After a two-year hiatus, the Montgomery County Civic Band will return to the stage this weekend.
The first of five summer concerts is slated for 3 p.m. Sunday in the gazebo at Lane Place and will mark the 58-year tradition of the band performing these free, community concerts.
“We’re bigger and better,” said band director Gary Ketchum, who estimates the band is now 35-40 members strong. “We actually have several new junior high and high schoolers who have joined the band.”
This Sunday’s concert is titled “A Little This and That” and is expected to last an hour.
“It’s really a combination of the concerts we didn’t have due to the pandemic,” Ketchum said. “It includes six new arrangements.”
The band will open with the national anthem, then concert-goers will enjoy a “Tribute to Ray Charles” and Frank Sinatra’s “Come Fly With Me.”
Southmont band instructor, Elizabeth Newnum, will perform an oboe solo, “Gabriel’s Oboe,” which is featured in the 1986 film The Mission.
Ketchum will follow with a clarinet solo, “Stardust,” which is a jazz piece composed by Hoagy Carmichael.
Other pieces to be performed by the band are “Autumn Leaves” by Johnny Mercer and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” by Irving Berlin.
For the more modern concert-goer, the band also will perform music from the movie “La La Land” and “Curtain Call” by Aiden Grimshaw.
As always, the concert will conclude with the playing of “Stars and Stripes,” and children will be invited to the stage to direct the band.
Visitors are asked to bring a blanket or lawn chair. Free-will donations will be accepted. Proceeds help the band purchase music for upcoming concerts and seasons.
