Rita Grasser wanted to play French horn. Her school told her to pick up a clarinet instead.

She played through high school, made the Illinois All State band at 17, then set the instrument down after graduation. For 26 years she didn't play. Didn't even own a clarinet.

Now a retired middle school math teacher and community college counselor, Grasser has spent the past 23 years back in the clarinet section of the Naperville Municipal Band, performing free Thursday-night concerts at Central Park in downtown Naperville. The hardest part of coming back, she told Positively Naperville's "Behind the Horn" profile series, was rebuilding the facial muscles needed for a good sound.

"I love the results when a number of musicians — could be 2 or 100 — come together to produce a combined, intricate, whole sound that is greater than the sum of the individual parts," Grasser said.

The NMB's Big Band Concert is Thursday, June 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Central Park. Admission is free. The band kicked off its 2026 season in early June with Gershwin and selections from Grease, and will perform every Thursday through August 12.

Off the bandstand, Grasser plays woodwind quintet music with fellow NMB members and travels to Breckenridge, Colorado, each summer for an adult band camp. At home she's a self-described "playful Oma" to two grandchildren and an avid reader. She also has a decades-long connection to fellow NMB percussionist Bill Jastrow, whom she first met as a teenager at the University of Illinois summer band camp.

The NMB is an all-volunteer ensemble. Concerts run rain or shine at Central Park, located along the Riverwalk in downtown Naperville. No tickets or reservations are needed. More information is available at napervilleband.org.