About Us
The Grande Prairie Marching Band performs annually as “Musical Ambassadors” for Grande Prairie and Region. The band, sponsored by the City of Grande Prairie, is truly a community band; membership ranges in age from 13 to 60 and comes from all walks of life.
The Grande Prairie Marching Band is active in the months of March through August and performs both in concert and on parade. In concert the band performs twenty to thirty minutes of music of varied musical styles ranging from the “pops” to “classics” and of course includes a selection of “marches”. On parade, sound is delivered in a smart military fashion.
Grande Prairie, Alberta is a city of 50,000 located in North/Central Alberta some 300 miles North and West of Edmonton, Alberta. Principally an agricultural community, Grande Prairie is the business and cultural center of the Peace Region and the nesting ground for the Trumpeter Swan. Grande Prairie was proud to host the 1995 Canada Winter Games and the 2000 Alberta Summer Games.
The Grande Prairie Marching Band tours annually each summer and has in the past performed at: Edmonton Klondike Days, Southern Alberta Fairs in Medicine Hat/Lethbridge, Kelowna, Expo ‘86, The Yukon, Montana, and Vancouver Island. Recent tours have included Alaska in 1993 and the Canadian Maritimes in 1995. The band won “Best In Class” at the World Marching Band Competition during the Calgary Stampede in 1996 and performed as the Official North American Band at the 1998 Australian Marching Band Festival. The band received a “bronze” award at the 2000 WAMSB championships held in Calgary, Alberta and at the 2001 WAMSB championships held in Potsdam, Germany. The Band received a “silver” award at the 2003 WAMSB championship held in Monza, Italy, and at the 2005 WAMSB championship held in Taubate, Brazil, scoring the highest mark in the bands showband competition history.
The band is available for parade/concert from March to September each year. In addition the band can provide from its membership a Dixieland/Jazz Band and a German Styled Oomph Pah Band.
The band has begun a Junior Band program to encourage the younger players to play their instruments over the summer and to experience the thrill of marching and performing.
The band has big plans for the 2008 season! We will start it all off with the Sexsmith Chautauqua Days parade. The end of June sees the band heading off to China to participate in a pre-Olympic Marching Band event, as well as playing at the Canada Day ceremonies. Once we have returned home we will be participating in the parades in Donnelly and Beaverlodge, as well as the Grande Prairie 50th Anniversary Ticker Tape parade.