The Knoxville Community Band will offer a brief musical tour of the world during a free concert at 3 p.m. this Sunday, July 22, at the Cove in Concord Park.
Musical selection will take listeners from the South Pacific ("Bali Ha'i") to the Spanish Inquisition of the 16th century ("Man of LaMancha") and to Austria ("Climb Ev'ry Mountain"). America is represented in a number of pieces and songs, including "Oklahoma" and Scott Joplin's ragtime ("The Entertainer").
Mark Boring, the assistant band director, will direct "Dixieland Sampler," a number he arranged for the band.
The Knoxville Community Band is directed by Larry Hicks, retired band director of Heritage High School in Maryville. Hicks spent 30 years as a high school band director and has judged marching band and concert band contests all over the Southeast. In addition, he was horn instructor for the Avant Garde Drum and Bugle Corps based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for six years.
Boring played under Hicks when he was a student at Everett High School in Maryville, and he later became Hicks' assistant band director at Heritage. He wrote some of the music for the marching band shows before his retirement, and since then, he has been arranging music for concert bands.
The Knoxville Community Band is comprised of instrumentalists in the community who enjoy playing. Most have been playing since grammar school. Some players are band directors who like to take time out from their own bands to keep in practice on their major instruments, and others are professionals in the community who learned to play in school and don't want to lose their expertise. All are volunteers, and all play because they love music.
The band is sponsored by the Knoxville Parks and Recreation Department. The group plays year-round at festivals and special events performing a series of outdoor concerts throughout the summer. New members with expertise on any band instrument are welcome. Practices are from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays at Northwest Middle School on Pleasant Ridge Road.
The public is invited to bring chairs Sunday and enjoy an afternoon of music.