Lehighton band to present free spring concert Sunday

The Lehighton band is about to begin its 153rd annual spring and summer band season with its annual Spring Concert.

The concert will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday in The Pfc. Clyde Houser building at 110 N. Third St. in Lehighton, and is free to the public.

It will begin with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The arrangement being used is a concert arrangement arranged by Jack Stamp.

The opening march for the concert is “Bravura” by John Philip Sousa.

The theme for the concert is “The Sounds of Water.”

The overture for the concert is titled “Morrow Bay.”

The band will then play highlights from “Jersey Boys,” which includes “Walk Like a Man,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Rag Doll,” “December 1963” and “Can’t Take my Eyes off You.”

The band will then play the “Superman Suite,” which contains selections from the 1978 blockbuster “Superman, the Movie.” John Williams’ music for this movie has been arranged for concert band by Bob Lowden.

Following this piece, “Jamaican Sailaway” will transport the audience to a tropical island.

“Titanic” is the next selection for the band. The music is from the hit movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and includes the songs “Southampton,” “Take Her to Sea,” “Mr. Murdoch,” “Hard to Starboard” and “My Heart Will Go On,” which was made famous by Celine Dion.

Next, the band will play “River of Life,” a piece of concert music by Steven Reineke.

The soloist for the afternoon will be Laura Cressley, who will perform “Carnival of Venice” arranged by Anton Coppola.

Cressley is the band director and music teacher at Palmerton Junior High School, and is also the organist at First Presbyterian Church and Zion United Church of Christ, both in Lehighton. She teaches private instrumental and voice lessons at Carbon County Music and More, and is a dance instructor for TNT dance. She is also the director of ZOW Junior.

Cressley will then be joined by fellow flutists Vickie Malloy and Grace Obert, and the trio will present “Samba for Flutes.”

Following the trio is “Mountain King Swing,” which is a jazzy version of Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” arranged by Tatgenhorst.

Rounding out the concert are “Coeur d’Alene,” a piece of music about the area and lake in Idaho and “Of Time and Change,” a composition by one of today’s most respected composers, James Swearingen.

Finally, the band will close with John Philip Sousa’s “Gladiator March.”

The band is under the direction of Bradly R. Cressley. The announcer for the concert will be Barry Gangwer.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/lehightonband.