John Philip Sousa

Nathan Carter's entrance on Meyerhoff Hall's stage Sunday evening was greeted with an enormous standing ovation. The program he was about to conduct with his Morgan State University Choir was much more a celebration of Carter's 25 distinguished years leading that choir than merely a public performance.The evening banked on the amazing talent for spiritual and gospel music that the Morgan State Choir showed on the second half of the program. This choir will do anything Nathan Carter asks, and its talent is exceeded only by its enthusiasm.

Nathan Carter's entrance on Meyerhoff Hall's stage Sunday evening was greeted with an enormous standing ovation. The program he was about to conduct with his Morgan State University Choir was much more a celebration of Carter's 25 distinguished years leading that choir than merely a public performance.The evening banked on the amazing talent for spiritual and gospel music that the Morgan State Choir showed on the second half of the program. This choir will do anything Nathan Carter asks, and its talent is exceeded only by its enthusiasm.

To get your Fourth of July off to a swinging step, I just had to share what must be the coolest version of John Philip Sousa's famous march "Stars and Stripes Forever. " Recorded in 1939, this brilliantly swinging blast from the past is by the big band of Baltimore's own Chick Webb, one of the greatest talents in jazz history. Crank up the volume and set your patriotic toes tappin'.   

Victorian Week in Cape May Step into the Victorian era in Cape May, N.J., today through Oct. 15 at the town's annual Victorian Week. Sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, the weeklong event features historic home tours, Victorian music, a tea dance, architectural Cape Island boat tours, craft-beer tastings, winery tours, living history reenactments (including John Philip Sousa), a murder-mystery dinner, glassblowing demonstrations, antiques appraisals, craft shows and more.

The eighth annual Western Maryland College Summer Band Camp Concert, featuring 75 middle and high school student musicians from schools across Maryland, will be held in the college's Decker College Center Forum at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.The concert, which will include several contemporary selections and an audience participation number, is free and open to the public.At 7 p.m. Friday in the Forum, band campers and staff members will present a talent show including comedy skits and music. Like the concert, it is free and open to the public.

It's now a local tradition to start celebrating Independence Day early with an outdoor music festival jointly sponsored by Anne Arundel County and the Cultural Arts Foundation at Anne Arundel Community College's Siegert Field in Arnold. The Star Spangled Celebration gets under way at 6 p.m. Saturday with musicians such as the Crabtowne Big Band and the Arundel Vocal Arts Society entertaining until a few minutes before 8:15 p.m. when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra takes the stage to offer patriotic music.

C-SPAN to bring Campaign 2008 bus to county C-SPAN will bring its Campaign 2008 bus to the county tomorrow as part of its "Road to the White House" tour. The red, white and blue bus will visit the Cockeysville library, 9833 Greenside Drive, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and Towson University, 8000 York Road, from noon to 2 p.m. The 45-foot-long mobile production studio is used in C-SPAN's political coverage and in educational programs for teachers and students. In Baltimore County, C-SPAN is on Comcast cable Channel 16; C-SPAN2 is on Channel 17 or 104; and C-SPAN 3 is on Channel 105. Information: 202-309-3358.

Do you play oboe, clarinet, piano -- or baritone euphonium? If so, Uncle Sam Wants You!To get you, he'll give you a bonus of $1,500 to $2,000 to enlist, not to mention $25,200 for college after a four-year hitch. And John Philip Sousa will become your patron saint.Although the Cold War is over and the armed forces are being reduced, "Bands are still critical for morale and esprit de corps, and we've had troubling vacancies Army-wide," said Constance R. Hill, public affairs officer for the Baltimore Army recruiting battalion.

He was a 17-year-old French horn player from landlocked LaJunta, Colo., who enlisted in the Navy and never expected to stay.Cmdr. Mike Burch-Pesses recalled his father, a chief petty officer, encouraged him to join "the Outfit," as he called the Navy.Now, after some 30 years of conducting Navy bands from Pensacola, Fla., to Italy and the 7th Fleet in Japan, Commander Burch-Pesses is moving once again, from his four-year post as director of the Naval Academy Band to manager of the Navy Music Program in Washington.

THE FOURTH OF JULY is the one national holiday Americans love to celebrate as a community. Whether by parade, picnic or )) musical performance, we have the opportunity to gather and commemorate the day that marks the beginning of our novel experiment in democracy.Even though Independence Day is tomorrow, celebrations in Anne Arundel County kicked off last Saturday with a music, dance and fireworks spectacle sponsored by the county's Cultural Arts Foundation. Despite the threat of rain, 4,000 people ventured to Anne Arundel Community College's Siegert Field in Arnold.

U.S. MARINE BAND members are Marines and have to look good and keep trim, but they don't go to boot camp, drill or fight. They make up to $30,000 with benefits. They enter as sergeants and stay an average of 28 years. They include 27 women players out of 143.Many critics call it the best band alive. But they don't call it the Marine Corps Band (there are 10 Marine Corps field bands but only one U.S. Marine Band).Led by a friendly John Philip Sousa scholar, Col. John R. Bourgeois, the red and blue-uniformed band plays an all-American program at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in a two-hour program at 8 p.m. tonight.