Mount Prospect Community Band 2025 Summer Concert Series begins June 23
The Mount Prospect Park District presents the Summer Festival of Music, the free concert series by the Mount Prospect Community Band, a program of the park district in its 49th year.
All concerts are performed at 7:30 p.m. on six Monday evenings, June 23 through July 28, at the Veterans Memorial Band Shell in Lions Park. Music Director Monty Adams has planned themed concerts which showcase a variety of music and will feature a guest soloists as well as soloists who are members of the band.
The first concert, “Another Opening, Another Show,” opens with the uplifting “Blue Sky and Sunshine March” by Toshihiro Fujishiro followed by the popular “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin. “Polonaise for Piccolo” features soloist Carol Keipert, a longtime member of the band who has served as personnel manager, historian, and flute section leader. Music from “Man of La Mancha” and “West Side Story” and a Cole Porter medley round out the program.
“Salute to America” on June 30 will honor Independence Day with many patriotic songs and marches. For this special occasion, the band welcomes back former longtime clarinetist, band president and announcer Jim Weyrick, who was also the major force behind the building of the Veterans Memorial Band Shell. The band will honor veterans with “Salute to the Armed Forces,” which, in this new arrangement, also has the Space Force song. Principal clarinetist Jim Maynen will perform the first movement of the Clarinet Concerto by Philip Sparke, which contains much syncopation in a rag-like style, evoking that period in American music. Other notable pieces are “American Fantasie” by Victor Herbert and “George M. Cohan Patriotic Fantasy.”
The third concert on July 7 will take the audience “Around the World in 60 Minutes.” The joyful “Hello Sunshine! March” by Japanese composer Yoshio Matsuo opens the concert followed by “March of the Mogul Emperors,” which comes from English composer Edward Elgar’s “Crown of India Suite.” “A French Festival” offers familiar tunes, and “Pacific Island Fantasy” will make everyone feel relaxed in the moment. The guest soloist for this concert is freelance trumpet player Steve Levin playing “Star Dust” by Hoagy Carmichael. Also on the program are “China Doll” by Leroy Anderson and “La Cumparsita” by Uruguayan musician Gerardo Matos Rodriguez, which is among the most famous and recognizable tangos of all time. The concert ends with “Disney Around the World,” by arranged by James Christensen.
“Some of Our Favorites” is the title of the July 14 concert, which features band member Jamie Bowering playing the baritone solo “Carrickfergus,” an Irish air named after the oldest town in Northern Ireland. “Broadway Spectacular” was arranged by John Higgins, a 1965 Prospect High School graduate from Prospect Heights who is currently a freelance composer, arranger and producer for Hal Leonard music publishing company. “Italian Festival,” Waltz #2 by Shostakovich (made popular by Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra), and the rousing musical score by Korngold for the movie “The Sea Hawk” are also on the program, as well as “Pineapple Poll” from the Gilbert and Sullivan comic ballet and “Wedding Dance” from the Symphonic Suite “Hasseneh” (The Wedding).
Ballet Expressions, directed by Amy Hubert, and Impulse Dance Ensemble, directed Kim Klinger — also programs of the Mount Prospect Park District — are featured on the July 21 concert, along with Amy Keipert, resident soprano vocalist with the band. The dancers will perform to “Gershwin on Broadway,” and Keipert will sing many favorite tunes accompanied by the band in “Broadway Curtain Time,” as well as the standard ballad “Blue Moon.” The piece “Cartoon Symphony,” performed by the band, will add some frivolity to end the evening.
The final concert of the summer titled “A Night in Vienna” opens with the march “Unter dem Doppeladler” by Richard Wagner and then continues with the music of Johann Strauss II, beginning with the overture to the operetta “Die Fledermaus” and the aria “Laughing Song” sung by guest soprano Debbie Schreiner. “Blue Danube” and “Rosen Aus Dem Suden” waltzes and “Tritsch-Tratsch” polka are also on the program. As is the usual custom, the concert will end with the audience clapping along on direction from the conductor during the “Radetsky March.”
Concertgoers should bring their own lawn chairs or blankets. In the event of bad weather, all concerts will be moved inside except for the last one which would be canceled. There will be a banner notification on the park district website, mppd.org, and park district front desk staff will be informed for anyone calling to find out.