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2023 marks the 155th season of the Michigan City Municipal Band. The 2023 concert series will consist of ten free Thursday concerts, beginning June 8, and ending August 10. All concerts begin at 7:30p and last about an hour. The band plays a wide variety of music, with concerts designed to entertain audience members of all ages. The MCMB also plays for the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Greenwood Cemetery, and in the Michigan City Patriotic Parade.
Highlights of the summer concert series include special guest soloists and two commissions by award-winning composers. Soloists will be GySgt. Hiram Diaz, euphonium, from the US Marine Band (August 3); and Anne Marie Bice, soprano (June 22 and 29, and July 13). Other soloists and special events will be announced during the season.
The world premiere of Blue Water, Blue Sky by Catherine McMichael will take place on August 3. Also on August 3, the Concerto for Euphonium and Band by Tom Davoren will showcase the band with world-class euphonium soloist GySgt. Hiram Diaz, in three beautiful and dazzling movements.
In addition to being outstanding performers, many of the band members are also successful conductors. Some of those conductors will be featured on individual compositions throughout the summer.
Jeffrey Scott Doebler is the conductor for the MCMB, and Quincy Ford is the assistant conductor. Dr. Doebler serves as director of music education and bands at Valparaiso University. He is a past president of the Indiana Bandmasters Association and the Indiana Music Education Association. He is founder and conductor of Windiana: Professional Concert Band of Northwest Indiana. Mr. Ford, principal saxophone in the MCMB, is retired director of bands from Michigan City High School.
Thursday, August 8, 2019 Concert
The tenth and final concert of the 151st season of the Michigan City Municipal Band (MCMB) will take place Thursday, August 8, 7:30p, at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater in Washington Park.
Guest vocal soloist on the August 8 concert will be Tim King, who will sing music from Les Miserables and Titanic. Mr. King has soloed with more than 150 professional ensembles throughout the country. The Santa Barbara CASA Magazine commended Mr. King: “Championing a silken voice, Mr. King…soared through…Maria from West Side Story, delighting further, a now wildly enthusiastic audience….ravishing voice.”
Also performing and soloing with the band will be Staff Sergeant Hiram Diaz, euphonium, from the United States Marine Band, “The President’s Own. The Marine Band bio on SSgt Dias can be found here. SSgt Dias has degrees from the New World School of the Arts in Miama, and the University of Cincinnati College Concervatory of Music, and was a featured soloist on the United States Marine Band 2016 national tour. We’ll feature SSgt Diaz on the famous Napoli Variations by Herman Bellstedt. For an encore, we’ll feature the euphonium section and the woodwind section on the dazzling Melody Shop March by Karl King.
We’ll hear our commissioned work, Sesenta, by award-winning composer Quincy Hilliard, and we’ll honor the legacy of long-time conductor Guy Foreman with Dr. Foreman’s composition Singing Sands Overture.
The Michigan City Municipal Band August 8 concert repertoire will be:
The Star-Spangled Banner
Singing Sands Overture by Guy Foreman
Bring Him Home from Les Miserables
My Heart Will Go On from Titanic
Light Cavalry Overture by Franz von Suppe
A Hymn of Peace by Daniel Chisam
Napoli Variations by Herman Bellstedt
The Melody Shop by Karl King
Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood by Fred Rogers
Sesenta by Quincy Hilliard
Patriotic sing along: God Bless America
Our tradition is to invite the audience to sing with the band at the beginning and ending of each concert. After the opening fanfare, the audience will sing along on The Star-Spangled Banner. Each concert ends with a familiar patriotic selection for the audience to sing.
The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
8-10-23 America the Beautiful
America the Beautiful
O Beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea.
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Summer Concerts Every Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheater, Washington Park