Young musicians join forces with their more experienced counterparts in the multi-age Orcas Island Community Band.

Perhaps best known for its July 4th and tree lighting outdoor performances, the band also offers more formal presentations that feature a variety of musical styles.

The annual spring concert is on Saturday, June 6, 7:30 p.m. at Orcas Center. Admission is by donation.

The performance will feature what band secretary and euphonium player Karen Speck says is “unlike anything the band has had to learn before.”

The musicians, who play tubas, flutes, trombones, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, French horns, and saxophones, will perform the “Magnificent Seven,” “Third Suite” by Robert Jager, a suite of English sea songs, and several different marches.

“It’s challenging music from the standpoint that there is a lot of volume and mass to it,” director Joe Babcock said. “There are some rhythmic intricacies that are very different from what the band has played before. Playing music should always be a growing prospect. It has to be good for the players, and good doesn’t always mean easy. And it has to be entertaining for the audience as well.”

The group was founded in 1990 in response to local musicians’ desire to play band music together. It began as a “garage band” with members meeting in its first director’s garage.

By 1994, the group had grown to 10 musicians and they performed occasionally in the local Fourth of July parade and were jokingly called the Orcas Island Hysterical Society’s Sedentary Band.

Directed by Babcock for the last two years, the Orcas Island Community Band has 40 members, three of whom are high school students: Joe Boucher, Brittany Crowe, and Kailley Grantham. Crowe, who is graduating this year along with Boucher, is the first student to be on the band’s board of directors.

“I was interested in learning about how the band works and I thought it would be cool to be the youngest,” she said.

Crowe is a clarinetist, and has been with the Community Band for one year. After graduation she plans to stay on the island, work, and continue to play with the group.

“I learn a lot more and the music is challenging. They help us, and it’s fun talking to them,” Crowe said.

Boucher has played trombone with the band for five years, and will be attending Eastern Washington University in the fall on a music scholarship. He says being in the Community Band is a lot different than playing with the school group.

“There is a lot of respect,” Boucher said. “It’s like playing with a bunch of different groups, and you all have to work together. It’s really fun getting to know everyone. You have all these different backgrounds of people.”

Speck says they have always welcomed younger players.

“As long as they are recommended by the school music teacher, it doesn’t matter what age,” she said.

The band presents two formal concerts each year: one in December with a complimentary buffet and its annual spring performance. They play throughout the year at such venues as the Sunday in the Park series, July 4th pre-parade performance and on the night of the fireworks, lighting of the Christmas tree in Eastsound, and a variety of community events.

The band has just been invited to perform in the Canadian Community BandFest in Ladner, British Columbia on Sunday, June 14. Orcas Island Community Band is the only American group invited.

The band has chartered a bus and will be traveling with all its members and guests or spouses. It is the group’s second bus trip together.

“It’s quite an honor,” Speck said.