06/19/2026
Story by Janet I Martineau
As the Saginaw Eddy Concert Band continues to celebrate its 100th anniversary with Sunday concerts this summer, its July 12th outing will feature a premiere written by a native son — Nathan Bieber.
Bieber, 30, is a Heritage High School graduate now living in and working within Nashville’s music industry as a composer, conductor, music producer and violinist.
“My piece is titled is ‘…And Many More!’” says Bieber. “It’s about 5 minutes long, and it is triumphant, lyrical, celebratory and optimistic.
“As it happens, the 100th anniversary of the Eddy Band coincides with the 250th anniversary of America, which was another source of inspiration for the piece.
“Making any institution last 100 years, let alone 250... you’ll encounter trials, tribulations, challenges and triumphs... and yet, we’re all still here, and we’re all participating in the music, in our culture, together.”
He says the piece opens with a vibrant statement of the first theme before relaxing into the slightly slower, lyrical and folksy second theme.
“The first theme represents triumph: 100 years, 250 years – we made it this far and that’s reason to celebrate. The second theme is more personal, I think of it as music at the grassroots level: it’s about all the people of Saginaw that I know, and all those I might never meet, going about their lives.
“There’s beauty in that, and this melody is hummable and, I hope, memorable.”
And, he notes, these two themes work as contrapuntal lines to a famous song all Americans know.
The July 12 concert is titled “100 Years of Saginaw Eddy Band” and takes place beginning at 7pm in the Jolt Credit Union Event Park, 300 Johnson in Saginaw.
Admission and parking is free. Bring your own seatinh. And in case of inclement weather the concert moves across the street to inside The Dow Event Center.
Bieber (pictured) has quite the history with his hometown.
In 2013, when he was 17 years old, he won the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra Young Musician of the Year Award. He was a member of the Saginaw Bay Youth Orchestra for six years, joining in the seventh grade and serving as its concertmaster starting in his sophomore year.
And he began playing with the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra while he was still an undergrad student (studying violin performance) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“My first year with the symphony was the 2015-2016 season. I continued playing with the group all the way through their 2020-2021 season.
“Although I had to miss a few concerts during that time with school conflicts, I’d guess I played at least 20 concerts as a member of the SBSO.”
He earned both bachelor and master of music degrees in violin performance, as well as a master of music in orchestral conducting, at Michigan. And he received a master of music in scoring for film, television and video games overseas in Spain.
Bieber was commissioned to write the Eddy Band piece after meeting (former Eddy conductor) Joe Radtke during the Baroque on Beaver island festival in the summer of 2024.
“We met and spoke, I shared some of my music with him, and he asked if I would write a piece for them.”
If his work schedule doesn’t interfere, Bieber plans to attend the premiere performance.
He is with the Nashville Music Scoring company, both as a conductor and violinist, and whenever not at its studio he works for film composer Alex Belcher as his musical and professional assistant. And he is also working on music for a video game with the Electronic Arts video game company and gearing up to score a film for Netflix in the fall.
“My career is exactly where I want it to be right now. I work for a film composer, I conduct a studio orchestra in Nashville during recording sessions for films, television shows and video games, and I have a diverse career as a freelancing violinist in town.”
Summing up his Eddy Band composition, Bieber says, “My main goal when composing this piece was to celebrate and do justice to the Eddy Band and to write a piece that would be fun and challenging for them to play. But I also wanted to represent the people of Saginaw, and to encapsulate our city as a microcosm of our great country.”
Bieber is the son of Catherine McMichael, an international composer/arranger and a pianist with the Saginaw Choral Society, and Rodrick J. Bieber, the music director of the Saginaw Bay Youth Orchestra and a violinist. They live in Saginaw Township and both also perform with the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra.
