2026 ALUMNI SUMMER BAND

Dear U of M Alumni, Students, Friends and Family,

Our next summer of music is approaching, and we invite you to join us for another season of the UMBAS (University of Minnesota Alumni Band Society) Summer Band. If you have not played with us before, we are a community concert band-style ensemble that performs several outdoor concerts in the Twin Cities area each summer. This is not an exclusive group by any means – the more the merrier! Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think will be interested.

2026 Summer Band Registration Form Here

Please register by May 13, 2026

2026 Summer Band Schedule

The band rehearses on Wednesday evenings, as laid out in our schedule below. All rehearsals will be held in the Marching Band Main Rehearsal Hall at Huntington Bank Stadium (HBS) on the campus of the University of Minnesota from 6:30pm-9pm. Parking is available right outside the stadium ($1 an hour), but other parking and transit options are always utilized by our members. Please reference this link to know when event parking is scheduled outside the stadium: https://pts.umn.edu/park-and-drive/event-parking/event-calendar

You can enter through the marching band entrance, located inside the Pope County entrance on the North side of the stadium. We are flexible with scheduling conflicts, since summer is frequently a time of traveling and activities. We will ask that you try to be present at as many rehearsals as possible, since it is still our intent to be able to play great music at a high level. A specific request in this regard would be to make sure that if you need to miss a rehearsal that it not be a rehearsal immediately before a concert – unless you are also not available to attend that concert.

W 5/20: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

W 5/27: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

W 6/3: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

W 6/10: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

W 6/17: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

W 6/24: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

W 07/15: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

W 7/22: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium (Tentative- pending aquatennial performance)

W 7/29: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

W 8/5: Rehearsal; 6:30pm-9pm; MRH, Huntington Bank Stadium

Concert Dates

At this time, we do not have concert dates set and it has been a challenge to find venues with availability that are large enough for our group. We will be performing at Northrop and the St. Paul Cathedral but do not have dates set. Our goal is to schedule concerts for Wednesday evenings if possible. If you know of a venue that has availability and is large enough for our ensemble, please send their contact information to summerband@skiumah.org.

Directors

This season we will have two graduate student teaching assistants, Muhamad Yusri Bin Mohamed Ali and Nahal Javan, sharing the position of band director. An introduction email from them will be sent prior to the first rehearsal.

Repertoire
Musically, a variety of repertoire is included in our concert sets, but it always includes some of the traditional U of M repertoire: Minnesota Rouser, Minnesota March, and Battle Hymn of the Republic, among others. In addition to the traditional music, we include standard concert band repertoire to fill out our concerts. Music will be sent out via email prior to the first rehearsal. You will be responsible for printing or downloading a digital copy of your music.

This year’s concert band repertoire is:

Dam Busters March by Eric Coates arr. Duthoit
West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein arr. Jay Bocook
ABBA on Broadway arr. Michael Brown
The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillip Sousa
Music from Wicked arr. Michael Sweeney
Star Wars Sage by John Williams/Stephen Bulla
Latina by Frank Bencriscutto
English Folk Songs Suite by R. Vaughan Williams
Clarinet Candy by Leroy Anderson
The Minnesota March by John Phillip Sousa

Thank you again, and please try to fill out the registration form prior to May 13th. With everyone’s unique schedules, we rely on strength in numbers. Please feel free to extend this invitation to those who are not directly affiliated with the U of M. You might have friends or family that are interested in playing in a group like this and we would welcome them with open arms.
As always, please feel free to email summerband@skiumah.org if you have any questions or concerns. We are looking forward to working with you all starting May 20th!

Ski-U-Mah and Go Gophers!

UMBAS Summer Band Committee