Recalling Minnesota's community bands and bandshells

The Lake Harriet Bandshell — A free summer evening big band concert at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in southwest Minneapolis on July 11, 1013.
MPR Photo/Hart Van Denburg

Bandshells and band concerts have a long, rich history in our region. Today, the professional chamber orchestra Minnesota Sinfonia performs at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis.

To find out more about that tradition, MPR's Cathy Wurzer recently spoke with Annette Atkins who teaches history at the College of St. Bennedict and St. John's University.

The two met in front of the Lake Harriet bandshell, where Atkinssaid the current bandshell is not quite the same as the first one that was built on that site in 1889.

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The Lake Harriet Bandshell complex in southwest Minneapolis on July 11, 2013, looks very different from the first band shell build on that site according to Annette Atkins, who teaches history at the College of St. Bennedict and St. John's University.
MPR Photo/Hart Van Denburg

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The St. Cloud State Reformatory Band, 1914.
Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

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Recalling Minnesota's community bands and bandshells

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