Since its founding in 1983, the Ridgewood Concert Band has risen to the top ranks of the community band movement in the United States. Highly skilled and motivated musicians from all walks of life come together for each concert, giving their time to perform great music with guest artists of international stature. The band performs not only the great classics for wind band, but challenging new works, many by local composers. The band has received accolades from several concert critics and is a recipient of the Sudler Silver Scroll award from the John Philip Sousa Foundation. The Ridgewood Concert Band has performed at music festivals on the French Riviera and in Vermont, at music educators conventions in New York City and Pittsburgh, and on tour in Budapest, Prague, and Vienna. They have also recorded Organic Band, a CD of music for organ and band. Dr. Christian Wilhjelm, conductor, per-former, and educator has been the Ridgewood Concert Band’s Music Director since its founding in 1983. He regularly conducts the metropolitan area’s leading professional ensembles such as the acclaimed Goldman Memorial Band of New York City and the Norwalk Symphony. He was a clinician for the University of Illinois State Band Festival in May 2003. As a horn player, he has performed under the world’s great conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Sejii Ozawa, Sir Colin Davis, and Arthur Fiedler. As a principal, he has played horn with the Boston Ballet and the Richmond Symphony. He has also played horn with the Boston Symphony, Boston Opera, and Boston Pops. For his work, the Rotary International honored Dr. Wilhjelm as a Paul Harris Fellow, its highest award. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, he received his doctorate in music from Columbia University in 1998.