The East York Concert Band was formed in 1948 and first was called the East York Citizens band. It was formed from a night school class at East York Collegiate to teach musical instruments to a class of some 15 people. The teacher was the Director of Music for the East York Board of Education, Norman Tuckwell. He readily determined that these people already knew how to play various instruments and read music and the night school class became the nucleus of a concert band. The band rehearsed in East York Collegiate under the sponsorship of the East York Board of Education until 1952 when it became part of the East York Recreation Program. At this time the name was changed to the current East York Concert Band.
This also coincided with the purchase of the first uniforms for the band. The uniform was a military style navy tunic with open lapels, royal blue tie, navy forage cap and grey blue trousers. The outfit was trimmed with a red on gold stripe on the trousers, tunic sleeves and applets. In 1973 the heavyweight uniform was replaced by a wine-coloured blazer with band crest, wine and grey striped tie and grey slacks. The ladies in the band wear white blouses in lieu of shirt and tie. The band adopted a new look in 2003 retaining the wine blazers but switching to black bow ties and black trousers for a more formal appearance.
Although under sponsorship of the East York Recreation Department, the band has always rehearsed within the school system, first at East York Collegiate, then at the Old Plains Road Public School. When R.H. McGregor Public School was rebuilt, the band moved there and has remained ever since. Until the early 1990's the band received modest financing from the Borough of East York. Since then the band has been completely self sufficient in financing, relying on programs to the community to sustain itself. Although the Borough of East York, along with others, lost its identity the Greater Toronto amalgamation, the band retains its old name due to 50 plus years in the public eye.
It can be said that leadership of the band has always come from within its ranks. The band is operating under its fifth conductor. The first, Norman Tuckwell, who was its founder, conducted the band until his death in January of 1970. He basically was a self taught musician who could play, if only slightly, every type of instrument for school demonstration purposes.
An Assistant Conductor, Bob Bedgood, took over from Norm Tuckwell in 1970 until his sudden death in December 1985. Bob had been a 15 year veteran of the band as an Alto Horn player. Although having never taken formal training as a Conductor, he was a experienced musician and did a capable job keeping the band together and increased the size to approximately 35 members.
Just prior to Bob's passing, Ernie Walker - a French Horn player and a 17 years veteran with the band - was being groomed as assistant conductor. Ernie, retired from his career as a science teacher, was in his 35th year with the band, 18 years as conductor. He expends as much or more effort outside of rehearsals for the band as during. His efforts have greatly improved the performance quality of the band. This has stimulated increased membership to its present 47. The band was fortunate to have a very competent assistant conductor, Ramona (Wenzel) Ehlert. Ramona, an excellent flautist, was originally a music teacher in the school system. With this background she was the Assistant Conductor for most of her first 10 years with the band.
With Ernie's retirement at the end of 2007, Ramona agreed to assume the mantle of conductor with another band member, Emily Summers - one of the bands clarinetists and also a music teacher in the school system - acting as the new assistant conductor.
In 2009 Ramona stepped down and Emily took on the role of Conductor.
The band has an almost even split between Brass & Percussion and Woodwinds & Flutes. Two thirds of the membership has come into the band since 1990. However, there still remains a nucleus of 17 veteran members with 10 to 35 years plus service. The band is considered a Family type organization with ages ranging from teens to mid Eighties. During its 55 year history, the band has always had in its membership some combination of two or more family members. In its beginning there was the unique combination of grandfather, father and son.
The band has a library over 750 selections in 20 classifications of music from traditional marches to current musical and movie scores. Generally the difficulty ranks in the middle range of complexity, considered appropriate to challenge the proficient musician without discouraging the less experienced.
The East York Concert band is a service band open to all music -loving residents of the Greater Toronto Area. The band prides itself in presenting performances which satisfy all levels of musical appreciation. We give open air concerts, perform for hospitals, senior citizen facilities and churches of all denominations or any request where a band of our size can be of service. We are particularly proud of our long term service record pertaining to three events: - 35 years Playing for the Scarborough Adult Skating Club; - 43 years supporting the Zone D 5 Royal Canadian Legion's Annual Pilgrimage at Pine Hills Cemetery; - East York Canada Day celebration evening concert every July 1st since the band was founded. In recent years the band performs two major concerts at the Blue Danube Restaurant and Ballroom; a Christmas Concert in December and a Spring Concert in May.