{"id":1987,"date":"2026-06-25T12:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2026-06-25T12:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:04:13","slug":"at-165-years-denver-municipal-band-is-older-than-colorado-and-still-going-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1987","title":{"rendered":"At 165 years, Denver Municipal Band is older than Colorado and still going strong"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor\u2019s note: This is part of The Know\u2019s series,\u00a0Staff Favorites. Each week, we give our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We\u2019ll also let you in on some hidden gems.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Fourth of July 2026: Fireworks displays across metro Denver<\/a><\/p>\n

Shane Endsley can feel the weight of the Denver Municipal Band\u2019s history, and that only motivates him to carry it higher.<\/p>\n

The son of former DMB director Gerald Endsley, who led the band from the mid-1990s through his death in 2015, the younger Endsley is a nationally touring trumpet player and director of education and outreach for the band. Along with current DMB director and conductor Joe Martin, Endsley is still pushing forward an elastic, accomplished group that\u2019s playing more than 20 free shows this year in addition to school visits and other performances.<\/p>\n

That includes a free, Sunday, June 28, show at City Park Jazz at 6 p.m., another nonprofit that itself is celebrating 40 years. Amid that, Endsley remains one of those rare music lifers that offers a link to the past while pushing the next generation of musicians forward. And he\u2019s a dad himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are musicians, too,\u201d he said of his son, 17, and daughter, 20. \u201cThey\u2019re really good, but it\u2019s not their focus. They didn\u2019t zero in on it like I did when I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endsley, like his father, began playing music before he turned 10 and was performing on stage by his teens. He made his bow with DMB at age 17, and has since toured and recorded widely, including with Grammy-winning names such as Ani DiFranco and Jason Mraz. The 51-year-old is also a lecturer in Metropolitan State University\u2019s Jazz program and coordinator of the school\u2019s innovative studio and performance space at 800 Kalamath St. in Denver.<\/p>\n

In other words, a busy dude. Did we mention his wife\u2019s also a professional musician?<\/p>\n

Along with the decades he\u2019s put into his craft, he\u2019s always encouraging new recruits.<\/p>\n

Read more Gen Z shoppers are energizing malls as they stroll and scroll<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you\u2019re willing to take time and work at it, it feels attainable for everybody,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t get too discouraged by somebody who\u2019s rocketing ahead of you, because we all learn at different paces.\u201dThe<\/p>\n

Denver Municipal Band is evidence of lifelong music love in general. They play as a 40-piece concert band, 20-piece jazz band, and contract act for show bands, a brass quintet or smaller ensembles, according to their website. \u201cBecause of our flexibility, we play everything \u2014 orchestral, rock, soul, and funk,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

DMB\u2019s relatively modest, $200,000 annual budget is cobbled from a variety of funding sources, but donations continue to play a huge role in its underpinning. That\u2019s especially important since many of the musicians play in other top-notch groups such as the Colorado Symphony, Colorado Ballet, Central City Opera, Denver Brass, and the Queen City Jazz Band. They need to make a living, and while you may be shocked to hear this, the local performing arts scene isn\u2019t exactly the most lucrative gig out there.<\/p>\n

Band members carry the soul of Denver, and they haven\u2019t dropped the ball. For its free, July 4 and 5 shows at Washington Park and Cheesman Park, respectively, they\u2019re playing Aaron Copland\u2019s \u201cLincoln Portrait\u201d alongside a recitation of the Gettysburg Address, amid other tunes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really powerful for right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWith everything going on in politics and in this country, it\u2019s a really patriotic statement, and we\u2019re proud of Joe Martin for programming it.\u201d<\/p>\n

See more shows from Denver Municipal Band at denvermunicipalband.org\/calendar.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Dozens of states could face new costs because of high error rates in SNAP food aid<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver Municipal Band has lots of summer shows coming up, and a historic past<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-news","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nAt 165 years, Denver Municipal Band is older than Colorado and still going strong - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1987\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"At 165 years, Denver Municipal Band is older than Colorado and still going strong - 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