Knoxville Community Band

The Knoxville Community Band is made up of instrumentalists in the community who like to play, and most have been playing since grammar school. Some players are band directors who take time out from their own bands to keep in practice on their major instruments, and others are professionals in the community who learned to play in school and don't want to lose their expertise. All are volunteers, and all play because they love music.

The band is sponsored by the Knoxville Parks and Recreation Department. The group plays year round at festivals and other special events and performs a series of outdoor concerts during the summer. New members with expertise on any band instruments are welcome. Practices are from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays at Northwest Middle School on Pleasant Ridge Road. For more information on concert dates or about joining the band, email kcbdirector@gmail.com.

Director – Larry Hicks is a retired band director from Heritage High School in Maryville, TN. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama and his Masters from the University of Tennessee. He taught one year in Alabama before moving to Tennessee, where he spent 30 years as a high school band director. He was band director at Everett High School in Maryville for 10 years until it closed in 1977, and then he became band director at Heritage High School and served there for 19 years until he retired in 1996. He has judged marching band and concert band contests all over the Southeast. In addition, he was horn instructor for the Avant Garde Drum and Bugle Corps based in Saratoga Springs, NY for six years. He has played trumpet for 20 years with the Maryville College Community Band, and he played in the Knoxville Community Band before becoming its director in 2003.

Assistant Director – Mark Boring played under Larry Hicks as a student at Everett High School in Maryville, TN, and he later became the assistant director at Heritage High School. He was a band director for 30 years before retiring in 2008. He got his Bachelor of Science degree from Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, TN, and his Masters from the University of Tennessee. He also has an EDS (educational specialist) degree from Tennessee Tech. He taught band for a year at Greenback High School before he was hired as Hick’s assistant at Heritage, where he served for 17 years. Boring became band director at Eagleton Middle School in 2002 and worked there until his retirement. He wrote some of the music for the marching band shows before his retirement, and since then, he has been arranging music for concert bands. He plays trumpet in the Knoxville Community Band and has played in the orchestra at Maryville College and in the Maryville College Community Band. He also plays in local church groups.