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“The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band
To Perform at umass amherst

AMHERST (MA) —As part of its 2017 national concert tour, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band will perform on October 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall in Amherst, MA. The concert is sponsored by the UMass Amherst Wind Studies Program, Department of Music & Dance (Dr. Matthew Westgate, Director) and UMass Fine Arts Center (Dr. Willie L. Hill, Jr., Director), and is free and open to the public.

                Free tickets are available (limit four per request) by visiting the Fine Arts Center Box Office or by calling 413-545-2511. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Ticket holders must be seated by 7:15 p.m.; non-ticket holders will be admitted at that time.

In the style of the band’s 17th Director, John Philip Sousa, who initiated the concert tour tradition in 1891, Marine Band Director Col. Jason K. Fettig has chosen a diverse mix of programs¾from traditional band repertoire and Sousa marches to instrumental solos and a salute to the Armed Forces.

An alumnus of the UMass music program, Col. Fettig will be returning to campus for the first time since being named U.S. Marine Band Director in 2014. He studied clarinet with Michael Sussman and conducting under Malcolm W. Rowell Jr., earning a bachelor’s degree in each concentration in the late 1990’s. During the October 10 concert, Rowell will guest conduct Percy Grainger’s Irish Tune from County Derry, and Wind Studies Director Matthew Westgate will also conduct Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Jesters” from The Snow Maiden. Other works on the program will include a Frank Sinatra medley featuring baritone vocalist Master Sgt. Kevin Bennear, and Sousa’s "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and "The Invincible Eagle."

“We always try to highlight music on our programs that celebrates the region we are visiting, whether it be marches that provide a connection or folk music that might be associated with certain areas of the country,” said Fettig. “We have tremendously appreciative patrons who come to Marine Band concerts for all types of different experiences, so our programs are designed to include a great variety of music that mirrors the wonderful diversity in our national musical heritage.”

By the end of the tour, the Marine Band will have traveled 2,551 miles throughout the northeast, performing 28 concerts in 10 states, with stops in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware.