North Little Rock Community Concert Band

The North Little Rock Community Concert Band was founded in 1982 through the corporate vision of its founding conductor and Director Emeritus, Arkansas band legend J. Raymond Brandon, Mayor Reed Thompson, and twenty-five initial band members. Beginning on Sunday, November 21st of that year the band has played continuous seasons of free public concerts for North Little Rock audiences. The first seven seasons were played under the baton of now Conductor Emeritus Brandon. Since the late Mr. Brandon’s retirement in August of 1989 the band has performed with its present Music Director and Conductor, Rico Belotti, on the podium, assisted by Associate Director Bill Spainhour. The band is now comprised of 100 active musicians and presents three concerts each season, as well as performances at other special civic events. The Band is a member of the Association of Concert Bands and has performed at the ACB National Convention. The band has also played at the Arkansas Bandmasters Association Convention. The NLRCCB is a sustaining member of the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association. The five-fold purpose of the band is:

To provide adult citizens with advanced musical proficiency an opportunity to continue their pursuit of music and share their talent with others.
To upgrade the cultural spirit of the community.
To present formal concerts, admission free, for the community, and to play for certain major civic functions in North Little Rock.
To inspire student musicians to continue their music study.
To uphold the tradition of the concert band, and band music, in America.

North Little Rock Community Concert Band Conductor

Rico Belotti

Rico Belotti became the conductor of the North Little Rock Community Concert Band in 1989, succeeding the band’s founder and Director Emeritus J. Raymond Brandon. Mr. Belotti is a product of the public school music program in Little Rock and attended Arkansas Tech University where he was a student of Gene Witherspoon. After his graduation in 1973 from ATU, he became the Band Director for the Marion, Arkansas, public schools and taught there for fourteen years. In 1987, he moved to the Pulaski County Special School District where he was director of bands at Jacksonville High School for eighteen years. He retired from active teaching in June 2005. Mr. Belotti is a past president of the Arkansas Bandmasters Association, and he is active as a contest adjudicator, studio teacher and composer with several works for wind band, brass band and choir to his credit. He is an associate music director of the Natural State Brass Band, a British style brass band he helped to found, and in which he plays E Flat Bass. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the North American Brass Band Association, a member of Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi, and in 2005, he was awarded Honorary Life Membership in the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association. A member of Christ Episcopal Church, Mr. Belotti sings in the choir, and is active in several facets of lay ministry. He is married to Ginny Belotti who is also a retired Arkansas public school teacher. They have one daughter Leah Belotti Carnahan who resides with her husband Flint and two sons in Fort Worth, Texas.

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