Hunter Wilson/Daily News Chase Russell, of Bowling Green, plays the clarinet during the Southern KY Concert Band 2008 Twilight Concert at the Basil Griffin Park Amphitheater. This is his first year in the band.

Thursday night, the Southern Kentucky Concert Band gave the debut performance of its 15th Twilight Concert Series.

Making the performance noteworthy, however, is who was not there.

John Carmichael has left the band after serving as its director from the beginning, leaving this summer’s concert series in the hands of Joe Stites.

Stites has worked in Western Kentucky University’s music department for 21 years, teaching tuba/euphonium studio and music education classes.

In that time, he has also played the tuba for the WKU Faculty Brass Quintet and the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra and has been a member of the concert band nearly since its beginning.

Stites steps in now as the band’s interim director, leading it through the six-date summer concert series that began Thursday at Basil Griffin Park Amphitheater with a show themed “Dancin’ Without the Stars.”

The challenge of preparing the concert band for each show as a leader is not all that different from what Stites has faced as one of the players.

“Most high school and even some college bands typically have 30 hours of practice time for one performance; we have two hours of rehearsal to prepare for a one-hour concert,” Stites said. “That definitely keeps it exciting, since (at a concert) you’re reading the measures for the third time in front of an audience.”

Each performance in the Twilight Concert Series will be at 7 p.m. Thursdays. To prepare, the band rehearses each piece Tuesdays at the WKU Band Rehearsal Hall.

Accomplished musicians help the concert band weather any time constraints – many of its members come from WKU’s music department or from the musically gifted among the general public.

Students from WKU or even area high schools can participate in the band, although the high school students must come with a recommendation from their band director.

The size of the band varies from one performance to the next, depending on each member’s other obligations. Stites said the band has consistently performed with between 50 and 80 members.

“To not know for sure who’s going to be in the band on any given week is a scary thing, but having been involved with it for nearly 14 years, it always works out very well,” said Stites, who has co-directed the band in the past with Carmichael.

The university has named Gary Schallert, most recently music professor and conductor of the wind ensemble at Belmont University, to be WKU’s next concert band director.

Stites said this is an exciting time for music in the area – the public has broad access to many affordable concerts and strong local musicians infuse vitality in that segment of the artistic community.

Stites should know – on Wednesday he played bass trombone for the Lost River Cave Big Band for its performance at Fountain Square Park’s Concerts in the Park series, sitting alongside his son, who played third trombone.

The performances in the Twilight Band Concert series are free and will be at 7 p.m. each Thursday at Basil Griffin Park Amphitheater until July 10.