On Dec. 17, local musicians will pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Sousa Band concert in Great Falls.
The Great Falls Municipal Band plays at 3 p.m. Dec. 17 at C.M. Russell High School. The concert is free but free-will donations will be accepted.
The first Great Falls Sousa Band performance was in 1919 and another followed in December 1921 at the Broadway theater, where two concerts were scheduled.
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During the matinee performance, Sousa was treated to a version of “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” sung by local school children, according to the Great Falls Municipal Band.
On Dec. 17, 1923, the Sousa Band returned to Great Falls, during which locals were treated to a matinee and traditional evening concert, according to the Municipal Band.
Sousa also conducted the orchestra at Central High School, which is the Paris Gibson Square today, during the intermission of the matinee.
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Sousa and his band returned to Great Falls once more in 1927 and during that visit, the newly formed Great Falls Boy Band performed for Sousa at the train depot as part of the welcoming festivities.
This Boys Band would eventually become the core ensemble that would bring a high school band to the regular set of classes offered at the new Great Falls High, built in 1930.
Before that, music classes at Central High were choir and orchestra, according to the Municipal Band.
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The Dec. 17 concert will pay tribute to the 1923 event.
The musicians aren’t trying to replicate that concert, but “we are trying to show the audience what a concert of this era could have looked like,” according to the band.
Featured soloists include Jake Kittelson on the tuba and Hannah Kittleson on the horn, as well as Great Falls Public Schools high school band members.
The concert will be conducted by Dusty Molyneaux.
Sousa’s Band played popular selections of their time from operas, vaudeville and the symphonic realm and by 1920s were dipping their toes into what would eventually be called jazz, according to the Municipal Band.