City of Burlington Home Page | Quality of Life | Burlington Municipal Band
This Week's Concert
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Note from the webmaster:  We update this web site at least once a week during our summer concert season.  Since the program for each Sunday concert is finalized at our rehearsal on Monday evening, we generally post the week's update sometime on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, if you are viewing this page on a summer Monday, what follows will undoubtedly be the information for YESTERDAY'S concert.
For those specifically SEEKING web pages from past concerts, our recent concert archives are now available online.
Enhancing the quality of life
in Burlington and Southeast Iowa
since 1927
Links which may be of interest to members of our audience:

The Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra - https://www.seiso.us/

Gustav Holst, composer of First Suite in E Flat for Military Band - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst

American patriotic music - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_patriotic_music

Big Bands - https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/swing-swing-swing-the-best-jazz-bandleaders-of-all-time/
This year our Sunday evening concert actually falls on the 4th of July so it seems most appropriate that our conductor, West Burlington music teacher Jeremy Henman, has chosen American Music as the theme for his concert.  Jeremy has completed his third year of teaching at West Burlington and is this summer beginning his master's degree program at Vandercook College of Music.  When not conducting Jeremy plays the trumpet in the band.  He also plays in the Southeast Iowa Symphony and the Knox-Galesburg Symphony as well as the Knox-Galesburg Brass Quintet.  Jeremy is going to have a very busy day this Sunday as he is also conducting the band as we play for West Burlington's 4th of July celebration at 10:30 in the morning.
Aside from his blunder in promising the unthinkable, Jeremy's other selections will include some really terrific American music and should go some distance in earning him your forgiveness.  They will include Americans We March by Henry Fillmore; Big Band Signatures arranged by John Higgins, a medley of big band theme songs including Let's Dance (Benny Goodman), Leap Frog (Les Brown), Woodchopper's Ball (Woody Herman), The Peanut Vendor (Stan Kenton), April in Paris (Count Basie), Caravan (Duke Ellington), and In the Mood (Glenn Miller); American Patrol by F.W. Meacham; Hoe Down from Rodeo by Aaron Copland arranged by John Moss; Lincoln by John Williams arranged by Jay Bocook; Battle Hymn of the Republic, setting by Peter J. Wilhousky, arranged by James Neilson; National Emblem March by E.E. Bagley; As Summer Was Just Beginning (Song for James Dean) by Larry D. Daehn; and our traditional closing march, The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa.
Next week's concert
will be conducted by Derrick Murphy
Since Jeremy is the youngest of this season's conductors we feel that he can be forgiven for including one non-American piece among his selections for our evening concert.  Apparently, he promised another member of our band who will remain anonymous (though her initials are CBL, she is a teaching colleague of Jeremy's and she plays bassoon in the band) that he would program the First Suite in E Flat for Military Band by Gustav Holst.  Never mind that the First Suite is among the greatest pieces ever composed for bands - Holst was a British composer and we're playing his music on Independence Day!  Is it any wonder that we have accused CBL of having Tory sympathies?
Derrick Murphy
Jeremy Henman
Perhaps to avoid confusion we should mention that our concert will NOT include a fireworks display.  The wonderful concert with a fireworks display called the Symphonic Blast always takes place on the Saturday following July 4 - this year it will be on July 10,  That event is staged by the Southeast Iowa Symphony, not the Burlington Municipal Band.  It is understandable that many people confuse the two groups since the symphony and the band share many members and the band happily shares its facilities and equipment for the Symphonic Blast.  The band's concerts are exclusively during the summer months while the symphony's concerts take place primarily during the fall, winter and spring.  We are including a link to the symphony's website below and we encourage our audience members to attend the symphony's year-round events.
While printed programs will be available at the park, you may click on the music note above to download an advance printable copy of this week's program.
While printed programs will be available at the park, you may click on the music note above to download an advance printable copy of this week's program.