Marple and Newtown are adjacent townships in Delaware County just west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Marple Newtown Band evolved from half a dozen musicians who were neighbors and played at social gatherings to include other musicians in the region.

There had been a Marple Newtown Alumni Band for a few years in the mid-1980s. The organization was made up of, as the name implies, alumni of Marple Newtown Senior High School. Led by MNHS director Larry McGriff, the group met for a six-week period during the summer and the program culminated with a concert.

In 1996, several years after the program became defunct, a handful of members from the alumni band decided that a new band should be created, one that would operate year-round and would not be restricted to alumni of any particular school. McGriff was contacted; he agreed under the conditions that this new group would be self-governed so as to spread around the administrative duties.

The first public appearance of the MNCB came at the annual 4th of July parade in the Marple Newtown area, and then a more sophisticated concert was given behind Drexel Lodge in Newtown Square that August.

McGriff stepped down from his podium in 1999 to pursue other interests, and Matthew H. Phillips, a director with over ten years' experience leading a variety of performing organizations, also a native of Main Line Philadelphia, was recruited as Bandmaster.  The band is now led by the multi-talented Anthony Wastler [see Band Directors Past and Present].

With 50-plus members ranging in age and experience from gifted preteens to retired professionals, the band became a non-profit organization with a formal mission to perform throughout the Delaware Valley. In the style and tradition of American community bands, they played recently at the opening of the Veterans Park gazebo. They are a fixture at the annual 4th of July parade down West Chester Pike, and the Rose Tree Park summer concert series. Two major concerts transpire each year at the MNCB's unofficial headquarters, Paxon Hollow Middle School, in Broomall (Marple Township). They have also performed at Ridley Creek Park, the Life Center at Neumann College, Suburban Jewish Community Center-Bnai Aron, and at one of Marple Township's most cherished landmarks, the Massey House.