With roughly nine decades of experience, the U.S. Navy Concert Band celebrates stirring patriotic music Tuesday with a concert at Texas High School's Sullivan Performing Arts Center.
Starting at 7 p.m., this premier wind ensemble brings marches, orchestral favorites and more to the performance hall for this show, which is sold out. In all, the band's performers total 56, including performers who play the flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone and a variety of other instruments.
While the band is on the road, it falls to Senior Chief Courtney Williams, marketing manager for the band's national tours, to serve as their announcer. Texarkana is one of more than two dozen cities they'll visit in 10 states on this month-long tour.
"We're performing quite a wide variety of music. Obviously, you can't do a concert tour without doing some Sousa marches so of course there's that. We've also got some orchestral transcriptions of overtures. We've got a fantastic marimba solo. We've got some vocal soloists, as well," Williams said. Music from favorite animated films is among the selections on tap.
"Kind of wrap up the show with a tribute to what it means to be an American sailor and then, of course, acknowledging all the veterans who've served throughout the many years," Williams said.
The U.S. Navy Band has two full-time staff arrangers, one of whom wrote a piece titled "The American Sailor," he explained.
"It talks a little bit about what it means to be a sailor, how the Navy started before the Revolutionary War even," Williams said, "and how that thread of professionalism and dedication continues through 200-plus years later."
One of his favorite parts about being with the U.S. Navy Concert Band on tour, besides serving his country and performing at the same time, is meeting the audience after the concert's over each night.
"And get to hear their story," Williams said. That gives him insight into what it means for veterans to hear them perform, and for the families, too.
"We as the Navy Band represent the pride and professionalism of the entire United States Navy, and so when we're able to come out and meet the folks and they can see the quality of music that we're performing, their grandfather may have been on a destroyer in World War II," Williams said.
The band is filled with top musicians.
"The U.S. Navy Band is one of the military's premier bands. Each of the services has a premier band in Washington, D.C., with primary function being support at Arlington Cemetery and presidential support for high-level ceremonies that go on here in the Washington, D.C., area," Williams said.
Within the band, five or six performing units are organized, and the one coming to Texarkana is the Concert Band. "About a 60-piece wind ensemble," Williams said.
They're busy. At Arlington, they can do up to five full honors funerals a day, every day, all year long. And as a whole, the U.S. Navy Band has participated in every presidential inauguration since Calvin Coolidge, the announcer said. "I've been the announcer for the last three inaugurations," he said.
Taking music to America's youth is another facet of their work. "We also do educational outreach with our music in the schools series," Williams said, adding about being in Texarkana, "We just want everyone to come out and have a great time."
It's a fun show, he says, and people will have a great time.
(The concert is free but tickets are required. Because it is sold out, ticket holders will be seated between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Any open seats will then be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.)