Today we kick off our weekly Music Mondays online programming on the Sousa Archives Facebook page at 10AM (Central Time) with a recording of Guy Duker conducting the University of Illinois’ First Concert Band’s performance of Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman Overture that took place April 20, 1972. Our new weekly social media series is designed to help introduce our online listening audience to the extraordinary performances of the University of Illinois’ bands between 1940 and 2010.
The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music has extensive collections of historical audio recordings of performances by the Sousa Band and Herbert L. Clarke, as well as the performances, radio broadcasts, and rehearsals of the University of Illinois bands. The digitization of nearly 1,500 reel-to-reel and acetate disc recordings of the University Band was completed in December 2023 thanks to the generous support of the Valencia F. Huson and R. Jane Scott Music Preservation Fund that was set up in 2005. Many of these unique recordings have remained silent for decades and we felt it was time to share samples of them on the Center’s Facebook page each Monday.
So join the Sousa Archives each Monday morning for samples of exceptional music performances preserved at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music. For further information about the Sousa Archives’ Music Mondays schedule and the University Bands audio recordings email schwrtzs@illinois.edu or call 217-333-4577.