See festival favorites in July at Campbellsville

Two bands appearing at the Great American Brass Band Festival will be hosting another area band festival in late July.

Saxton's Cornet Band, based in Lexington, and the Olde Towne Brass of Huntsville, Ala., are host bands when the Civil War Band Festival convenes its inaugural session July 28-30 at Campbellsville University. Another GABBF participant, Eighth Regiment Band of Rome, Ga., also will perform.

Many are calling it the "most significant gathering of Civil War bands and
musicians since the famed Grand Reviews of the Armies in Washington, D.C., May 23-25,1865."

Organizers of the three-day event, including David McCullogh, director of bands at Campbellsville University, and Marc C. Whitt, acting director of the American Civil War Institute at CU, anticipate the festival will attract hundreds to Campbellsville.

Internationally renowned conductor Dr. Frederick Fennel, former director of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, will serve as honorary director and special guest conductor.

McCullough said Fennell is a "towering international figure, probably the most widely known band personality in the world today."

"We are very honored and humbled to have him here on our campus," McCullough said. Both host bands, as well as the other scheduled performing bands, recreate sound and appearance of brass bands popular in the era of the American Civil War. The bands' performers are exceptional musicians dedicated to "musical excellence and artistry as well as to historical accuracy," said McCullough.

Many of the bands use actual authentic instruments from the Civil War era, said McCullough. "Other instruments, like their uniforms, are carefully made reproductions of period equipment," he said. "Virtually all of the music used by the bands is taken from the original band books of the Union and Confederate armies."

Performances are scheduled by many of the "most outstanding Civil War bands in the nation," according to McCullough.

Bands scheduled to participate include: the New Mexico Territorial Brass Band, Albuquerque, N.M.; Dodworh Saxhorn Band, Ann Arbor, Mich.; 3rd Florida Regimental Band, St. Augustine, Fla.; Illinois Volunteer Regiment Band, Bloomington, Ill.; 8th Regiment Band, Rome, Ga.; Regiment Band of the 11th NC Troops, Fayetteville, N.C.; 28th Pennsylvania Regimental Brass Band, Lonsdale, Penn.; 5th Michigan Regiment Band, Novi, Mich.; Band of the California Battalion, Long Beach, Calif.; Wildcat Regiment Band, Home, Penn.; and Americus Brass Band, Los Angeles, Calif. During the three days, in addition to band performances, a lecture series, which runs concurrently with concerts, will feature the Camp Chase Fifes and Drums, Chillicothe, Ohio; Stephen Charpie, keyed bugle, Anaheim Hills, Calif.; The Vintage Dance Society, Lexington; and the 46th Penn. Volunteer Regiment Band, Altoona, Penn.

Fennell will participate in the opening ceremonies July 28 and will serve as grand marshal for a parade step-off July 29. He will conduct the massed bands at a grand review of all bands 7:30-8:30 p.m. July 29 in the
university's football stadium.