An American Original: Concert Wednesday Celebrates One of Our Country's Great Entertainers

A few things come to mind when people hear the name John Philip Sousa

Military music. A marching band. Who?

The "who" would come from anyone in America who has never seen a public parade, where "Stars and Stripes Forever," one of Sousa's most famous compositions, is almost always on the bill—along with "Louis Louis."

Keith Brion is the leader of the New Sousa Band, and he wants to clear up some misconceptions about Sousa, a band leader as well as one of America's most famous composers and pioneers in popular entertainment.

In the 1880s, Sousa led the U.S. Marine Band and then, for another 40 years, he toured the world with his Sousa Band. Several decades after Sousa's 1932 death, Brion began to make a living as a Sousa impersonator of sorts. That is, he would channel the spirit of Sousa—including dressing like Sousa--as he directed performances of  his New Sousa Band, which he founded in 1979 while a band director at Yale University.

Brion will bring that Sousa spirit to Walnut Creek Wednesday evening. He'll lead Walnut Creek's own Concert Band in a concert, "Stars and Stripes and Sousa," that recreates the style of Sousa.

BTW: If you want to get a preview of the Walnut Creek Concert Band playing Sousa's works, watch and listen to Walnut Creek Patch's video of Saturday's opening celebrations of the new Walnut Creek Library. The band played some of Sousa's greatest hits to mark the special occasion.

To recreate the Sousa style means to resurrect Sousa's genius as a concert entertainer, Brion says. Sousa didn't just pen songs that military units and high school bands could march to in July 4 parades.

Sousa pioneered a new role for a musical conductor in American cultural life. Brion calls Sousa the original "pops" orchestra conductor, performing popular and light classical works. Before there was Arthur Fiedler of Boston Pops Orchestra fame, there was Sousa, who was the first major American conductor to create programs using carefully arranged selections of music by different composers to take audiences on an entertaining and emotional journey.

"His marches are what people are used to hearing," says Brion. "Sousa created marches for marching bands so they people could hear them playing loudly down the street. But with his own band, he offered more subtle and sophisticated arrangements."

Brion explains that Sousa's concert programs, in some ways, follow the "architecture" of a Broadway show. That is, Sousa presented a mix of short, long, fast, slow, loud and soft works. Some works involved  the entire orchestra, others a small ensemble of musicians, and some showcased solo singers. But the musical selections were arranged in a way that the program would build, over the course of an evening, to a grand, emotionally thrilling finale.

Wednesday evening's performance features a mix of works composed by Sousa, who trained as a violinist, and by other artists who were popular at the time that Sousa was a star attraction. There will be an overture by Austrian composer Franz von Suppe, who, like Sousa, composed music in the Romantic style of the late 1800s. Brion and the band also will present an aria from Verdi's opera La Traviata. Joining Brion and the Concert Band Wednesday will be soprano Olga Chernisheva and trombonist John Brummell.

Sousa's famous marching songs are not on the main program, but don't worry, Brion says, they will be played as part of the encore. 

Brion himself became enamoured of Sousa when he was growing up in Philadelphia and heard his father, who owned a sound company, play Sousa marches for political rallies. In the 1970s, when he was at Yale University, Brion and his band decided to perform a concert of Sousa-inspired music, a potential box office risk in 1978 when the Vietnam War and the accompanying counter-culture movement were still dominant in people's minds. 

"We were performing very patriotic stuff, which was very, very suspicious, especially at a place like Yale in the late 1970s," Brion said. "We were holding our breath. But there were lots of people who were around from World War II, and remembering marches they heard playing in military bands. It was the first full house in the history of the Yale band. It was wildly successful."

Brion started his own New Sousa Band in 1979 with an emphasis on making the experience as historically authentic as possible for audiences, right down to the uniforms that Brion and band members wear, "Sousa was a showman," Brion says. "What was interesting was that he and his band wore dark uniforms—and white gloves."

A dark uniform and white gloves—that's Brion's uniform for his New Sousa Band performances which, like those of the original Sousa Band, take place all over the world. Brion has also guest conducted with various professional orchestras, including the Stockholm Symphonic Wind Orchestra and New York City's Goldman Band. And, he has appeared with most major American service bands, such as the U.S. Marine Band.

Brion has taken a cue from his idol, John Philip Sousa, and made a successful career in performing music in a way that entertains people. 

"I feel like we found the magic lantern and rubbed it and the genie popped out," he says.

The performance takes place 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive. Tickets cost $12--$15. Call 925- 943-SHOW (7469) or visit lesherartscenter.org.