Name: Michael Costa

Town: Denmark, Maine

Instrument: Trumpet

Michael Costa, an administrative assistant, has played trumpet in the Bridgton Community Band since 1999. Coming from a musical family was the inspiration for learning to play the trumpet. He enjoys a variety of music from traditional jazz ballads to marches, concert and orchestral works.

Mike also has played with the Santo Cristo Band in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Plymouth Legion Band in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Boston Fire Department Band, Bridgton Bavarian Band and has played solo and ceremonial performances. Most recently Mike started a jazz quintet.

From time to time Mike checks websites on various artists and makers of musical instruments. A favorite nonmusical interest is basketball.

The R.B. Hall Day concerts held each year in June in various communities are his favorite concerts the band performs away from Bridgton. For his most interesting experience playing in the Bridgton Community Band he remembers the time the band had to use Fix O Flat on a flat tire on the band trailer just in time to roll in the Yarmouth Clam Festival parade a few years ago.

He finds playing in the Bridgton Community Band a lot of fun and says it is great having so much in common with so many people.

“I think having a community band such as ours is a great opportunity for so many to continue or get involved with their music. The wonderful old fashioned values that go along with the atmosphere at concerts or band picnics are so much needed more and more today. It is a great way to get the youth involved in keeping and realizing what a great tradition and institution we must keep alive,” he says.