Marshall's Civic Band What's New

Photo Collage Restoration

In 2019, Marshall's Band engaged a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to preserve three large photo collages of former band members.  In 2902, 1913, and 1922 large photo collages of the band members were taken and housed in the band's rehearsal hall and library. Included in the images are portraits of the founder of Marshall's Band, John B. Marshall, the founder of the Topeka Santa Fe Band, Clarence M. Whitlow, as well as many other early Topeka musicians.

The images are very large - approximately 5 feet by 4 feet - making care and preservation difficult. Over the years the the collages had deteriorated and were in danger of being lost due to damage. David Zlotky, a local artist with a national reputation - one of his artworks is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum - agreed to digitally restore the collages using photo editing software. The original images and a copy of the digital files were donated to the Kansas State Historical Society for future preservation. Having access to the digital files will allow the band to use the artwork in educational and promotional materials.

1902 - click to zoom	1913	1922

CD Project

In the summer of 2004, Marshall's Band's received a grant from the Kansas Arts Commission to record a CD of Kansas-related original compositions and arrangements that had recently been arranged for modern concert band (see the Music Preservation Project below). The recording session took place at the Exceptions Studios in Topeka with the band under the direction of Cliff Manning.

Where to buy the CD

Our CD, Music From The Archives, is available for only $10.00 at all of our summer concerts in Gage Park.  See our Concerts page for a list of dates and times. The CDs can also be purchased from the following local merchants: Manning Music, 3400 SW 6th Ave., Topeka If you are outside of Topeka, you can e-mail us to obtain a copy at:

(Due to difficulties with SPAM we have had to remove all e-mail addresses from the links on this web site.  To contact us, click on an e-mail link and  manually type the address as displayed in the "To:" field. We are sorry for the inconvenience.)

CD Details

Eighteen of the recently arranged pieces were included on the CD:

See the complete liner notes for histories of the pieces, biographies of the composers, and other information. The band would like to thank Randy Wills (Exceptions Studios), Judy Coder (artwork and cover design), the Topeka Capital-Journal (cover photo), and the Kansas State Historical Society (liner photos), and especially the Kansas Arts Commission for their assistance with this project.

Music Preservation Project

Marshall's Band's library contains numerous pieces of Kansas-related original compositions and arrangements that date to the turn of the 20th Century. These handwritten originals have been cataloged and are stored in an archival environment, but unfortunately they are written for obsolete instrumentation, are too fragile to perform from, and are often too yellowed to photocopy.

In order to preserve this unique collection of music, we were awarded a grant from the Kansas Arts Commission to hire a professional music arranger to transcribe these compositions using music publishing software. Now that the transcriptions have been completed, the band will be able to perform this music on a regular basis, preserving it for future generations.

The arranger we chose to transcribe and arrange the music was Darren W. Jenkins of Lawrence, KS. Mr. Jenkins has a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Washburn University in Topeka, and a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Kansas. Darren is one of the most prolific Composer/Arrangers in the Midwest, having written nearly 100 original compositions and arrangements to date for a variety of musical ensembles and in a wide range of musical styles. We feel fortunate that Darren has been able to work us into his busy schedule.

Our arranging project was completed in mid-June of 2003. We would like to thank Darren Jenkins for his artistic interpretations and his ability to turn the faded, misread and mistranscribed pieces into beautifully printed music. The three volunteers who logged over 200 hours toward this project also deserve a big vote of thanks. Finally, we would like to thank the now defunct Kansas Arts Commission, without whose generous support this project would not have been possible.

Music Cataloging Project

In 1993, Marshall's Band was awarded a Heritage Program grant by the Kansas Humanities Council to catalog and preserve its music library. The Heritage Program is a grant opportunity offered by the Kansas Humanities Council in cooperation with the Kansas State Historical Society. The Heritage Program encourages the preservation and study of local cultural resources such as historical documents, photographs, artifacts, oral traditions, and languages.

The library of Marshall's Band includes approximately 3,500 pieces of music dating from the late 1870s to the present. The majority of these pieces are permanently out of print and have been unavailable from the publishers for decades. It was, and is, our belief that the library holdings of Marshall's Band represent a unique collection that is worthy of preservation. In addition, because the library had never been cataloged, it was an untapped resource that the band was unable to use.

The cataloging took approximately one year to complete. Dozens of boxes of music were removed from the old library location (an unheated and un-air conditioned loft in a downtown business) and were moved to the basement of Manning Music where the cataloging took place. The pieces were examined, one by one, and a handwritten catalog worksheet was completed for each. The worksheets were used to enter the relevant information into a computerized database, and a hard copy catalog was produced.

The database was created using dBASE IV, a DOS software that was a good product choice at the time. Over the years, however, that technology has become obsolete so the database records have been converted to HTML format and are available at this web site. The library is now housed in a safe, archival environment at Washburn University in Topeka and is available for on-site research. See our Library page for more information.

If your organization is interested in undertaking a similar cataloging project and would like more information about our experiences (in grant writing, lessons learned, etc.), please feel free to contact Rick Baker from our Contact Us page.