About Us

 

The Brodbecks Band, chartered in 1878, has about 35 members and is under the direction of  Director Griz Gifford.

In 2023, the Brodbecks Band celebrates 145 years as an organized Concert Band.

The Brodbecks Band performs various concerts for many types of functions throughout the year and is available for your entertainment needs.

The Brodbecks Band plays a variety of music, including marches and concert tunes including selections by musician and composer Roland F. Seitz (1867-1946), a Glen Rock native who composed more than 46 marches that earned him the title of "The Parade Music Prince".

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Our Director

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GRIZ GIFFORD

 

Griz Gifford became the Director of the Brodbecks Band in the spring of 2022. He had recently retired after 36 years at Friends School of Baltimore, where he was the Band Director and Chair of the Performing Arts Department. Griz earned two music degrees from Towson University, where he studied trombone with John Melick and conducting with Dr. Dana Rothlisberger. His other important teachers were brass specialists Dr. Donald S. Reinhardt (Philadelphia) and Carmine Caruso (New York City), and jazz theory teacher Garry Dial (New York). Griz has been truly blessed in his career as a trombonist, performing, at some point, virtually all styles of music that call for the trombone. His classical credits are mostly from his early years in Baltimore, including the Chesapeake Opera, Maryland Ballet, and Principal Trombonist of both the Annapolis and Gettysburg Symphonies. But his real passion was for popular and commercial music. His career moves took him from Baltimore to Atlantic City and then New York City.

 

He has performed with many entertainment greats, including Tom Jones, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Lewis, Johnny Mathis, Glen Campbell, Diahann Carroll, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Mel Torme, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The O’Jays, The Jackson Five (with Michael Jackson), Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and many more. In New York, he played Broadway shows and for a number of jazz, funk and Latin bands. He spent a year on tour with “A Chorus Line,” sailed the Caribbean on cruise ships, played for the Ringling Bros. Barney & Bailey Circus, the Ice shows (Follies, Capades, Disney), and performed at two Presidential Inaugural balls. His touring has taken him to 45 states and Puerto Rico. He is listed in “Who’s Who in America,” “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers,” and was a 2020 inductee into the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame. Griz is still active in the freelance scene in the mid-Atlantic region and fronts his own New Orleans Second Line band. His arrangements for brass quartet, brass quintet, and solo trombone with piano are available through J.W. Pepper Publishing Company. He currently lives with his wife on a horse farm in southern Pennsylvania.

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Griz can be contacted at 443-928-3385 or through  email address Grizgifford1@gmail.com

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