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John Hersey High School Band Will Tour Italy

The John Hersey High School Band is off to Italy this Monday, June 4th for a whirlwind nine day tour which will include four concert performances. The band will consist of 96 Hersey students, and will be under the direction of Mr. Scott Casagrande.

"This trip is focused on sharing the universal language of music," said Casagrande, who has been the director of bands at Hersey since 1999. "While we will be touring in the famous Italian cities with famous historical sites, our concerts will happen in small towns where we will have large captive audiences to share our music. Our concert promoters anticipate 800 -1500 people at all of our concerts and our reputation precedes us from the last successful tour of Italy with concerts in these same cities. This will be an amazing trip for our students!"

Hersey's band previously toured and performed in Italy in 2013.

Guest conductors joining the trip will be Mr. Todd Smith, director of bands at River Trails Middle School in Mount Prospect, and Ms. Candace Horton, director of bands at Thomas Middle School in Arlington Heights. The group will also be traveling with two guest soloists. Ms. Jayne Diliberto, a 2016 Hersey graduate now pursuing vocal performance at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, will be featured as a solo soprano vocalist. Mr. Thomas Martin, a 2013 Hersey graduate and recent graduate from Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music, will be featured as a trumpet soloist.

Concerts will take place in Sacrofano, Montecatini Terme, Volterra and Vittorio Veneto. In addition, the students will also tour sights in Rome, Pompeii, Siena, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, and Venice.

The extensive concert program repertoire will include more than twenty pieces from both Italian and American composers. Featured Italian composers will include Puccini, Verdi, Ponchielli, Giordano, and Delle Cese; American works by Fillmore, Sousa, Fisher, Williams, Anderson, Giroux and Count Basie will also be included. From Italian Rhapsody to Stars and Stripes, these performances are certain to be truly memorable for both musicians and audience.

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