Latest from The Allentown Band

Good News! This year's Youth Concerts were recorded by Kutztown University video production team. Your correspondent does not know how long these will be available, but these can be enjoyed for now. Videos Courtesy of Kutztown University Allentown Band Concert November 16, 2022 at 10:00 AM  (Program begins about 14 minutes in...) Allentown Band Concert November 16, 2022 at Noon (Program begins about 3 minutes in...)

The Allentown Band presents its annual Youth Concerts on Wednesday November 16, 2022 at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This year, with sufficient school participation, two concerts are planned, for 10:00 AM and 12:00 Noon. This year's program comprises two works composed specifically to help young people understand the instruments of the concert band: Yankee Doodling: A Young Person’s Guide to the Concert Band by Daniel Kallman, with Emile Guida, Narrator An energetic and comic theme and variations of this favorite tune with a narrator to introduce the instruments of the band. This might be thought of as a parallel to Leonard Bernstein’s “Young People’s Guide to the Orchestra.” The Gingerbread Boy in Concert  by Lawrence Kursar, with Emile Guida, Narrator This 14-minute narrated work for Concert Band features the different instruments of the brass family as characters in this American Folk Tale. Color illustrations from Richard Eiglieski’s “The Gingerbread Boy” ...

Congratulations go to Jason Lerew, director of all things band at Parkland High School, and regular clarinetist and saxophonist with The Allentown Band. Also, kudos to Mike Moran, director at Freedom High School, and trombonist with The Allentown Band, and other area music teachers for everything that you do! BARRY MANILOW ANNOUNCES MUSIC TEACHER AWARD TO COINCIDE WITH HIS SUMMER ARENA TOUR 'MANILOW: HITS 2022' Each Tour City Nominating Their Favorite Music Teacher for VIP Experience to Show Including Tickets and Back Stage Award Presentation with Barry Manilow   NEW YORK, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Music icon Barry Manilow announced today his Manilow Music Project will once again award a deserving music teacher in each city of his summer arena tour.   Every venue on Manilow's tour has participated by suggesting schools and teachers in their area that they wish to be considered for this award. In each city, the winning teacher will receive a 5K cash award and another 5K ...

 The Allentown Band was thrilled to welcome talented area high school students to the Miller Symphony Hall stage for our annual Side-by-Side concert. Postponed by the pandemic for two years, this is one of the highlights of our season. Recommended by their music teachers--many of whom actually are on the stage with them!--the students receive their parts and arrive at rehearsal ready to go. Students welcomed to rehearsal by Deb Heiney, Allentown Band Community Outreach Director This year's program was entitled "The 20's Roar" and featured music from that era. The students' selections included "New York 1927", original music in that style by Warren Barker, and "Twentiana", a collection of songs arranged by Hawley Ades, directed by Dr. Demkee. Dr. Demkee rehearsing band and students. Our guest conductor for this concert was Loras Schissel, a senior musicologist a the Library of Congress and director of the Virginia Grand Military Band. There'...

The Allentown Band has been honored again to be invited to perform at this year's PMEA (Pennsylvania Music Educators Association) annual conference.  The event this year is being held at the Kalahari Resort Convention Center in the Poconos. The band performs on Saturday April 9th. We wish we could invite our fans, but this PRIVATE concert is open only to conference attendees. The program includes quite a variety of musical selections, many familiar to Allentown Band concert goers. The band opens with William Pryun's "Allentown Sesquicentennial March", an unpublished work that was composed for the band's 150th anniversary in 19789. The next selection is Morton Gould's "Jericho Rhapsody" which actually was composed for the Pennsylvania Music Association (now the PMEA) in 1939. This work was recorded by The Allentown Band and released with a collection of Morton Gould compositions on "Our Band Heritage" Series, Volume 27. The band then featu...

  Jerry reviewing a take with Ron It is with sadness that we announce the passing of our long-time recording engineer and good friend of The Allentown Band, Jerry Tyson. Jerry was the recording engineer and editor for all thirty-two volumes of The Allentown Band's "Our Band Heritage" series, a project that started in 1984 with vinyl 33-1/3 rpm records, transitioned to cassette tapes, and finally to compact discs "CDs", which were produced with his AMP label. These recordings have reached listeners in all fifty states and twenty-three foreign countries. My relationship with Jerry actually began in 1968, when he recorded the very first annual Spring Concert by the Freedom High School Patriot Band in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For decades, Jerry also recorded all of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association's District 10 Band, Orchestra and Chorus concerts, so our paths crossed many times during my thirty-two year tenure at FHS and at these PMEA Festivals. We ...

  For many years, your correspondent has been privileged to perform at The Allentown Band's annual Dinner Concert, usually held the Tuesday evening before Thanksgiving, although suspended temporarily by the on-going pandemic.  While Dr. Demkee has chosen a variety of themes in recent years, a portion of the program usually is reserved to welcome the season. And for me, the Holiday Season truly arrives with the playing of Leroy Anderson's A Christmas Festival , the famous celebration of familiar carols by which other such works are judged. A Christmas Festival  was composed in 1950 when Anderson was the composer/arranger in residence with the Boston Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. The orchestrations are full and lush, the transitions between songs natural and inspiring. It's as satisfying to play as it is joyful to hear. More information is available at leroyanderson.com