U.S. Marine Band Announces 2017 Concert Tour to the Northeast

"The President's Own" United States Marine Band will departWashington, D.C.,Monday, Oct. 1, 2017, for its annual fall concert tour, performing 28 concerts in 30 days throughout the Northeast. The band will perform its first concert at3 p.m.,Sunday, Oct. 1, at the Lampeter-Strasburg High School Auditorium inLancaster, Pa., and will conclude its tour at7:30 p.m.,Monday, Oct. 30, at University of Pennsylvania Irvine Auditorium in Philadelphia.

Concerts are free, but tickets are required. The complete itinerary and ticket information is available atwww.marineband.marines.mil. Ticket holders must be seated 15 minutes prior to the concert; non-ticket holders will be admitted at that time on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the style of the band's 17th Director John Philip Sousa, who initiated the concert tour tradition in 1891, Marine Band Director Col. Jason K. Fettig has chosen a diverse mix of programsfrom traditional band repertoire and Sousa marches to instrumental solos and a salute to the Armed Forces.

"We always try to highlight music on our programs that celebrates the region we are visiting, whether it be marches that provide a connection or folk music that might be associated with certain areas of the country," said Marine Band Director Col. Jason K. Fettig. "We have tremendously appreciative patrons who come to Marine Band concerts for all types of different experiences, so our programs are designed to include a great variety of music that mirrors the wonderful diversity in our national musical heritage."

By the end of the tour, the Marine Band will have traveled 2,551 miles throughout the northeast, performing 28 concerts in 10 states, with stops in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware.

The Marine Band is America's oldest continuously active professional musical organization. Founded in 1798, the band has performed for every U.S. President since John Adams. Known as "The President's Own" since the days of Thomas Jefferson, the Marine Band's mission is to provide music for the President of the United States and the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

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