About the Pomerado Community Band

The Pomerado Community Band (PCB) is comprised of approximately 75 members, primarily from the Scripps Ranch, Mira Mesa and Poway areas of San Diego County, CA. While some of the band’s members are professional musicians, most members have full-time jobs, and just enjoy playing a wide variety of concert music.

The band is lead by Mr. Mark Nowak, and is governed by its Board of Directors, and is funded by donations, concert ticket sales and fund-raisers.

Our Motto

Our motto is “good friends, good music”

The purpose of the Band is to:

• Provide an outlet for musicians in the North County San Diego area to perform and to improve their musical skills
• Foster a sense of community by performing at local events
• Represent our community as goodwill ambassadors

Our Director

The Pomerado Community Band is extremely fortunate to perform under the inspired direction of Mark Nowak. He started playing trombone with Pomerado in 2012 at the invitation of the previous director Dean Hickman and soon switched to tuba. His main instrument is trumpet which he has played for 40 years.

Mark is the longtime band director at Oak Valley Middle School in San Diego, CA. The band program at Oak Valley has around 240 students grades 6 through 8 participating in 5 concert bands, and a jazz band. Oak Valley ensembles perform yearly at district festivals and community events. They regularly travel to SeaWorld and Disneyland for workshops and performances. They have performed for music festivals at Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Universal Studios, and San Francisco Symphony Hall. Oak Valley students often represent the program in All-State and All-Southern California honor ensembles. Mark was a clinician at the 2023 CASMEC Conference in Fresno and trains the next generation of music educators with student teacher candidates from San Diego State University.

Mark received his Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and his Master’s degree from the University of Georgia, where he studied trumpet with Fred Mills and jazz with Sammy Nestico. As a performer, Mark has played at the Montreux and Vienne Jazz Festivals in Switzerland and France, for Super Bowl 34 and for golf’s Ryder Cup.

Membership

Membership in the band is open to all adult wind, brass and percussion players who read music at a high school level or above. The PCB does not hold auditions, so there are no barriers to you joining us!

Unfortunately, the band has exceeded the capacity of our rehearsal room and cannot accept any new members at this time. Please contact us listing which instrument(s) you play and we will put your name on a waiting list.