The Allentown Band is returning to two of its fans\u2019 favorite Lehigh Valley concert venues: Haines Mill and Waldheim Park.<\/p>\n
The Allentown Band presents \u201cCelebrating America 250,\u201d 7 p.m. Aug. 11, Waldheim Park, Salisbury Township.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the Allentown Band\u2019s 107th concert at Waldheim, the longest-running concert venue for the band.<\/p>\n
The Allentown Band presents \u201cMusic of Broadway, Movies and More,\u201d 6:30 p.m. July 26, Haines Mill, South Whitehall Township.<\/p>\n
The concerts are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cExperiencing an outdoor band concert on the bucolic grounds of historic Haines Mill will almost certainly evoke a strong sense of \u2018Americana,\u2019 reminding us of a time when our time was not inundated with schedules and screen time,\u201d says Allentown Band Conductor Ronald Demkee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis program is composed of all American music from Broadway and movies, including marches taken from John Philip Sousa\u2019s operettas,\u201d Demkee says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a concert filled with light music for a relaxing summer evening, and bringing a folding chair is recommended,\u201d says Demkee.<\/p>\n
Composer Marvin Hamlish (1944-2012) was a child prodigy who at age seven was the youngest student accepted into the Juilliard School. He began his professional career as a rehearsal pianist for Barbra Streisand. Hamlish is one of the few to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony and Pulitzer Prize.<\/p>\n
The band performs a \u201cMarvin Hamlisch Showcase\u201d of \u201cThey\u2019re Playing My Song,\u201d \u201cNobody Does It Better,\u201d \u201cThe Entertainer\u201d and \u201cWhat I Did for Love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two works arranged by Warren Barker include \u201cGershwin!\u201d with the tunes \u201cFascinating Rhythm,\u201d \u201cEmbraceable You\u201d and \u201cI Got Rhythm,\u201d and \u201cMancini Spectacular\u201d with \u201cMoon River,\u201d \u201cBaby Elephant Walk,\u201d the theme from the television series \u201cPeter Gunn\u201d and the \u201cPie in the Face Polka\u201d from the feature movie \u201cThe Great Race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ted Ricketts\u2019 \u201cSelections from Chicago\u201d highlights music of the early jazz age.<\/p>\n
John Higgins\u2019 arrangement of \u201cIrving Berlin Showstoppers\u201d entertains with \u201cPuttin\u2019 on the Ritz,\u201d \u201cSteppin\u2019 Out With My Baby\u201d and \u201cThere\u2019s No Business Like Show Business.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band will also perform Sousa selections. In addition to 136 marches, Sousa composed 15 operettas, concert pieces, suites, fantasies and more than 70 vocal works.<\/p>\n
The concert\u2019s Sousa selections include \u201cBelle of Chicago\u201d (1892), \u201cEl Capitan\u201d (1896), \u201cThe Free Lance\u201d (1905), \u201cFairest of the Fair\u201d (1908) and \u201cThe Stars and Stripes Forever\u201d (1896).<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic of Broadway, Movies and More,\u201d Allentown Band, 6:30 p.m. July 26, Haines Mill, 87 Haines Mill Road, Allentown. Free. Information: https:\/\/allentownband.com\/events\/<\/p>\n
The Allentown Band presents \u201cCelebrating \u2018America250,\u2019\u201d 7 p.m. Aug. 11, Waldheim Park, Allentown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year marks the band\u2019s 107th almost annual appearance at Waldheim Park, making it the band\u2019s longest-running engagement,\u201d says Conductor Ronald Demke.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love returning to Waldheim annually for its excellent acoustics, intimate setting and most of all, the enthusiastic audience,\u201d Demkee says.<\/p>\n
The Allentown Band, with guest vocalist Chet Brown, will take the audience on a historic journey with American popular music, from the Revolutionary War with composer Morton Gould\u2019s \u201cYankee Doodle,\u201d to Jerry Bilik\u2019s \u201cCivil War Rhapsody,\u201d James Christensen\u2019s \u201cThe Homefront: Musical Memories of WWII\u201d and area composer Ken Moyer\u2019s arrangement of \u201cFreedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Says Moyer, \u201c\u2019Freedom\u2019 was originally written about 10 years ago for the Quakertown Band and vocalist Keith Spencer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt begins with an instrumental collage of familiar patriotic tunes, then a brief narration about Emma Lazarus\u2019 inscription on the Statue of Liberty, a vocal rendition of Irving Berlin\u2019s classic song based on that poem, and the last stanza of \u2018Battle Hymn of the Republic.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully \u2018Freedom\u2019 will remind the listener of the good fortune we enjoy as proud Americans, to be thankful for the freedom and opportunity our ancestors fought and died for, and to remember that, although the American population is diverse, we are nevertheless a single community,\u201d Moyer says.<\/p>\n
The concert concludes with John Philip Sousa\u2019s \u201cThe Stars and Stripes Forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCelebrating America 250,\u201d Allentown Band, 7 p.m. Aug. 11, Waldheim Park, 2400 S. Hall St., Salisbury Township. Free. Information: https:\/\/allentownband.com\/events\/<\/p>\n
\u201cClassical View\u201d is a column about classical music concerts, conductors and performers. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com<\/p>\n
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOAllentown Band Conductor Ronald Demkee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Allentown Band is returning to two of its fans\u2019 favorite Lehigh Valley concert venues: Haines Mill and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-252242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}