Known as the father of the American concert band, Patrick Sarsfield (P.S.) Gilmore was born in County Galway, Ireland, on December 25, 1829, likely in the town of Ballygar. His musical career began as a teenager with the flute; however, with no positions available for flutists in the Athlone-based Irish Regiment band, he switched to the cornet.

Gilmore accompanied the Irish Regiment when it went to Canada in 1848. Shortly thereafter he moved to Boston, where he worked with a local music publisher and dealer. In the 1850s Gilmore opened his own music store, earned a reputation as a cornetist, conducted several bands in and around Boston, and presented a series of Promenade Concerts. In 1858 he married Ellen J. O'Neill in Lowell, Massachusetts; they had one daughter, Mary.

When the U.S. Civil War broke out, the Boston band that Gilmore organized in 1859 enlisted with the Union Army via the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers. Although the band's tenure with the Army lasted less than a year, it performed musical and medical duties at several battles, including Bull Run and Antietam. For the duration of the War, Gilmore oversaw reorganizing the Massachusetts military bands and managing the music for the inauguration of the Louisiana governor in 1864.

After the War, Gilmore organized and staged two big music festivals: the Peace Jubilee of 1869 to raise money for the widows and orphans of Civil War soldiers and the World's Peace Jubilee of 1872 in honor of the end of the Franco-Prussian War. Both events were held in Boston and both were large-scale festivals that included vocal and instrumental music. For each occasion, special coliseums were constructed to house the large band, choir, and audiences. The first coliseum (The Grand Coliseum) and the second coliseum (The Great Coliseum) could hold tens of thousands of people.

After the conclusion of the second jubilee, Gilmore turned his attention back to conducting bands, where he increasingly integrated woodwinds into what had traditionally been brass bands. Gilmore moved to New York City and began leading the New York Twenty-second Regiment Band in 1873. He led this band for almost twenty years during which it performed nearly daily. Gilmore and his band established an annual Fourth of July concert on the Boston Common and created a summer promenade concert series for the city, anticipating the Boston Pops.

In addition to conducting bands, and organizing and managing music programs, Gilmore also authored several pieces of music and poems, including "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."

Gilmore died unexpectedly after a concert in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 24, 1892, of heart disease.

Sources:

Jere T. Humphreys. "Strike Up the Band! The Legacy of Patrick S. Gilmore." Music Educators Journal 74, no. 2 (October 1987): 22-26.

Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Ancestry.com. Accessed on February 6, 2026.

“Patrick Gilmore.” Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed on April 13, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patrick-Gilmore.

"Patrick Gilmore collection." University of Maryland Archives, accessed on April 13, 2026, https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/4/resources/191.

1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.

The Patrick S. Gilmore Society was founded in Boston, Massachusetts by Michael Cummings in 1968 or 1969. Dedicated to commemorating the accomplishments of P.S. Gilmore and encouraging community band music, the Society organized annual band concerts on Boston City Hall Plaza and the Charles River Esplanade. In 1992, on the centennial of P.S. Gilmore's death, the Society erected a monument at his gravesite in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York. Between 1993 and 2002, the Society hosted popular band concerts each summer on the Boston Esplanade, where community bands from throughout New England came to perform. The Society appears to have ceased activities as Cummings's health declined before his death in 2011.

Sources:

Patrick S. Gilmore, Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductees and Awardees, accessed on October 28, 2025, https://www.songhall.org/profiles/patrick-s-gilmore.

"About Us," The Patrick S. Gilmore Society, archived December 16, 2004, at https://web.archive.org/web/20071014054703/http://psgilmore-society.org/aboutus.html.

Michael J. Cummings (or, in Ireland, Kilcommons) was born August 25, 1924, and grew up in Ballygar, County Galway, the birthplace of P.S. Gilmore. He arrived in Boston in 1947 as an athlete for the Boston Galway Gaelic Football Club, and he was on the team during five consecutive championships (1948-1952). Cummings quickly became a leader in the Irish community during the 1950s, organizing ceili dancing and other cultural activities. Cummings was naturalized in 1954 and married Noreen M. McSweeney on September 14, 1957. Together they had four children: Eileen, Karen, Brian, and Mike, Jr.

Cummings worked for Boston Gas Company and The Flatley Company. He was a president of the Gaelic Athletic Association and a member of the Milton Historical Society. Cummings helped form the Irish American Committee for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Fund in 1964, which allowed small donors to contribute to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. He formed the Patrick S. Gilmore Society in 1968 or 1969, and served as its president. In 1972, he and the Society helped the Boston Public Library organize an exhibit on P.S. Gilmore’s musical accomplishments. That same year he organized, alongside Ireland’s tourist board, a plaque commemorating P.S. Gilmore in Ballygar, Ireland. Cummings became involved with U.S. immigration reform in the 1980s and the Boston Irish Famine Memorial project in the 1990s. In commemoration of the centennial of P.S. Gilmore’s death, Cummings led a fundraiser in 1992 to place a new gravestone at P.S. Gilmore’s grave in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.

Michael Cummings died on October 1, 2011, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Sources:

"Death of Boston's Michael Cummings," Irish Echo, October 5, 2011, https://www.irishecho.com/2011/10/death-of-bostons-michael-cummings.

"Michael and Noreen Cummings, 50 years," Patriot Ledger, September 30, 2007, https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/2007/09/30/michael-noreen-cummings-50-years/40111534007/.

"Michael Cummings," The Patrick S. Gilmore Society, archived December 16, 2004, at https://web.archive.org/web/20070908093022/http://www.psgilmore-society.org/AboutMikeCummings.html.

"Obituary for Michael Cummings," Boston Globe, October 03, 2011, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-obituary-for-michael-j/37862028/?locale=en-CA.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.