About The Brass Band
The modern Carlisle Brass Band was created in 2018 to provide an opportunity for our brass musicians and percussionists to perform traditional British and American brass band music and compete in regional and national brass band festivals and competitions.
The Carlisle Brass Band is a smaller organization than the Town Band, with only thirty-two members, which facilitates its ability to travel and perform in smaller venues. Approximately two-thirds of the Brass Band's members are also in the Carlisle Town Band, with the remainder coming from throughout south-central Pennsylvania and Maryland.
A member of the North American Brass Band Association (NABBA), the Carlisle Brass Band competed in the 2025 NABBA Championships and has performed several times at the Gettysburg Brass Band Festival.
David Knott, Brass Band Director
David Knott is a professional percussionist, educational leadership advocate, and professional conductor. He currently serves as a member of the instrumental music faculty at the sweetest band gig on earth, where he coordinates and directs all Middle Division Band activities at Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa. Mr. Knott is also a co-founder and conductor of the Mozart and Friends Wind Ensemble. This ensemble strives to create a more intimate connection of the ensemble and the audience with the wind music of Mozart and others as the vehicle. In the Winter of 2023, Mr. Knott took the podium as conductor of the Carlisle Brass Band in Carlisle, Pa.
In 2020 Mr. Knott joined the summer music faculty at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia where he developed and instructs a class on Tactical Integration of Trauma Informed and Social Emotional Learning Strategies for Music Education. This class ran a three-year cycle in the UARTS summer music studies program and enhanced many area music educators perspectives on students emotional needs from the podium of the music ensemble.
Mr. Knott’s previous work experience also includes directing the percussion studio and teaching courses on Percussion for Music Education and Percussion for Music Therapy at Elizabethtown College and Messiah University.
As a leadership advocate, he founded the Central Pennsylvania Wind Conductors Society, whose mission is to provide a forum to elevate individual music educators through mentoring, professional collaboration, and performance opportunities for student ensembles.
Mr. Knott earned his Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Music Degree in Percussion Performance from Michigan State University. He has also studied with Jack Stamp, John Whitwell and various workshop clinicians to gain extensive conducting background.
You can connect with Mr. Knott on Instagram (@dekconductor) and LinkedIn.
"Everything I do I believe will challenge the status quo, I believe in thinking differently. I put students first, placing them in a safe and rigorous environment and provide the tools to allow them to reach their fullest creative self. I just happen to use band instruments to get there. My mission in one word: #Elevate “