Cape Municipal Band to perform Memorial Day, throughout summer

It�s time to strike up the band. The Cape Municipal Band kicks off its season with an 11 a.m. performance Monday at the Osage Centre as part of a Memorial Day ceremony.

Jerry Ford, who plays the trumpet in the Jerry Ford Orchestra and Cape Municipal Band, said Monday�s concert would include patriotic compositions, including performances of several marches by John Philip Sousa and various other military arrangements.

�We�ve got a beautiful arrangement of �America the Beautiful� and things like that,� Ford said. �And we also have a tribute to the military, because that�s kind of what it�s about that day, of course.�

Ford said Cape Municipal Band has been part of the annual event for nearly 30 years, which, he said, is almost as long as the city has hosted a Memorial Day concert to honor veterans.

Guests for the day, Ford said, would include retired military and local veterans from the Missouri Veterans Home who are physically able to attend. With the popularity of the event in recent years, he also recommends attendees arrive early and encourages them to bring lawn chairs, blankets and refreshments, with the event lasting a little over an hour.

One of the things the band prides itself in, he said, is the inclusion of high school students.

�That way, they get experience playing with professionals and they get experience learning literature of wind ensembles and concert bands,� Ford said.

One of the main goals of the band is to ensure the inclusion of the �younger people� in the community, he said.

Ford said the students have to be pretty good to play in the band, though, and the students selected are usually upperclassmen.

But the band isn�t made up only of professional musicians and students, he said. It also comprises community musicians, college students and college professors.

In addition to the Memorial Day event at the Osage Centre, Ford said the Cape Municipal Band also will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays June 6 through July in Capaha Park at the Dan Cotner Amphitheater.

�We�ll give essentially 10 concerts,� he said. �The city also has the big Fourth of July celebration; we also play there.�

Attendance depends on the weather, he said, but each weekly concert usually attracts nearly 200 attendees. Ford said it also depends on who the special guest is or what else is going on around town at the same time.

�The band has approximately 45 playing members and, of course, does all different kinds of music,� Ford said. �We have a special guest each week.�

Ford said the band built the structure that houses each concert � when it was known as the Schuchert Cornet Band � around 1957.

When the Cape Municipal Band moved from what is now Ivers Square in 1957, he said artisans were called in and companies were contacted in order to donate the needed materials for the structure.

Ford said the city donated the location and currently maintains it.

The municipal bandshell was renamed in July 2015 to Dan Cotner Amphitheater in honor of Dan Cotner�s devotion to the band, Ford said.

�It was dedicated for his longevity in the band and he still plays in the trombone section,� Ford said.

The Cape Municipal Band is one of the longest, continual, community bands, Ford said, with it being formed in the 1880s. In 1922, he said the Legislature passed a law allowing cities to support a band tax. So since 1927, the city has sponsored the band and it is considered part of the city�s Parks and Recreation Department, according to Ford.

A program is in the works for later this summer, Ford said, and would be dedicated to the 100th anniversary of World War I. He said the program would include original scores from a concert in 1918.

�Conductor Ron Nall has looked through the music and has found at least five of those,� Ford said. �So we�re going to try and replicate that 1918 concert this summer. We don�t have the date yet.�

The Cape Municipal Band will begin playing at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau, with the Memorial Day program starting at 11 a.m.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

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