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A prominent feature of nineteenth century musical Americana is the concert band, and the renowned Allentown Band has kept that tradition alive for over two hundred years. Drawn from within a fifty-mile radius of the Lehigh Valley, the band's musicians share one common goal: to create and preserve concert band music at a level of excellence rarely heard from a community band.
You will be able to hear that sound on Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 5 p.m. at the Mauch Chunk Opera House in a performance organized by the Jim Thorpe Chamber of Commerce. Theaters such as the Opera House were built for community bands, and John Philip Sousa and his band were regular performers here.
Many of the Allentown Band's members teach music in schools and in private studios. Others are engaged in engineering, accounting, sales, insurance, medicine and dentistry, or in various office work or building trades. When they meet to perform, however, all effort is concentrated on creating the most enjoyable sounds these exceptional musicians can produce—whether it be an overture transcribed from opera, a modern composition written especially for concert band, or a Sousa march.
John Philip Sousa's influence on the band and its distinguished history is profound. More than twenty local musicians were recruited to perform with Sousa, and then returned to Allentown remembering and sharing stylistic traits unique to the famous Sousa band. |
Significantly, Albertus L. Meyers, cornet soloist with Sousa in the mid-1920s, later served as conductor of the Allentown Band for fifty years. Today, under the direction of Ronald Demkee, the Sousa style continues as an integral part of the band's twenty-first century sound.
Their schedule typically includes around forty annual performances. The venue changes—from concert stage to baseball park, from church picnic to university commencement, from Allentown's Symphony Hall to New York's Carnegie Hall. In addition to providing free concerts for the greater Lehigh Valley's younger school children, their schedule includes a yearly event where talented secondary-school student musicians are invited to participate in joint performances.
Frequently seen on local television, the Allentown Band is recognized worldwide, having twice appeared on national TV—Charles Kuralt's Good Morning America, and the PBS series The American Experience in a feature called "If You Knew Sousa." They are regularly heard on Philadelphia's WRTI, and as far away as Sydney, Australia in a program called "Music That Is Band." In addition, the band has undertaken four European concert tours, performing in four Swiss cities, two Austrian cities, and, most recently, La Croix Valmer, France. |
