About

Ever since the 1860s, the towns of Southern Macoupin County (sometimes called Coal Valley), have enjoyed having community bands. Staunton, Mt. Olive, Gillespie and Benld each had their own band. These bands performed regularly in parades and on the town squares. They even had competitions with one another during large public gatherings such as the local Old Settlers Picnic, Independence Day and local Homecomings. Eventually, the bands merged into the single band we know today.

Our Conductor

The band
is currently under the direction of Darryl Coan, a Professor of Music at SIUE and Director of the Music Education teacher training. He and his family make their home in Staunton and has played clarinet in the band for several seasons. He has 30+ years of experience as a band director, teacher and professional musician and is excited to have the opportunity to work with such a great group of players. He is a strong advocate of community music and his work has taken him to several countries where he has had the opportunity to witness and examine various community music traditions, including Flamenco music in Spain and folk musician education in Finland and Malaysia.

In Memory of Ken Kay

Our most recent Director Emeritus was the late Ken Kay.

Ken is well known to the area as a long time Music Educator. He retired from conducting the Community Band at the end of the 2012 season after a 15-year tenure and continued to play in the band for several years after that. As Conductor Emeritus, he was be asked to fill in for the director from time to time. Ken passed away in early 2023 and we miss him.