If you want to be a part of this band, you should be able to read music, like marches and look good in blue. Oh, and no felonies please.

You don’t have to be a cop to be a part of the St. Paul Police Band anymore, but you still have to pass a background check.

In its nearly 100-year history, the police band has evolved from an all-male group made up almost entirely of police officers into a co-ed ensemble of musicians who are primarily civilian community members.

But the mission has remained the same: Musical goodwill on behalf of the police department in dozens of performances a year, including parades, outdoor concerts, police memorial events and police academy graduations.

The band’s early history includes a 1924 performance to welcome John Philip Sousa’s arrival at the St. Paul Union Depot and a 1926 performance broadcast by a new radio station called WCCO. The group also once engaged in “battle of the bands” performances with the Minneapolis police band.

More recently, the St. Paul Police Band played the national anthem at a Sept. 11, 2006, Minnesota Twins game to honor law enforcement, firefighters and EMT professionals. It was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

“We’re not going to be playing Carnegie,” said current band president Tony Nikula. But “I’d say we’re very good.”

On Tuesday, the 65-member group will celebrate its 90th anniversary with a 7 p.m. concert at St. Paul’s Como Park Pavilion, 1360 Lexington Parkway N.

The band was founded in 1923 by St. Paul officers Ben Munkholm, Bob Hubenette and Frank Mondike. Throughout much of its history, it accepted civilian musicians only as honorary members when the band needed a particular instrumentalist who couldn’t be found on the force.

That’s why the band started to take female members in 1973.

“We needed someone to fill a spot, and we didn’t have any guys,” said former band president Bob Plaster, who joined the band in 1955, the same year he joined the police force.

Now about half the band is female, and the only active sworn police officer on the band is Nikula, a drummer.

Nikula said he joined the St. Paul force partly because of the traditions associated with the department.

“You want something with history and tradition,” Nikula said.

“It’s a status symbol for a police department to have a band,” said Plaster.

But Nikula said it’s “a never-ending battle” to recruit new band members from the ranks of current officers.

“There’s lots of musical talent and very few people willing to take the time,” said Gary Salkowicz, a retired St. Paul police officer with 33 years of duty on the police force and 32 years of playing saxophone with the band.

Salkowicz, a former band president, said the excuses he’s heard include other demands on officers’ time: kids, SWAT team, bomb squad.

And the band has a demanding schedule. Including rehearsals and performances, it meets nearly 50 times a year, with events ranging from the Winter Carnival parades to State Fair performances.

Compared to many community bands, the St. Paul Police Band likes to march, performing in parades year-round, according to Bob Dynan, the band director — even though, Dynan says, some band members are in their 70s and 80s.

Gary Munkholm, nephew of band founder Ben Munkholm, is a 70-year-old drum major.

“I’m a drum major who likes to flash my baton around and go from one side of the street to another,” Munkholm said.

Another drum major, retired St. Paul officer Jack Voita, is 80.

“We probably are the most senior band that marches,” Dynan said.

The band’s repertoire includes classic marches, polkas and show tunes, including a “Mamma Mia!” medley of ABBA hits and selections from “Les Miserables” and “Chicago.” One band favorite is an armed forces salute, a medley of songs of the branches of the U.S. armed services.

“It is a blast. It really is,” said St. Paul Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard, who joined both the St. Paul and Minneapolis police bands after picking up the tuba a few years ago, an instrument he had last played about 35 years ago in high school. “It’s fun music to play, and it’s fun music to listen to.”

Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560. Follow him at twitter.com/RRChin.