Band losing director Liljedahl

Greater Des Moines Community Band director David Liljedahl is leaving the post he has held for six years.


Liljedahl and his wife Deb, who plays in the band, are moving to Cedar Rapids at the end of August to be closer to family.


Assistant director Christa Miller will replace him as director.


"It has been my honor to serve as your director these past six years. It has been a great and wonderful musical adventure. No other ensemble in my experience has had the receptiveness and the ability to play at such a high musical level all the various styles we have presented to our audiences," Liljedahl said in a letter to the "famous and fierce musicians" of the GDMCB. "From Gabrieli to Spike Jones, with some Holst, Bartok, Gershwin and "Chicken Dances" thrown in just to make it interesting, you have enriched the lives of many Iowans."


The band will play at 4:30 p.m. Saturday on the Bill Riley Stage at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. It's last concert of the summer season is set for 7 p.m. Monday at the Grand Suites Retirement Campus, 3801 Grand Ave., Des Moines. The concert originally scheduled at Adel Acres in Adel on Monday night has been cancelled.