The Pavilion Music Company Big Band was founded in 1975 by local musicians Oscar Gamby, Marcus Ware and Ted Willburn, Jr. Their initial meeting was at the Seasongood Pavilion in Eden Park, and their determination was to form a group dedicated to performing contemporary big band compositions. Oscar Gamby was selected to lead the band based on his experience as a music educator and band director and his tenure in Clark Terry’s Big Bad Band. After auditioning players and beginning to accumulate a music library, the band had its first performance in the summer of 1975. Oscar Gamby led the band until his death in 1980, after which Marcus Ware gave up his seat in the trombone section and led the band until his retirement in August of 2000.

Marcus turned the band over to trumpeter Rob Mulhauser after his retirement. A graduate of the University of Akron School of Music, Mulhauser has been an enthusiastic performer of big band music for most of his life. After spending eight years in bands led by Roland Paolucci in Akron, he studied contemporary music at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Relocated to Cincinnati in 1988 he became manager of a local bookstore. Joining the Pavilion Music Company in 1998, “Was like coming home,” he says.

Over the years, the Pavilion Music Company Big Band has been a hidden treasure in Cincinnati. It has served as a workshop for many of the city’s best known performers including Jim Anderson, Marc Fields, Michael Wade, Gary Winters, Ray Felder, Al Nori, Chuck Conners (bass trombone with Duke Ellington), Liesl Whitaker (lead trumpet with DIVA), as well as featuring vocalists Bill Caffie,Kym Hunter, and Louis 'Huckabuck' Ware. The band’s library is, perhaps, the most extensive in the city, including both stock arrangements from all of the major big bands and originals members have contributed.

In addition to regular monthly performances at a variety of clubs in Cincinnati, the band has performed at Tall Stacks, Taste of Cincinnati, the Art Academy’s biennial Beaux Arts Ball the Aronoff Center Grand Opening Gala, and the Museum Center at Union Terminal

The longevity of the Pavilion Music Company Big Band is a tribute to two things: 1) the persistence of Marcus Ware’s original vision for the band and 2) the dedication of the performers.

The current line-up includes people from all walks of life and virtually every community in the Cincinnati area. These twenty people set aside two hours every Wednesday night to rehearse, and absence at rehearsal is a rare thing. For the band, it is an opportunity to set aside your day to day cares and do something for the love of it.