Our History

J. Raymond Brandon

The North Little Rock Community Concert Band was founded in 1982 through the corporate vision of its founding conductor and Director Emeritus, Arkansas band legend J. Raymond Brandon, Mayor Reed Thompson, and twenty five initial band members.

Beginning on Sunday November 21st of that year the band has played continuous seasons of free public concerts for North Little Rock audiences.

The first seven seasons were played under the baton of now Conductor Emeritus Brandon. Since Mr. Brandon’s retirement in August of 1989 the band has performed with its present conductor, Rico Belotti, on the podium. Bill Spainhour was appointed associate music director in 2024.

The band presently presents three indoor concerts each season, as well as performances at other special civic events. The band in earlier years played outdoor summer concerts and was a proud volunteer support group of the Susan B. Koman Race for the Cure and played each year along the race route until the event was discontinued.

The North Little Rock Community Concert Band is a member of the Association of Concert Bands and has performed at the ACB National Convention. The band has also played for the Arkansas Bandmasters Association. The NLRCCB is a sustaining member of the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association.

The NLRCCB is a non-audition, avocational ensemble and welcomes all musicians of all degree of ability. The band presently has over a hundred players on its roster.

Our Director

Rico Belotti

Rico Belotti became Music Director of the North Little Rock Community Concert Band in 1989, succeeding the band’s founding director and conductor J. Raymond Brandon.

Mr. Belotti is a product of the public school music program in Little Rock and attended Arkansas Tech University where he was a student of Gene Witherspoon. After his graduation in 1973 from ATU he became the Band Director for the Marion Arkansas public schools and taught there for fourteen years. In 1987 he moved to the Pulaski County Special School District where he was director of bands at Jacksonville High School for eighteen years. During his tenure as a high school band director he served the ASBOA in many capacities including being elected a Region Chair numerous times, chair of the All-State audition material committee and chair of the committee that oversees the list of music used in the annual assessment of school concert bands. He retired from active teaching in June 2005.

Mr. Belotti is a past president of the Arkansas Bandmasters Association and remains active as a certified contest adjudicator. He is an associate music director of the Natural State Brass Band, a British style brass band he helped to found and in which he plays E flat bass. Mr. Belotti is a member of Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi, and in 2005 he was awarded Honorary Life Membership in the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association. In 2024 he was the recipient of the Jon Barbaratto Award for lifetime achievement by the Omicron Chapter of Phi Beta Mu.

A member of Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock Mr. Belotti sings in the choir, directs the adult hand bell choir and is active in several facets of lay ministry. He also sings with the Compline Choir, a semi professional a cappella vocal ensemble at Christ Church.

Mr. Belotti is also an active composer and arranger with works performed by wind band, brass band and choirs in Central Arkansas.

He is married to Ginny Belotti who is also a retired Arkansas public school teacher. They have one daughter Leah Belotti Carnahan who resides with her husband Flint and their two sons in Fort Worth, Texas