Central Military Band of the Ministry of Defense of Russia

By the time the Great Patriotic War began, the band was in the Belarusian SSR where it was staging a series of concerts in the Minsk Military District. Where the band performed at the Narev river, one side saw the band's performance while the other saw the German Wehrmacht preparing for Operation Barbarossa. The following day the war broke out. On 25 June 1941, the band returned to Moscow, three days after the start of hostilities.[12] In September 1941, twenty-eight musicians from the band received an order to go to the Western Front. A month later, the band got surrounded by the German 3rd Panzer Army and 4th Panzer Army near the city of Vyazma during the Battle of Bryansk. Although receiving the orders to break through the enemy circle and withdraw, the transport vehicle that was meant to do so was caught in the crossfire of multiple units. Nine musicians died immediately, ten going missing.[13] Despite this setback, the band never ceased to perform over the course of the war, staging over 500 concerts and making 150 appearances on the All-Union radio. Among its activities were the ceremonies of awarding units their colors and state honors.[14]

Historically, since 1924, the Senior Director of Music of the Armed Forces has been the ceremonial chief of the band. In the Spasskaya Tower Military Music Festival and Tattoo editions of 2007, 2009 and 2010 the Central Band's Bandmaster, then Col Andrey Kolotushkin, served as the band conductor. Today, the director of music does not hold the post of Senior Director of Music of the Military Band Service in a concurrent capacity, as that post leads the overall direction and organization of all the active bands in the armed services.

• Major General Semyon Tchernetsky (1924–1949)[15]
• Major General Ivan Petrov (1950–1958)[15]
• Major General Nikolai Nazarov (1958–1976)[15]
• Major General Nikolai Mikhailov (1976–1993)[15]
• Lieutenant General Viktor Afanasyev (1993–2002)[15]
• Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov (2002-2010)[15]
• Colonel Sergey Durygin (2010–Present)

• B. Miller (?)
• P. Zabezhansky (?)
• N. Matukhnenko (?)
• I. Mironovich (?-1951)
• Nikolai Sergeev (1951-1977)[16]
• A. Maltsev (1977-1985)
• Anatoly Mukhamedzhan (born Khamis Kharisovich) (1985-1994)
• A. Pestov (1994-?)
• V. Rusin (?-2003)
• Colonel Andrey Kolotushkin (2003-2010)[17]
• Colonel Sergey Durygin (2010–Present)

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