The TRACEN Band of the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Yorktown is seeking volunteer band musicians who play woodwind, brass, or percussion instruments.

Anyone who played in their high school or college band and can read music such as marches and Broadway style tunes is invited to rehearse with the band, said musical director Allen Wittig in a press release.

Rehearsals are from noon until 12:50 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Washington Auditorium at the Coast Guard Training Center.

The band is a combination of community volunteers (mostly seniors) and Coast Guard students attending the base for specialized training who volunteer with the band while stationed there, said Wittig. Its mission is to support military ceremonies on the base, he said, but the group also performs a few additional off-base community concerts “to keep things challenging and interesting.”

Since the number of students comes and goes, said Wittig, “our volunteer musicians are the backbone of the band.”

A saxophonist, Wittig said he studied music at several colleges before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force Band system in 1985 as a music arranger. Over the course of his 26 years of active-duty service, he directed, wrote for, and played in concert bands, jazz bands, and pop-rock bands. He retired in 2011 and went back to school, earning a BA degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master’s in Music Composition from Shenandoah Conservatory. He’s been music director of the TRACEN Ceremonial Band since September 2022.

For more information, email Wittig at ajwittig@hotmail.com.