'The March King' comes back to life in return trip

Seventy years after his celebrated visit here, legendary band leader John Philip Sousa will be making a return to Cape Girardeau.

It will not be the actual Sousa, who died in 1932, but retired Yale music professor Keith Brion, who will bring Sousa to life through his portrayal of the bandleader. Performances with Southeast Missouri State University's Symphonic Wind Ensemble will be presented at Academic Hall on March 26 and 27.

For the performances, Brion dresses up as Sousa, fixing his hair and mustache, wearing make-up and a copy of one of Sousa's uniforms.

The wind ensemble will try to look like the Sousa band by wearing black band uniforms with high collars, reminiscent of band uniforms of Sousa's time.

In 1929 Sousa, who was known as "The March King" and composed "Stars and Stripes Forever," stopped by Cape Girardeau on one of his cross-country tours.

"For the community, it was a really big event," said Dr. Robert Gifford, a music professor at Southeast Missouri State University and one of the primary people behind bringing Brion to Cape Girardeau.

By the time of his visit, Sousa was very well known, and his free afternoon concert on the campus of the then-Teachers College brought out between 7,000 and 10,000 people, mostly schoolchildren. Some 1,500 people attended his concert at Academic Auditorium later that night.

Earlier, Sousa was greeted at the Frisco passenger station by members of the public and three local bands, including the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band, and was presented with a key to the city by Mayor James Barks.

Mayor Jay Knudtson will present Brion with a key to the city of Cape Girardeau at 11:30 a.m. March 23 at the gazebo outside the Common Pleas Courthouse, and a photograph will be taken of Brion next to the Southeast Missourian mural that contains an image of Sousa.

An uncle of Cape Girardeau dentist Dr. Dan Cotner was in the municipal band when Sousa was here and took part in the event. Cotner remembers his uncle saying that Sousa "wore white gloves when he shook hands with people."

"It must have been a tremendous occasion," said Cotner, who was on the committee that helped bring Brion to Cape Girardeau. "We hope this re-creation will be historically of great interest to people."

Gifford said Sousa represents an important time in American music, a time when people mostly heard music through touring band shows, not records.

Brion, who lives in California, has been portraying Sousa for about 20 years, Gifford said. The two men have known each other for several years because of their music teacher affiliations. While they had previously discussed the possibility of a Cape Girardeau re-enactment, Gifford said the problem was finding enough money for the project. Gifford said a number of area people wanted to support the re-creation idea when he told them about it. A committee finally was formed and community sponsors came on board to make the idea a reality.

Gifford is the director of Southeast's Symphonic Wind Ensemble, which will act as the Sousa band at the Friday and Saturday shows.

"The students are enjoying very much preparing for this event," Gifford said.

A matinee for schoolchildren will be performed at 1 p.m. March 26 at Academic Auditorium. Classes throughout Southeast Missouri have been invited to attend, and 1,000 are expected. Students from Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Ste. Genevieve already are confirmed for the performance.

A longer performance for the public will be presented at 8 p.m. Saturday at Academic Hall.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182