Longtime director of Waupaca City Band to retire

The Waupaca City Band will close out its summer concert season at 7 p.m. Friday, July 29, at Upper South Park.

The program will feature audience favorites from concerts past, and include several that are special to the group’s director Mark Kryshak, who is retiring from the position he has held for 37 years.

Join this group as they perform a final send off for their leader.

His tenure with the group has been the longest of any director in the history of the Waupaca City Band.

During his directorship Kryshak refined and developed new programming and added the band to the annual Hometown Days parade.

He started the weekly Children’s March. Many of those original children are now parents of today’s marchers.

Kryshak preserved a tradition of Friday night concerts that have been a part of Waupaca’s culture since 1887.

“This has been one of my greatest pleasures as a musician, both leading the many performers that have taken the stage with me over the years and watching the smiles on the faces of the thousands of audience members that join me on Friday nights,” Kryshak said.

Looking forward to his retirement, Kryshak anticipates joining the group from time to time as a performer under the baton of the next director.

The program is free of charge and open to all. Audience members must provide their own seating arrangements and restrooms are available.

In the event of rain the program will move to Waupaca High School, located at the intersection of State Highway 22 and King Road.