
Joint Performance with The Fox Valley Brass Band
Wesley United Methodist Church
14 N. May Street
Aurora, IL
full list and details

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