Brazil Band to orchestrate 'Sousa Spectacular'

Saturday, June 23, 2012

BRAZIL -- The Brazil Concert Band, under the direction of conductor Matthew S. Huber, will present "Sousa Spectacular" Sunday June 24, beginning at 8 p.m. at the Forest Park bandshell, rain or shine.

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) was the world's most famous bandleader with a career that spread from his rise as director of the United States Marine Band (1880-1892) to his own incredible Sousa's Band (1892-1932).

During that 52-year tenure Sousa and his musicians crisscrossed the nation and performed around the world, making him America's first superstar, millionaire musician.

Sousa wrote hundreds of works for band and orchestra, including 136 marches, giving him the title "March King," and still had time to author novels, an autobiography, become a championship skeet shooter, outdoor sportsman, owner of a stable full of horses, gun collector, and become a husband with three children.

The Brazil Concert Band will salute Sousa with an all-Sousa review of several of his lesser-known marches and excerpts from suites to include "A Century of Progress," "Presidential Polonaise," "Tales of a Traveler," "Solid Men to the Front," "Easter Monday on the White House Lawn and "Peaches and Cream."

Also, "At the Movies," "Dwellers of the Western World," "Marching Along," "People Who Live in Glass Houses" and "The Untitled March."

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