WELCOME TO THE VINEYARD HAVEN BAND - 2011
A Vineyard Tradition since 1868

We just completed our one hundred fortieth season of nearly continuous service to the community. Currently, the band is made up of amateurs (music lovers, in the best sense) and professionals, quite a few of them school band directors. We have students from seventh grade through graduate school, music teachers, active as well as retired, a NASA scientist, local farmers, laborers, hoteliers.

Originally, eighteen Civil War veterans (both blue & Gray) organized the Vineyard Haven Band Brass Band in 1868 in order to play at the West Tisbury Agricultural Association Fair, and also to earn side money by playing for "socials." As a "big band" of its era, also larger than many off- Island town and professional bands, it probably could not compete with the various brass bands imported for parades and concerts. In any case, the Vineyard Haven Band was considered "a bunch of noisemakers" according to late band historian Tom Bardwell's grand uncle Francis Vincent Pease. MORE>