CHAUTAUQUA – On Sunday at 2:15 p.m., we are all invited to the Chautauqua Amphitheater to enjoy a performance by the Chautauqua Community Band in celebration of their 25th anniversary.

For the past quarter century, the ensemble has performed twice per year, free of charge, for the general public at Chautauqua. Their traditional performances have taken place each July 4, and at the official anniversary celebration of Chautauqua Institution, which is called ”Old First Night.” Sunday’s performance is a unique third performance to celebrate their anniversary.

”Anyone who wants to play with our band is welcome to do so,” said the band’s founder, Jason Weintraub. ”Our musicians range from people who put away a musical instrument when they went away to college, up through professional musicians, including members of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.”

The band’s performances tend to close with one-third of the music chosen from popular patriotic music, such as ”You’re a Grand Old Flag,” and ”Oh, Beautiful, for Spacious Skies.”

”Other than that, we do a mixture of whatever we could find sheet music for, and whatever we’re in the mood to play,” he added.

Weintraub got the idea to found the band while walking through Chautauqua on a July 4 afternoon in 1990. ”Every July 4 at Chautauqua, the children from the Children’s School have a parade through the grounds, fairly early in the morning,” he said. ”In the evening, the institution stages a big, entertaining show in the Amphitheater, often performing patriotic music, and leading up to the lighting of the flares around the lake and the displays of fireworks visible from neighboring communities. But, in the afternoon, there wasn’t much to do. I got to thinking, the perfect thing would be an old-fashioned band concert in the central square.”

The director said he schedules one rehearsal before each concert, but nobody takes attendance, to make certain that everyone who shows up to perform has been to the rehearsal. ”At our first concert, we had 15 to 20 musicians performing. This past Saturday, we had nearly 80. It gets bigger every year.”

Many of the professional musicians who perform in the concert do so on different instruments than they play professionally. ”A violinist may decide to perform percussion, or a horn player may want to give flute a try. Our only goal is to provide them an opportunity to have fun and to provide some entertainment for the public,” he said.

The band has scheduled its special, celebratory concert for Sunday afternoon because admission to the grounds is free of charge on Sundays. Weintraub hopes residents of the county who live outside the walls around Chautauqua’s grounds will come and play in the concert, or at least sit in the Amphitheater and enjoy good, old-fashioned band music, in the place where John Phillip Sousa himself once conducted.

One of the things which has pleased Weintraub the most is that other ensembles have gotten the same idea, either from playing in the Community Band, or from listening to it play, and that now there is a wide variety of ensembles which perform in public parks and other outdoor sites around the Chautauqua grounds. ”At the beginning, we were assigned to perform in the open space behind the Chautauqua Library. Then they moved us to in front of the Post Office. Then in front of the St. Elmo. Now, we perform directly in front of the library, and that seems to be popular with the crowd.” he said.

When he started the band, Weintraub was already in his 19th year as a musician who performs on the oboe and the English horn, with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Now, he works as the orchestra’s manager, as well as performing.

”We’d love to reach out to people who live outside the grounds, as well as to all Chautauquans,” he said. ”There is no gate fee on Sundays and we charge no admission fee, and we won’t even pass a hat. The only cost you might encounter is a parking charge, and since it seems to be impossible to visit Chautauqua without eating ice cream, there is a charge for the ice cream. Otherwise, everything is free. Come and enjoy.”