Like Christmas itself, the Benicia Public Library’s Winter Concert– starring the Diablo Regional Concert Band–comes once a year. It’s a free event and all ages are welcome to enjoy some festive music played by a band with a long history.
The Diablo Regional Concert Band was formed in 1910 when it was called the Martinez Liberty Band. In 1942, the Martinez Liberty Band changed its name to the Martinez Municipal Band and eventually the Diablo Regional Concert Band. For 16 years after 1992, Frank Cavoto conducted the band. Currently, Cora Martens, a retired instrumental music teacher, conducts the group.
Each year, the band plays a free spring and winter concert at the Benicia Public Library as well as events at the Benicia Yacht Club, the Pleasant Hill Fourth of July Parade and the Benicia Portuguese Holy Ghost Parade. Also in this list of event, the Diablo Regional Concert Band have performed at the annual Golden Gate Park Band Festival, the Black Diamond Mines Summer Music Festival and the Fall Festival in American Canyon, among others.
In recent years, the band began paying the holiday staple “The 12 Days of Christmas” while incorporating an audience participation element. The audience can sing along with the band while reading leaflets depicting the “12 days of Christmas” that are handed at. When the Diablo Regional Concert Band first doing this, Fran Martinez Coyne, the library’s public services manager, was nervous no one would participate in the song, but people got up and started singing about two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.
“I think the winter concert gives families the opportunity to hear live music,” Coyne said. “I have had families just go to the front rows and sit. I’ve had other families, they will sit toward the back and kind of pace, but still bring the kids to the children’s room and that’s perfectly fine. It’s not a very formal concert, so that kind of walking around is not disruptive. Families are good about moving their kids around and leaving if that’s necessary. We can accommodate any age.”
The Winter Concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8 at the library, located at 150 East L St. For more information, go to benicialibrary.org.

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