2026 The Community Band Joins Salem State

In the summer of 2025, the Salem Community Band found a new home and continues its longstanding traditions by presenting both summer and winter concerts on the beautiful campus of Salem State University. 

From the beginning, participation in the Salem Community Band—and admission to its concerts—has always been free and open to everyone, regardless of age, ability, or experience.

It is our hope that the creation of an endowment for the Salem Community Band will ensure that musicians and audiences alike can continue to experience the joy, camaraderie, and sense of community that have defined the band from its earliest days. We are excited and deeply hopeful for the future of this special organization.

The roots of what would become the Salem Community Band date back to the summer of 1999, when Salem High School Band Director and PreK–12 Coordinator of Music Cynthia Napierkowski brought together a group of local adults and students to march in the Salem Heritage Days Parade. 

Nearly a decade later, in 2008, Cynthia and several musician friends—who were then traveling out of town to participate in a community band—recognized a clear unmet need in the greater Salem area. With strong support from Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, Salem Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Alyce Davis, and Superintendent Dr. William Cameron, the concert band version of the Salem Community Band was officially formed. The group’s first performance, held in August at the Salem Willows, proudly served as the opening act for Salem’s Heritage Days celebration. Momentum quickly followed. A Winter Concert was added the following year, and in 2010 the Salem Community Jazz Band debuted.

Over the years, the Salem Community Band has welcomed between 60 and 100 musicians per concert, bringing together middle school students and lifelong musicians spanning multiple generations, and representing communities across the North Shore and beyond.