Battle Ground High School will host the United States Air Force Concert Band and Singing Sergeants on Oct. 24 as part of a special tour celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Air Force.
The band’s conductor, First Lieutenant Brandon Hults, said he is excited to visit Battle Ground during one of their stops.
“This is our first full concert band tour,” Hults said. “We did a small tour on the Fourth of July, but this is our first full two week national tour since COVID began, so we are very excited to connect back with the American public.”
He said the band represents “Air Force excellence to our national audiences,” which follows in the footsteps of their motto “honor, inspire and connect.”
“Our audience is the general American public, so we try to capture a lot of different styles and genres,” Hults said. “We’ll have everything from standard band literature, orchestral transcriptions. We’re playing Jupiter from Gustav Holst’s The Planets.”
He said the band always wraps up its show with patriotic tunes. Although they will not be present at the Battle Ground concert, Hults mentioned two leaders from the Royal Australian Air Force attended earlier concerts to survey how the band operates and how it’s structured. Their squadron leader guest conducted a few songs, he said.
The band will also play a Swedish and Ukrainian march to celebrate the two countries applications to join NATO recently, Hults said. They plan to play more popular songs as well, which will include a medley of tunes from the movie The Greatest Showman.
The Singing Sergeants, which is the official choir of the U.S. Air Force Band, joins the concert band on the tours, Hults said.
“(There will be) a little bit of Broadway, a little bit of international relationships, and a little bit of just standard literature and patriotic music,” he said.
Hults said less than 1% of the country is in the United States Military, so the band plans to travel to some places where people may have never seen a person in uniform before.
“What we provide to folks is we have some of the best players in the country that are here in D.C., and we hope to represent and stand for the excellence that the Air Force represents around the world. … We try to bring that standard of excellence to the public in an accessible way,” Hults said.
He said the band frequently honors veterans who have died and can perform at up to four funerals a day. They also honor veterans at the end of their concerts with an Armed Forces Salute, acknowledging all five branches of the military, Hults said.
Hults said the tour will cover towns in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho over the course of two weeks.
The concert in Battle Ground will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 24. Battle Ground High School is located at 300 W. Main St.
The event is free to attend, but people can register online at bit.ly/3fVEg96.
