This year – 2026 – marks 100 years of the Belleville High School Band Program. This special anniversary is a testament to not only the longevity of the Belleville Bands program itself, but also the passion of the students, educators, families, alumni and community members who have made this milestone possible.

Since 1926, Belleville band students have marched onto football fields, performed on stages across the country, traveled to some of the nation’s most prestigious venues and have formed memories that have stayed with them long past graduation. This tight-knit community and culture have helped shape a program that is a source of great pride for generations of Van Buren Public Schools families.

“The program is a huge beacon of pride in the community, and it’s stemmed all the way back from the ‘20s, when it started,” said Nicholas Taylor, director of bands and coordinator of instrumental music.

As a proud graduate from Belleville High School and the Belleville Bands, Taylor has continued to maintain the traditions and excellence that have been associated with the band program for the past century.

Michael Campbell, associate director of bands, is also a proud Belleville High School and Belleville Band alumnus, and the two work together to preserve the history and excellence they grew up with firsthand while leading the next generation.

“My own mom was in the band program back in the 1960s, and, to me, it’s just a huge shining light in the community and for the school district,” Campbell said.

Taylor began working with former director Michael VanTassel in 2003 before taking over as director in 2005. Campbell also joined the program in 2005. Together, they inherited a program that had already been built into something special.

Taylor explained that the strong band program VanTassel rebuilt in the early ‘90s started with around 60 students, and at one point he personally called students at home to encourage them to join marching band.

Over time, the band continued to grow into a highly respected program that became well-known across the state. Taylor recalled a moment when Kenneth Thompson, director of bands at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, mentioned what an outstanding program Belleville had.

“It makes no sense that somewhere tucked off of the freeway between Detroit and Ann Arbor, there’s this band program that sounds like and does what you guys do,” Thompson said.

At its peak before COVID, the marching band reached just over 300 students.

To Taylor and Campbell, who have watched the small-town Belleville band become a pillar of the community both from a student and educator lens, the key is a generational idea of excellence in music education.

“For Mike (Campbell) and I back in the ‘90s, Belleville was a much smaller town, but it was the pride and joy and something we loved coming to and being a part of,” Taylor said.

That pride and joy is still strong today, with over 223 former students from the ‘60s through recent graduates already committed to joining the 100 Years of Belleville Bands Celebration on September 11, 2026.

Alumni will meet and perform, with the current band leading the way on the football field before the Friday night game.

“We’re just really grateful,” Taylor said. “Mike and I like to say we’re hometown boys. We know the school, we know the kids and I like to believe we have a relationship with our students just as well as we did when we started and just as well as our directors and our teachers did with us when we were students.”

Students get the opportunity to get involved with the band program as early as fifth grade, providing a segue to grow not only as musicians, but to be a part of a larger community with a generational legacy.

With support from the school district, band boosters and community, Belleville Bands is looking forward to moving forward with the same excellence for years to come.

For more information about the band program or the 100 Years of Belleville Bands Celebration, visit www.bellevillebands.org.