This year’s festival will feature a number of first-time performers, traveling from as far away as deep East and North Texas, as well as ensembles making their seventh consecutive appearance.

If you still wish to perform, please contact us RIGHT AWAY!   The baton is about to drop!

Bamako Airlines, making their first TCMF appearance in 2012

As of this posting, only 10 weekend sets remain open.  Saturday, April 21, is fully booked already.

If you’re interested in participating in this year’s Seventh Annual festival, please contact us immediately to schedule your band or ensemble.

We have only limited performance opportunities and we would hate for anybody, especially our longtime performers, to be shut out of this year’s program.

Check the schedule page and email us ASAP.

Thanks and keep your chops warm!

The Seventh Annual TCMF will now include Monday and Tuesday, April 23-24, and Monday and Tuesday, April 30-May 1.

All performances will be held at Central Market North.

Last year’s weeknights at Central Market were very well attended and featured some fabulous performances.  This year we expect even greater things.  So if your group hasn’t signed up to perform at the 2012 TCMF,  check the schedule and send us an email at info@tcmfestival.com.

Though we’re still about five months out, the schedule is already beginning to fill up.  So don’t miss your set!

TCMF and the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble want to express our deep gratitude to Central Market and booking guru Sean Hopper for their hospitality.  Without them, there would never have been a TCMF, let alone a seventh one!  THANKS folks!

These dates are TENTATIVE, and as you know, we’ll be adding weeknights and possibly other venues as we get closer to the event.

So you  have NO excuse for being shut out in 2012.

Also, with this much advanced lead time, we ask that all musical organizations consider helping us produce, promote and sponsor this event.  Each year, TCMF grows, musically and in terms of attendance.  We are ready to take some new strides forward and would like the entire community to be represented in this long-term endeavor.  (I guess SEVEN years is a long-term venture!)

Thanks to the groups who have already requested dates.  We’ll be beginning that process in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, PLEASE contact us with your suggestions for content, promotion, etc.  The Texas Community of Musicians has a great stage and now we need to hear your loud voices!

Lone Star Swing Syndicate kicks off 2011 Mother's Day at the TCMF.

AUSTIN —  In Sunday night’s closing set, Maestro Robert Laguna of the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble reminded the crowd that a concert band that didn’t play a march, didn’t love their mothers.  Sunday, ACWE kicked off with a Sousa march to honor all the Mothers, and capped off a great Mother’s Day of music at Central Market.

The program opened with the Lone Star Swing Syndicate playing, what else, but swing music.  Next was an hour of classical music – including an original composition – by the Hill Country Winds woodwind octet.

Bobby Davis and the Austin Jazz Band performed next, followed by NAJO, which featured a sweet father-daughter vocal duet, along with some hot jazz.

And ACWE closed the show, just as it had opened TCMF a week before.

The Sixth Annual TCMF continues Monday and Tuesday at Central Market North and concludes Wednesday at the Farmer’s Market at the Park at The Triangle.  Check the Schedule page for more information.

Rhythm Congress makes its fifth TCMF appearance and an appreciative audience GETS DOWN WITH THE GET DOWN!

AUSTIN — The second week of the Texas Community Music Festival kicked off Saturday with a blaze of jazz licks, crooners, R&B fun, banjos, clarinets and African drumming as the Sixth Annual TCMF drew what could be its largest single day crowd ever at Central Market.

The day kicked off with a set by the Trilogy Clarinet trio of Marble Falls and continued with a return engagement by the Austin Banjo Club.  The energy on the Patio at the Cafe just continued building from there, as all three ACC jazz programs were featured, as well as longtime crowd favorites Rhythm Congress and Republic of Texas Big Band, two TCMF veterans.

By the time Saturday’s headliners, the Djembabes, took the stage, there was little room to sit, as an enormous crowd enjoyed the spirited, soulful Western African drumming, chanting and dancing by the talented group.  Check out our Video page for excerpts from every day of this year’s TCMF. And don’t forget to view the large collection of photos.

The Texas Community Music Festival resumes at 3:00 pm Sunday, after a special Mother’s Day event at Central Market.  Check the Schedule page for more details, and join us for another fabulous day of music.

Austin Brass Band performs Wednesday at the Park at the Triangle

AUSTIN — The second big week of the Sixth Annual Texas Community Music Festival kicks off at 10:15 Saturday morning at Central Market North with the Hill Country Clarinet Trio of Marble Falls — the first of what promises to be yet another day of great performances on the Patio.

Wednesday, TCMF made its inaugural appearance at the Farmer’s Market at the Park at the Triangle, with performances by the New Austin Polka Band (yes, there was MORE Chicken Dancing!) and the Austin Brass Band.

Check the Schedule page for our second week of music and make plans to join us.  It’s going to be the swingingest week of music yet!

Ky Hote and Celtic Stronghold perform Tuesday at TCMF

AUSTIN — The Texas Community Music Festival was blessed again with beautiful, cool and sunny weather Tuesday evening at Central Market North, with contrasting sounds and consistently great entertainment.

Ky Hote and the Celtic Stronghold led off and delighted the crowd, which demanded encores, with a mix of what they described as “Texas Celtic” music.  Included in the ensemble was a performance on the rare hammer dulcimer, a first for TCMF.

The evening continued with the first Austin performance of the new Austin Swing Orchestra, who had the audience jumping all the way to closing time.

Tonight, TCMF moves to The Park at The Triangle for performances by the New Austin Polka Band and Austin Brass Band.  The show returns to Central Market Saturday morning.  Check the schedule page for details.

About7 performs for an excited young crowd at Monday's Texas Community Music Festival.

AUSTIN —  The rains finally came to Austin on Monday, moving the Texas Community Music Festival indoors onto the deck at the Cafe at Central Market.

The program was kicked off by About 7, one of a number of new groups to this year’s festival.  In all, there are 14 bands and ensembles playing TCMF for the first time in this, the Sixth Annual Texas Community Music Festival.  It’s an indication of how our festival has grown over the years.  The Austin Banjo club was set to close out Monday’s program at Central Market.

Tuesday’s lineup includes Ky Hote and Celtic Stronghold at 6:15, followed by the Austin Swing Orchestra at 7:30.  Weather permitting, the show will be back outdoors on the patio at the Cafe at Central Market.

As always, the music at TCMF will be GREAT and it will all be FREE!  So come out and enjoy an evening of food, drink and support the Community of Texas Musicians!

Worthy Waites of Whimsey battle the winds and plunging temperature (note the tambourine "wind shield" in the photo) to deliver a spirited performance at Sunday's TCMF!

AUSTIN — Sunday, May 1, a “Blue Norther” blew through Central Texas with high winds and a 30-degree temperature drop!  And the SHOW WENT ON at the Sixth Annual Texas Community Music Festival.

At 1:15pm, the mercury was in the upper 80s, and the San Gabriel Horns were onstage, after performances by the Chaparral Dixielanders and Los Klezmeros.  By the time Monster Big Band took the stage, the temperature had dropped into the low 50s and music lovers were huddled together under blankets.  BUT THE MUSIC WAS HOT and the audience was warmed by one outstanding performance after another.

After the Hill Country Community Band of Wimberley made their sixth straight appearance (one of a few bands that have played all six TCMFs), Silver Thistle Pipe and Drums marched onto the stage and previewed the program they’ll be playing in Scotland at the World Championships this summer.  And the winds rose, like they were howling down from the Highlands themselves.  By the time the Austin Jazz Workshop had finished its awesome set, the sun broke through (jazz tends to do that) but the temperature kept plunging, right through the Band of the Hills, who performed with more than 70 musicians on the Cafe patio, and the Worthy Waites of Whimsey, winners of the “Most Courageous Ensemble” of TCMF so far.

The evening culminated with the incomparable Monster Big Band.

TCMF continues Monday at 5:30 at Central Market North.  Check the schedule for more details.