SEQUIM — After more than 16 months away, it’s time to strike up the band once again.
The Sequim City Band hosts “Together Again” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 22, at the James Center for the Performing Arts, 350 N. Blake Ave. — the first time its musicians have played as a collective since the band’s March 1, 2020 concert.
The concert is free. Attendees are encouraged to bring a lawn chair and/or blanket.
Led by conductor Tyler Benedict, the band will play homage to the unusual, COVID-driven circumstances of the past 17 months.
After the traditional opening of the “Star Spangled Banner” with vocalists Karla Messerschmidt-Morgan and Tom Reis, the band will perform composer Ludwig Goransson’s theme to “The Mandalorian,” a popular Disney+ show that many took to binge-watching during the past year-plus.
The band will dedicate Frank Tichelli’s “Amazing Grace,” an arrangement of a classic hymn, to workers throughout the county who kept vital services available during stay-at-home orders.
Additionally, the group will perform Harold Arlen’s hopeful “Over the Rainbow” from the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.”
The band also will celebrate a classic John Williams 1976 composition, “Midway March,” commemorating the World War II Battle of Midway, a battle considered by many to be the turning point of the war in the Pacific.
The band has seen an influx of newcomers in the past 16-plus months including performers on flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba and percussion — something that will be obvious to concert attendees, band representatives say, when they hear its expanded, five-member tuba section.
Though the band did not host its traditional Fourth of July concert, representatives say the Sequim City Band will recognize past and present service members with the compilation of all of the armed forces — Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine, Merchant Marine, Navy — service songs with the “Armed Forces Salute.”
To cap the concert, the band performs “Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa.
The Sequim City Band’s indoor concert series includes Oct. 17, Dec. 19 and March 13 dates. Show times are at 3 p.m. and are tentatively set to be at the Sequim High School auditorium, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
For more about the Sequim City Band, see sequimcity band.org or facebook.com/Sequim.City.Band.
