About Us
The Detroit Concert Band Today
The new Detroit Concert Band was born in 2026 as a Michigan nonprofit corporation — brought to life using the same model that the original ensemble operated for many years.
We perform with 59 professional musicians, all members of the American Federation of Musicians Local 5, in the same per-service model that defined the original band under Leonard B. Smith. Our concerts are free and open to the public. They always have been. That is not incidental to what we do — it is the whole point.
The Detroit Concert Band exists to give every Detroiter access to world-class live music, to preserve the American concert band tradition, and to restore one of the great summer rituals this city has known. No ticket required. No barrier between the music and the people it was made for.
We are a young organization with a very old mission. Our founding board, our musicians, and everyone who has gathered behind this revival believe that Belle Isle is not complete without its band — and that Detroit deserves to have it back.
The History
In 1946, Leonard B. Smith stood on the stage of the Jerome H. Remick Bandshell on Belle Isle and raised his baton for the first time as conductor and founder of the Detroit Concert Band. What followed was 45 years of summer evenings that Detroiters of a certain generation remember the way others remember a smell or a photograph — vividly, and with something that resembles longing.
Smith was not a typical bandleader. He had served as principal trumpet of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and performed as cornet soloist with Edwin Franko Goldman's legendary band in New York — the gold standard of American concert band performance at the time. He was the trumpet voice behind the Lone Ranger's iconic fanfare. He was, by any measure, one of the great virtuosos of his era. And he chose to give the best years of his conducting life to the people of Detroit, on a stage in a public park, for free.
At its height, the Detroit Concert Band performed before audiences of 10,000 or more. It recorded 31 LP albums — including, famously, the complete set of all 116 known Sousa marches, a feat matched by no other ensemble at the time. It was recognized nationally as the premier civilian concert band in America. Musicians who played under Smith spoke of the experience as the standard against which everything else was measured.
Smith led the band until 1991. He passed away in 2002.
For more than thirty years, the Remick Bandshell has stood without its band. The stage is still there (and with the help of the MoBIG organization, working toward its own restoration). The summer evenings are still there. The music has been waiting.
While our band is not a direct descendent of the original Detroit Concert Band and its leader, Leonard B. Smith, we are driven by the same mission and model. We cannot wait to start sharing concerts with the citizens of Detroit in the near future!