About
The Contra Costa Wind Symphony is made up of dedicated artists with a common love of performing high quality symphonic band music. While based in Walnut Creek CA, its talented volunteer musicians hail from throughout Contra Costa County and beyond. Regular concerts are performed in a professional venue in the heart of Walnut Creek CA — the Lesher Center for the Arts. Featured are modern compositions written specifically for wind symphonies. Also performed is music ranging from swing and jazz through traditional band favorites.
The CCWS has a long history of promoting new music and has presented 5 world premieres, 15 United States premieres and 17 West Coast premieres. The CCWS, as part of a commissioning consortium, was one of the first ensembles in the United States to perform Symphony No. 10: The River of Time by David Maslanka.
The ensemble was formed in 1980. It has been conducted by Dr. Duane Carroll, who retired at the end of the 2014-2015 season. Brad Hogarth was appointed CCWS’s Music Director and Conductor beginning with the 2015-2016 season.
Contra Costa Wind Symphony is now being conducted by the esteemed Bay Area conductor Dr. Luis Zuñiga.
History of CCWS
by Dr. Duane Carroll
In the beginning…
When Lee Russell, then director of Acalanes Adult Education, first formed the group in 1980 it was known as the Walnut Creek Community Band. It had 24 musicians and its conductor was Farrell J. Reilly, a Walnut Creek musician and music store owner who agreed to conduct the band for one year just to get it started. The band rehearsed in the old library at Del Valle High School in Walnut Creek. The rehearsal space had a low ceiling. Chairs and music stands had to be setup and taken down each rehearsal. There was almost no percussion equipment and no music library. When I became the new conductor in 1981, I was able to move the rehearsal site to Campolindo High School in Moraga where I was the director of instrumental music.
What’s in a name…
Soon thereafter came the thought of changing the name to better reflect the band’s new location. We became known as the Lamorinda Community Band, representing primarily the communities of Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda. We played our first concert in the band room at Campolindo High School in December of 1981. With 26 musicians, an audience of 40, and a special guest appearance by Santa, we were on our way!
Fourteen years later the band presented its first performance in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Now numbering over 60 members, having a broader repertoire and playing for larger audiences, the group needed a name that was once again geographically more representative of its membership and reflective of the music it offered the public.
The name Contra Costa Wind Symphony seemed to fit. Contra Costa because musicians in the group now come from throughout the county (and some from beyond) and Wind Symphony because that better describes the breadth of our musical focus.
A special experience…
In our concerts we introduce many band composers, and through the years the names of the most accomplished composers come up more often. We hope the public will become as familiar with the names of Alfred Reed, Roger Nixon, Warren Barker, Jerry Bilik, Steven Bulla, Frigyes Hidas, James Barnes or Steven Reineke, as they are with Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy and Ravel.
An invitation…
It is sometimes a matter of convincing more people to take a chance — come to a wind symphony concert — the music you hear will be something tried and true, and something new and exciting. Selections will vary from what you might hear at a summer concert in the park, to the sounds you would hear in the more formal setting of a concert hall.