The Bowdoin College Concert Band will greet the season with their spring concert, titled "Sousa, Then and Now" at Studzinski Recital Hall on Sunday. The Concert Band, Bowdoin's largest student music ensemble, is comprised of over 50 students who play brass, woodwind and percussion instruments.
The students meet for several hours twice a week and their work each semester culminates in a large public performance. In recent years, the Concert Band has centered this larger performance on a broader musical theme.
Last fall they explored the idea of Pictures of Musical Exhibition, incorporating visual elements into their concert, and this upcoming spring concert will be a tribute to John Philip Sousa, the former director of the Marine Band.
The Concert Band, which usually plays recently arranged and written music, as opposed to classical "old band" style pieces, will perform pieces by Sousa as well as works written as a tribute to Sousa's legacy and style. Sousa, a composer and conductor, is most well known for the military and patriotic marches, among them Semper Fidelis March, the official march of the United States Marine Corps and Stars and Stripes Forever, the national march of the United States.
The Bowdoin College Concert Band will perform under the direction of John P. Morneau Sunday at 2 p.m.
-Compiled by Hannah Hoyt.