Event Calendar
Miller Symphony Hall presents ” A Sousa Band Concert” with the Allentown Band
Sunday, October 13, 2024, 3:00 pm
A MILLER SYMPHONY HALL PRODUCTION
Ronald Demkee, Conductor
John Philip Sousa IV, Narrator (Great grandson of John Philip Sousa)
Patricia Risley, Met Opera Mezzo Soprano (portraying Sousa soloist Estelle Liebling)
Scott Shelsta, Principal Trombone | U.S. Army Band | Retired (portraying Sousa soloist Arthur Pryor)
Craig Mandelbaum, Xylophone (portraying Sousa soloist Joe Green)
2024 marks the 125th Anniversary of Allentown's Miller Symphony Hall. The SOUSA BAND played in the hall that was then known as The Lyric Theatre on four occasions (1900, 1908, 1910, and 1920.) The Allentown Band will replicate a typical concert played by Sousa and his Band during those years.
The band is doing three Sousa marches on this program. The two that are best known are El Capitan and of course Stars and Stripes Forever.
The most significant to this program is actually Hail to the Spirit of Liberty, the march he wrote in 1900, his first performance in the Lyric Theatre, and most certainly would have played this in Allentown, since this concert was billed as his "Farewell Concert," before his first tour to Europe for the Paris Exposition.
It was with great pride that Sousa and his band represented the United States at the Paris Exposition of 1900. This was the first overseas tour of the band, and it was received throughout Europe with enthusiasm. The band displayed the finest American musicianship Europe had seen and helped dispel the notion that the United States was an artistic void. A statue of George Washington was unveiled on July 2, but the highlight of the Paris engagement was the unveiling of the Lafayette Monument on July 4. It was presented on behalf of the children of the United States by Ferdinand W. Peck, commissioner general of the Paris Exposition, as President Loubet of France looked on. The monument portrayed Lafayette on horseback offering his sword to the American cause in the Revolutionary War and was draped with a huge American flag. At the unveiling the Sousa Band gave the first performance of the march composed specifically for that moment: “Hail to the Spirit of Liberty.” Immediately after the ceremony, the band made one of its rare appearances in a parade as it marched through the main streets of Paris.
Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 43.
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John Philip Sousa IV
Patricia Risley, Mezzo Soprano
Scott Shelsta, Principal Trombone | U.S. Army Band | Retired
Craig Mandelbaum, Xylophone