This Presidents Weekend we celebrate The Allentown Band, the oldest civilian concert band in the United States, which has played a continuously active role in the musical life and cultural fabric of the community since its first documented performance on July 4, 1828. Their goal is the most enjoyable sounds their exceptional musicians can produce—whether it be an overture transcribed from opera, a modern composition written especially for concert band, or a Sousa march.

John Philip Sousa’s influence on the Allentown Band can’t be underestimated. Albertus L. “Bert” Meyers, cornet soloist with Sousa in the mid-1920s, served as conductor of the Allentown Band for fifty years. Today, under the direction of Ronald Demkee, the “Sousa style” continues as an integral part of the twenty-first-century Allentown Band.

A typical Allentown Band schedule fluctuates from concert stage to baseball park, from university commencement to Allentown’s Symphony Hall to New York’s Carnegie Hall. Besides being frequently seen on local television, the Allentown Band is recognized worldwide, having twice appeared on national TV—Charles Kuralt’s Good Morning America, and the PBS series The American Experience in a feature called “If You Knew Sousa”—and heard on radio—regularly on Philadelphia’s station WRTI, and as far away as Sydney, Australia.

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