2004 Band History Conference

Centre College and the Great American Brass Band Festival invite you to participate in this unique conference devoted to American Band History.

Event date: Friday, June 11 

This theme of this year's conference will be celebrating the sesquicentennial of John Philip Sousa: The March King.

John Philip Sousa: The Man, The Legend
No hero of modern brass band music has been more influential than John Philip Sousa, “the March King.” Our 2004 Band History Conference celebrates the sesquicentennial of his birth, focusing on how his work has shaped music and culture in the US and around the world for well over a century.

Learn from Top Musicians and Scholar
Led by some of the nation’s most accomplished musicians and scholars, sessions include: a comparative study of Sousa’s early and late compositions; Sousa’s Marine Band tours, which underscored musical performances as a key source of entertainment and community-building during the late 19th century; a biographical look at Sousa’s early life and how it affected his profession and his music and an examination of “Sousa-isms” in modern compositions. Musical performances underscore the academic presentations.

“America’s Greatest Band Concert in the Park”
The 2004 History Conference ushers in the 15th annual Great American Brass Band Festival, a weekend-long musical celebration June 12 & 13 showcasing the world’s finest brass hands, from patriotic military ensembles to New Orleans-style jazz artists to authentic historical bands playing on rare period instruments to traditional European and Latin American brass groups. The Festival attracts 40,000 people and includes many additional special events for the whole family.

Click here for registration form.

2004 Workshops and Highlights

Date and Location: Friday, June 11 in Weisiger Theater of the Norton Center for the Arts: Centre College; Danville, Kentucky

8:00-8:45 a.m. Registration in Lobby/Prelude by 257th Band
Weisiger Theater Lobby/Weisiger Theater

8:45 a.m. Welcome and Overview
Ronald W. Holz

8:50-9:10 a.m. Getting it Started -- Stories of Sousa's Music
Paul Bierley/John Bierley, John Philip Sousa Scholar, Editor and Publisher of the Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music

9:15-10:10 a.m. Performance Practice: Composer as Conductor
Loras John Schissel, Musicologist in the Music Division, Library of Congress Conductor, Virginia Grand Military Band

10:15-10:45 a.m. “Reconstructing and Orchestrating Sousa’s Last March: The Library of Congress March”
Stephen Bulla, Staff Arranger, United States Marine Band, The President’s Own

10:45-11:00 a.m. Break

11:00-11:30 a.m. The Traveling Man: US Marine Band Tours 1891 and 1892
Dianna Eiland, Associate Conductor, 257th Army Band, Washington, DC

11:35 a.m.-noon 257th Army Band

Noon-1:25 p.m. Picnic on the Lawn of Norton Centre for the Arts and Outdoor Concert with Music from Federal City Brass Band  

12:45 p.m. Speech by John Philip Sousa IV and Book Signing (Tentatively)

1:30 p.m. “Salesman of Americanism, Globetrotter, and Musician”: The Nineteenth-Century John Philip Sousa, 1854-1893
Dr. Patrick Warfield, Ph.D., Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music
Georgetown University, Washington, DC

2:05-2:35 p.m. “Marching with the Salvation Army”: Comparing and Contrasting Two Sousa Marches
Dr. Ronald W. Holz, Ph.D., Music Department, Asbury College

2:35-3 p.m. Lexington Brass Band Performance with Vincent A. DiMartino, Cornet Soloist

3:00-3:20 p.m. Break

3:20-3:50 p.m. “Sousa’s Conn-ections”
Dr. Margaret D. Banks, Ph.D., Curator of Musical Instruments, National Music Museum and Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD

3:55-4:24 pm Sousa’s Band in Europe: The Transmission of American Culture
Dr. Craig Parker, Ph.D., Music Department, Kansas State University

4:30 pm  Sousa Chamber Concert featuring the Millennium Brass Quintet, Dr. Donald Zent, Piano and Dr. Beatrice Holz, Soprano

4:50-5:00 p.m. The Final Word:
Paul Bierley

EARLY REGISTRATION IS RECOMMENDED!

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For more information, contact:
boylecocdc@bellsouth.net or call 800-755-0076