Gerald Guilbeaux joined the Lafayette Concert Band as its conductor in 1993, and for the past 30 years he has played a key role in developing Lafayette’s celebrated concert band and symphonic community.
Guilbeaux announced in a Facebook post on July 29 that he will retire from the conductor position after the Lafayette Concert Band’s “Fall Festival of Sound” on Oct. 12. The concert will open the band’s 43rd season, and after that event, Scotty Walker will become the organization’s seventh conductor.
Walker, who is currently the associate conductor for the Lafayette Concert Band, is known throughout the state as a dedicated musician, instructor and band leader.
As the longtime Lafayette High School band director, Walker led the program to multiple championships, and after retiring from LHS in 2023, he announced this year that he would return to teaching as the band director at St. Thomas More High School in Lafayette.
“Over the past 32 years, leading this remarkable organization has brought me immense fulfillment,” wrote Guilbeaux on Facebook. In addition to serving as LCB conductor, Guilbeaux was the founding conductor of the Acadian Wind Symphony, which he started in 1994 to be a home to some of Acadiana’s top instrumentalists…