Mountaineer Brass Band to Salute Veterans

The Commonwealth University-Mansfield Mountaineer Brass Band (MBB), under the direction of Dr. Nathan Rinnert, will present their annual concert honoring United States military veterans on Saturday, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m., in the VA Hospital Auditorium (Building 92) in Bath, NY.  

The MBB returns to the Bath VA after a three-year, pandemic-related hiatus. The 45-minute concert will feature a wide variety of marches, patriotic pieces, and popular tunes. An Armed Forces Salute, which includes songs associated with each branch of the United States Armed Forces, will highlight the concert. Chamber ensembles made up of band members will also perform – a brass quintet, a tuba duet, and a marimba solo. Admission to the concert is free and patrons of all ages are encouraged to attend. Following the concert, the VA will host a reception for concert attendees, band members, guests, and residents of the VA Hospital facility.

The Mountaineer Brass Band is the only traditional, British brass band in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, and one of only a handful of university brass bands in the U.S. The MBB maintains a traditional instrumentation of cornets, flugelhorn, tenor horns, baritones, euphoniums, trombones, E-flat tubas, BB-flat tubas, and percussion. Initiated at Mansfield in the spring of 2006 (performing on “less-British” instruments like trumpets, French horns, and American baritones), the band really took off in the spring of 2008 with support from the university Provost who provided the band with new cornets, tenor horns, baritones, and E-flat tubas.