The South Florida Pride Concert Band (formerly the South Florida Pride Wind Ensemble) announced the appointment of five new members to its board of directors. Longtime band member, Alain Ortiz will continue to serve as the nonprofit’s Personnel Director and Jonathan Diernbach as a Band Member at Large. Gary Burton was reappointed as a Community Board Member, with Kim Imerbsin and Ari Sumargo elected as new Community Board Members.
Affiliated with the band for the past 28 years, Ortiz is the trumpet section leader and spent the past four years directing the Pride Jazz Band. His other musical experience includes serving as Music Director at the First United Methodist Church of Fort Lauderdale.
A seven-time Grammy Award winner and renowned American jazz vibraphonist and composer, Burton toured the globe performing with musical icons. He then spent 30 years in musical education teaching at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Now retired, he devotes much of his time to the South Florida Pride Concert Band.
Diernbach is a classical trained musician and attorney. After practicing law for ten years in Ohio, he picked up his Tuba again once he discovered the South Florida Pride Concert Band. Over the past decade, Diernbach has served on the Board of Directors as President, Secretary and now as Member-at-Large. In addition to the primary concert band, he is active in the Jazz Band and Brass Quintet and starting in 2024 he will serve as the band’s grant writer.
Imersbin has served as Band Director at American Heritage Schools’s Broward campus for the past 18 years. Previously, she served as the Florida Bandmasters Association District Secretary and District Chair. Additionally, she served as the Broward County Band Directors Association Chair for All-County Honor Bands. In her free time, Imersbin enjoys playing with her two cats and spending time with her tuba-playing partner.
Born and raised in Indonesia, Sumargo studied in Australia before moving to South Florida to pursue a career in finance. A long-time supporter of the South Florida Pride Concert Band, he’s passionate about music and sang at his university’s choir for four years, then later conducted. Sumargo also served on the board of directors for the World AIDS Museum and Educational Center, focusing on fundraising and student outreach in Broward County.
For more information visit pridewindensemble.org or call 954-667-9228.
