Note to editors and news directors:
To arrange interviews prior to the event with U.S. Marine Band members
Richard Dickerson, Tessa Gross and John Mula, or to request a media pass
to the concert, contact the CSULA Public Affairs in advance at (323)
343-3050 by email (see above).
To request advance photos or for access to take film or photograph the
concert, contact the Marine Band Public Affairs in advance at (202)
433-5809 or
marineband.publicaffairs@usmc.mil.
uh-ten-SHUN!!
U.S. Marine Band’s first duty in SoCal:
free concert at Cal State L.A., Oct. 23
‘The President’s Own’ at Luckman Theatre to play
Handel, DeLuca, ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ and, of course, 3 by Sousa
Los Angeles, CA
— The
United States Marine
Band—known
traditionally as “The President’s Own”—will launch the
Southern California leg
of its 2009 national tour with a free public concert Friday, Oct. 23,
at 7:30 p.m., in the Luckman Theatre at California State
University, Los Angeles.
A limit of four tickets
are available per request. For details or to reserve tickets, call (323)
343-6600, go to
www.luckmanarts.org, or visit the
Luckman Box Office at Cal State L.A. Seating is on a first-come,
first-served basis. Ticket holders must arrive early and be seated by
7:15 p.m.; at 7:15, “standby” non-ticket
holders will be admitted as space allows.
The band’s legendary
17th director, John Philip Sousa, initiated the concert tour tradition
in 1891. The band, now directed by Colonel Michael J. Colburn, will
offer traditional band repertoire, solos, opera and marches. For the Cal
State L.A. concert, the selections will include a suite from Sergei
Prokofief’s Romeo and Juliet, Joseph De Luca’s “Beautiful
Colorado” (with a euphonium solo), a baritone rendering of George
Frideric Handel’s “Arm, Arm, Ye Brave” from Judas Maccabeaus, and
three Sousa compositions—including the national march of the United
States, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” There will also be a salute to the
U.S. Armed Forces.
The concert is
cosponsored by Cal State L.A. and its Department of Music.
“It’s an honor to host
‘The President’s Own,’” said George DeGraffenreid, chair of the
Department of Music at Cal State L.A. “The U.S. Marine Band only tours
the West Coast every few years. So this is a great opportunity for our
students—and for the community—to experience not only a rich tradition,
but also a free performance by some world-class musicians. After all,
this IS the ‘house band’ for THE White House.”
The Marine Band is
America’s oldest continuously active professional musical organization.
Founded in 1798, the band has performed for every U.S. president except
George Washington. Known as “The President’s Own” since the days of
Thomas Jefferson, the Marine Band’s primary mission is to provide music
for the President of the United States and the Commandant of the Marine
Corps. Performing for South Lawn arrival ceremonies, State Dinners,
dances, solo concerts and other events, the band’s members perform more
than 300 times a year at the White House.
According to First Lady
Michelle Obama, “The Marine Band has been just a tremendous resource for
us. They have such great range. They can play everything from jazz to
country, and they’ve made every event at the White House a special one.”
Several of the band’s
roughly 60 members hail from California, including oboe/English-horn
player Tessa Gross of Santa Monica, cornet/trumpet player Jeffrey Strong
of Fresno, euphonium players Matthew Summers of Palo Alto and Ryan
McGeorge of San Diego, stage manager Richard Dickerson of Woodland
Hills, and stage crewman Louis Hill of Los Angeles. (Clarinetist John
Mula of Illinois is a graduate of San Diego State University.) For a
list of band members, go to
www.marineband.usmc.mil/who_we_are/members/index.htm.
By early November, the
Marine
Band
will have performed a total of 29 concerts in 31 days on its 2009 tour.
This year’s tour route takes the band through Washington, Oregon,
California, Arizona, and southern Nevada. After Cal State L.A., its
Southland stops include Pasadena (Oct. 24), Oxnard (Oct. 25), UCLA (Oct.
26), San Diego (Oct. 28) and Imperial (Oct. 29). For a complete tour
schedule and other details, visit
www.marineband.usmc.mil.
For
directions to the CSULA campus, go to
www.calstatela.edu/univ/maps/cslamap.php.
Concert parking will be free in the upper level of
Parking Structure C. For the Luckman Fine Arts Complex web site, go to
www.luckmanarts.org.
Who: “The
President’s Own” United States Marine Band will perform at the Luckman
Theatre on the Cal State L.A. campus, as part of its 2009 national
concert tour.
What: Advance
tickets are available (at a maximum of 4 tickets per request). Seating is
on a first-come, first-served basis. Ticket holders must arrive early
and be seated by 7:15 p.m.; at that time, “standby” non-ticket holders
will be admitted as space allows.
When:
Friday, Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m.
Where:
Luckman Theatre, on the Cal State L.A. campus. The University is near
the junction of the 10 and 710 freeways.
(Map
and directions:
www.calstatela.edu/univ/maps/cslamap.php)
Info:
Free to the public. For tickets, visit or call the Luckman Box Office at
(323) 343-6600.
# # #
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 210,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six
Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12.
Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
Back to: News site | Services for Journalists | Public Affairs | Cal State L.A.