John P. Paynter: American Bandmasters Association Recording Series

Music professor and conductor John Philip Paynter completed his formal music studies at Northwestern University. Paynter had received early musical training at the insistence of his father, an amateur bandsman who admired Sousa. As a child, Paynter took piano and organ lessons and, like his father before him, played the clarinet. In 1956 Paynter helped to establish the 113-member Northshore Concert Band. Under his leadership the ensemble developed into the role model for community bands nationally and worldwide. With members who have been in the band for thirty years as well as recent college graduates, NCB is a fine example of the idea, championed by Paynter, that music-making should play a role in the lives of people of all ages and professions. The Northshore Concert band is heard here performing Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1. Ensembles from the Northwestern University – where Paynter served as the second Director of Bands- are heard on the other works.