Listen to the Band airs during the summer on Saturday at 3:30 pM. 

Carl Serbell grew up in Central Pennsylvania and moved to Fairfield County in 1976. He recorded several seasons of Listen to the Band around 2000 and has since moved to St Louis, MO.

A trumpet player since his school days, locally he played in the Westport Community Band, the Connecticut Symphonic Band, plus pit and concert orchestras. For several years, he operated the New Westport Brass Band ("we're not sure there was an Old Westport Brass Band, but if there was, we're not it"), playing brass band arrangements from Civil War days. He is a founder of the American Chamber Orchestra that performed at the First Presbyterian Church in Fairfield, and toured Europe two times with that group. 

Currently, Carl sings in his church choir and plays in St Louis area community bands and orchestras. He tells us that Listen to the Band was his response to the "thrilling repertory for wind bands," which refers to any group where all instruments are sounded by the breath, no string instruments. The wind band repertory was famously popularized in the last century by Frederick Fennell and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and it includes very modern compositions while still embracing the folk tunes played by Civil War brass bands and the music of the great 19th century concert bands led by the likes of Patrick Gilmore and John Phillip Sousa.