About

The North Star Community Band was founded in 1988 by conductor/music director Faye Rader in cooperation with Antioch Music Center. Their goals were (and are) simple: to provide volunteer adult musicians with a place to keep and develop their musical skills and to provide a place to pass those skills on to the next generation.

The first public performance by the band occurred on October 2, 1988 (less than one month after the band’s first rehearsal- see picture, below).


In 1989, members of the band began providing the instrumental music for the summer musicals presented in cooperation with the Ibsen Dance Theatre and the City of Gladstone.

In September of 1992, the band moved to its current home of Oak Park High School (because other local stages were simply too small!) and on December 10, 1993, the band gave its 100th public performance.