Salem Concert Band Presents In the Steps of Sousa

Organizers say the listener may be surprised by the array of emotions and images that Sousa creates with this piece, ranging from joy and celebration to a quiet leitmotif representing the character Nydia to the fear and chaos of Pompeii’s infamous volcanic demise in 79 AD.

Salem Concert Band

(SALEM) - The Salem Concert Band will return to the Historic Elsinore Theatre stage on Sunday, May 6th, at 3:00 PM, with conductor Keith Weathers’ annual “In the Steps of Sousa” program.

The program features several works composed by John Philip Sousa, including Nobles of the Mystic Shrine March and Hands Across the Sea March. Composed in 1893, just one year after his first performance with the Sousa Band in 1892, Sousa’s The Last Days of Pompeii is a programmatic suite in three movements, “In the House of Burbo and Stratonice,” “Nydia,” and “The Destruction.”

Organizers say the listener may be surprised by the array of emotions and images that Sousa creates with this piece, ranging from joy and celebration to a quiet leitmotif representing the character Nydia to the fear and chaos of Pompeii’s infamous volcanic demise in 79 AD.

Following the tradition, Keith Weathers has selected several works of Sousa’s contemporaries. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sea Songs, a British march written in 1923, evokes a journey across the ocean on the “Princess Royal.” Vincent Persichetti, who began his musical studies at age 5 and poured much of his talent into literature for wind band, composed his first piece for concert band, Divertimento for Band, in 1950 as six short movements that blend his flair for counterpoint with moments of humor and lyric nostalgia.

Other pieces on the program are An Outdoor Overture by Aaron Copland, the Largo from Antonin Dvořák’s 5th Symphony “From the New World,” and Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter, which features a manual typewriter as one of the band instruments. As always, the crowd-pleasing The Stars and Stripes Forever March will finish the show as the grand finale.

The Salem Concert Band has been recognized for artistic achievements by the Oregon Arts Commission, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Tickets are $12–15 and are available from the Salem Concert Band: 503-769-5598 and www.scb.org, Historic Elsinore Theatre: 503-375-3574, TicketsWest: 1-800-992-8499, and at the door. Complimentary tickets are available for students grades 1–12 with the purchase of an adult ticket.