Sunshine Brass Band
Tampa, FL

Early 1980s
Karen Kneeburg who along with her husband, Don, provided the guiding force for the band until their retirements in 1995 formed the Sunshine Brass Band in 1983. The Kneeburg's created a band that to this day strives for musical excellence. The band was directed by Paul Gansemer until 1999, and is now led by James Cheyne.

Mid 1980s
The Brass Band world revolves around a particular national competition called the North American Brass Band Association (NABBA). Each year, hundreds of the continent's finest brass talent congregates in a different city to compete, listen and learn from each other.

The Sunshine Brass Band competed in the NABBA competition in its early years winning the Honors division contest in 1984, 1985, and 1986.

In fact, current day NABBA rules that require bands that win their division for three consecutive years to move to the next division (or sit out a year if in the Championship division) were instituted because of the success of the Sunshine Brass Band at contest during this time.

Late 1990s
The band renewed its commitment to participation in NABBA contests by returning to the competition stage in 1998 after an eleven-year hiatus.

The New Millenium (2000 to present)
The Sunshine Brass Band also soon returned to its winning ways, taking first place in the 2000 and 2002 Challenge division NABBA contests.

The band took 2003 off from the competition to record it's first Compact Disk.

And most recently, in 2004, the Sunshine Brass returned to NABBA, upping the ante by moving from Challenge Section to Honors, and scoring second in Honors for the first time since 1986 (18 years!).

The Future (2005+)
Next year, we plan to further strengthen our position in Honors by taking first place, and then, who knows? The next level up is the Championship Section!