The Oakland Municipal Band kicks off its concert season July 4 this year, celebrating 93 years of free performances in Lakeside Park.

A tradition since 1911, the band will play a series of six Sunday concerts in the park, each with a different theme, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Bandstand in Lakeside Park.

Sunday's theme will be "All Sparkling Red, White and Blue," focusing on "all things America," according to band director Dwight La Rue Hall. The program includes "America the Beautiful," "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Stars and Stripes Forever."

Led by Hall, the band will carry audiences through a set packed with marches, overtures and even a song from "Mary Poppins."

"They play any kind of music you can think of," said Louis Lewis, an Oakland resident who has been attending the band's concerts for about 20 years. "They're just a great band."

Band fans are encouraged to bring picnics and lawn chairs for Sunday's lakeshore performance, and bring their families, said Anne Woodell, chairperson of the Friends of the Oakland Municipal Band.

Unlike this year's strictly-summer season, the Oakland Municipal Band once played year-round, Hall said. But through the years, people have neglected the band in favor of television, rock and hip-hop music, Hall says. And the funding for the band has begun to suffer.

"When I first started, we had 17 concerts a year, then it dropped to 15, 13, 11 and now we're down to six," Hall says.

Today the band is trying to modernize its score in an attempt to hook younger listeners who didn't grow up with a town band as their main source of entertainment.

"The kids don't have exposure to this kind of thing, so they replace it with their own music," Hall says. "Times change, but we're trying to keep the music up to the present day as closely as possible."

The band is drawing some of its music from Broadway, Hall says, such as songs from "Phantom of the Opera," which the band will perform Sunday.

The band also has a program where fans of a song can purchase an arrangement to add to the band's library, and the song will be publicly dedicated to its sponsor.

The Oakland Tribune: Bay Area Living
Leanne McLaughlin, Managing Editor
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