Liberty High School Alumni Band The LHS Alumni Band was formed in 1991 to march in the parade that opened the city's 250th Anniversary celebration. Interest in the band continued, and the musical group played its first annual concert in 1995. The band rehearses in the LHS bandroom on the first and third Thursdays of every month from September to May. Everyone has fun playing good band music! |
LHS Alumni Band continues its quest to play as many Sousa marches as possible. Seventy-two marches have been performed in public as of March 14, 2008. |
For the closing parade of Bethlehem's Sesquicentennial celebration, the LHS Alumni Band was comprised of representatives from 56 different classes and 14 states. Instruments included 30 Sousaphones, 45 trumpets, and 50 clarinets in a band of more than 300 members. |
During Liberty High School's 75th Anniversary celebration in 1996-97, the LHS Alumni Band performed a concert with the LHS Grenadiers and the combined LHS Chorus and Alumni Chorus in the Memorial Gym. This 75th Anniversary Band and Chorus Concert included hundreds of student and alumni performers and was a powerful salute to Liberty High School. |
Over half the band has perfect attendance at our bi-monthly rehearsals. Members travel many miles to attend. One member travels 82 miles one way. Approximately two-thirds of the band are Liberty graduates. |
The LHS Alumni Band performed "The Music of John Philip Sousa" for the Northampton Borough Centennial on Sunday, April 29, 2001, at 2:00 P.M., at the Roxy Theater in Northampton, PA. |
A recording of the LHS Alumni Band's Ninth Annual Concert on March 14, 2003, was made on CD. |
The LHS Alumni Band begins its 15th season, 85 strong, in September 2008, rehearsing in Liberty's brand new bandroom. |
The Liberty High School Alumni Band is now in its fifteenth year and continues to grow with over 80 active members. Approximately half of the band are Liberty graduates, and the members come from all over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. One member travels 82 miles one way to play in the band. No one is paid. The band uses the extensive library of the Grenadier Band. Ron Sherry, the director, has patterned the band's programs after J. P. Sousa's style: lots of marches, lots of variety, and fast moving pace. The band's Fifteenth Annual Concert on 20 March 09 featured the directing, arranging, and performing talents of Major David Marshall, retired director of the Coldsteam Guard, from the United Kingdom. Major Marshall arranged and directed two selections in the concert: Elsa's Processional to the Cathedral and A Scottish Fantasy. When he was not directing, Major Marshall played the trumpet with the band. In honor of the band's fifteenth anniversary, Pat Palhofski and staff created a commemorative booklet featuring band facts and photos, director's biography, and individual photos of all band members and staff. The Liberty High School Alumni Band is grateful for the unceasing efforts of our most dedicated staff. Thank you, Pat. |
In its seventeenth year the Liberty High School Alumni Band has over 83 active members. Our guest conductor for the Seventeenth Annual Concert is David Marshall, ARMC LTCL BBCM psm, who was born in Cornwall in 1944 and began piano lessons at the age of 8. In 1960 he enlisted in his county regiment, the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry. During his military service, Major Marshall progressed from principal cornet of his regimental band to Bandmaster of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Forester's Regiment. This honor was followed by the appointment of Director of the Music with, in succession, the Royal Armoured Corps, the Royal Corps of Transport, and finally the Coldstream Guards, with whom he undertook tours of North America, Japan, and Australia. He retired in 1999 with the rank of Major after 40 years of army service.
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