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Old Crown Brass Band
Fort Wayne, IN
About
The Old Crown Brass Band was founded in 2007 and has become one of Fort Wayne’s premier performing ensembles. The band is comprised of local music educators, and professional musicians. All members are non-compensated and share a passion for brass band music. Much of the band’s music is specially arranged for Old Crown by its resident arranger, Tony Alessandrini. The band has also formed a separate ten-piece performing ensemble known as 'Old Crown Lite'. Old Crown Brass Band performs at many venues throughout northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. In 2025, the band created a second band, 'Old Crown Metro Band'. The band has received numerous honors including first place in the open section of the 2014 and 2015 NABBA Championships. Old Crown moved up to the Third Section in 2016 and received third place honors. The band repeated third place finishes in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, it won first place in the Third Section. The band moved up to the Second Section in 2023 and was awarded third place. OCBB placed third in the 2024 US Open Brass Band Championships. The band served as host for the NABBA Championships from 2015 - 2020 and will again host the Championships in Fort Wayne in 2026, 2027, 2029 and 2030. Old Crown has performed at the 2010 and 2018 Indiana Music Educators’ Association Conference. The Old Crown Brass Band has enjoyed several conductors during its history. It is currently led by co-conductors T. J. Faur and Joseph Peters. The band is a member of Arts United of Fort Wayne and the North American Brass Band Association.
Musical Director
J. Joseph Peters
J. Joseph Peters is the founder and current director of the Steuben County Festival Choir and the Choir Director at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Angola, Indiana. He has studied trombone, organ, piano, and conducting at the Interlochen Arts Academy, DePauw University, and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Peters was an Emerson Scholar at Interlochen Arts Academy where he earned his high school diploma while double majoring in trombone and organ. He earned a Bachelor of Music in trombone performance with a second major in computer science and a minor in organ from DePauw University, on full music merit scholarship, while also becoming a certified Choirmaster through the American Guild of Organists. He then earned a Master of Music from the Jacobs School of Music in bass trombone and conducting and has been named a Pressler Scholar Emeritus. He serves on the Steuben County Humanities Fund board. In 2018, Peters became the most recent and youngest recipient of the Angola Mayor’s Arts and Humanities Award. He currently works as Vice President of sales and marketing at Powerscreen Midwest in Chicago, where he fulfills his childhood fascination with heavy equipment. Most recently, he has been bestowed the honor of becoming a Knight of Magistral Grace in the Order of Malta for his involvement in the Catholic Church.
Choice Program
Between the Two Rivers
Philip Sparke
Program Notes
Between the Two Rivers was commissioned by Fanfare 'Prins Hendrik', from Aalst in the Netherlands, to celebrate their 100th Anniversary which took place in 2004. The title derives from the fact that the town of Aalst lies between the rivers Maas and Waal. The community is a very religious one, so the famous Luther chorale was chosen as the theme for a set of variations. After a short and lively introduction, the theme is stated in full by various sections of the band in turn. Variation I is a moto perpetuo based on the three repeated notes which open the chorale. These eventually become the accompaniment to a more lyrical theme. Variation II is slower and march-like in character and employs various motifs derived from snippets of the theme. Variation III is the ‘slow movement’ and based around a figures taken from the second half of the theme. A sinister bass theme prefaces an explosive central episode out of which the chorale theme eventually emerges, decorated by the opening figure. Variation IV is in the form of a fugue, the theme of which eventually becomes the descant of a more lyrical melody in the middle of the band. The fugue develops along classical lines until it is combined with a full recapitulation of Luther’s chorale. A faster coda, based on Variation I, closes the work.
NABBA Results History (10)
| Section | Best Finish | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Third | 1st | 1 |
| Open | 1st | 1 |
| Second | 3rd | — |
| Event | Section | Place | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Championships 2026 | Second | 6th | 92.217 | |
| NABBA Championships 2025 | Second | 9th | 87.950 | |
| NABBA Championships 2024 | Second | 12th | 85.267 | |
| NABBA Championships 2023 | Second | 3rd | 89.300 | |
| NABBA Championships 2022 | Third | 5th | 84.200 | |
| NABBA Championships 2019 | Third | 1st | 282.200 | |
| NABBA Championships 2018 | Third | 3rd | 281.000 | |
| NABBA Championships 2017 | Third | 3rd | 275.400 | |
| NABBA Championships 2016 | Third | 3rd | 267.800 | |
| NABBA Championships 2014 | Open | 1st | 94.000 |