August 5th Centennial Season Concert

Welcome to week nine of our Centennial Concert Season – Alumni Night! Be sure to visit the Jaycee Pavilion before the concert and enjoy the Community Picnic sponsored by Merchants Bank (5pm – 7pm). Tickets are $4 and can be purchased at any Merchants Bank-Winona location. Be sure to stay after the concert for the fireworks display!

Our Community Picnic and Concert Sponsor for the evening is Merchants Bank. Sponsors for the fireworks display following the concert are the Slaggie Family Foundation and Winona Steamboat Days.

Merchants Bank was founded in 1875 with an investment of $100,000 from local merchants to create a bank for the working people of the growing city of Winona. The current Bank headquarters was built in 1912 by William Purcell, George Elmslie, and George Feick, Jr., coworkers and students of Louis Sullivan, the father of Prairie School Architecture. Merchants Bank’s home office is considered to be the largest and most famous example of their work. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and many fans of Prairie School Architecture visit the Bank each year.

Thanks to its community focus and strong leadership, Merchants grew steadily. In 1984, a holding company, now known as Merchants Financial Group, Inc. (MFGI), was created with the primary purpose to accommodate future growth and serve as an umbrella for all the affiliate banks. In 1990, First National Bank in St. Charles, MN, and La Crescent State Bank in La Crescent, MN, were acquired. Assets were at $327 million in 2000.

Today, there are 21 locations serving 19 communities throughout southeastern Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin. Assets are more than $1.5 billion and more than 440 employees serve the needs of customers. MFGI ownership is made up of its employees and mostly individuals and families throughout its service area.

Since its founding, Merchants Bank has been dedicated to a philosophy of commitment to the communities it serves through empowering local leadership to make decisions. Merchants also invests in those local communities through monetary donations and employees volunteering their time. The employees of Merchants Bank congratulate the Winona Municipal Band on its 100th anniversary. Learn more at merchantsbank.com.

Merchants Bank is a Member FDIC.

French horn soloist Shawn Kennedy-Lee earned her B.A. in Instrumental Music Education from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. While there, she served as principal horn in both the concert band and symphony orchestra for two and a half years, travelling all over the United States, Europe, and Japan with the band and orchestra. She won 2nd place at the Des Moines Symphony Concerto Competition in 1995 for her performance of tonight’s piece, and she was a featured soloist in the 1996 Christmas at Luther concert.

Shawn taught 5-12 grade Band for a total of five years in the Cresco, Iowa and Lewiston-Altura School districts. She maintains a private horn lesson studio, and her students have been very successful over the years. Since 1999, there have been six French horn players among the students that Winona Senior High has sent to the Minnesota All-State Ensembles. All six were her students. Two of those were principal players in the All-State Orchestra. Her oldest current student is from Owatonna and is presently attending the All-State Orchestra summer camp this week.

Shawn serves as principal horn with the Winona Municipal Band, solo horn with the Winona Brass Band, and assistant principal in the newly-formed Rochester Pops Orchestra. She also plays cornet and horn for special church services in Lewiston. She and her husband Derek have two wonderful kids who are busy with music lessons and other activities (including volunteering for the Winona Muncipal Band this summer). Mrs. Kennedy-Lee currently works for Mayo Clinic as a Surgical Index Coder. In her spare time, she enjoys scrapbooking, reading, and spending time with family. Shawn has studied with Ron Fox, Bob Brownlow, Alise Oliver, Rebecca Shaffer, and Stephen Ritzenthaler.