History
In March 1925, the Coast Guard Band was organized with the assistance of Lt. Charles Benter, leader of the U.S. Navy Band, Dr. Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and "American March King" John Philip Sousa, former director of the U.S. Marine Band.
Forty years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Congressional legislation that resulted in the Coast Guard Band becoming the permanent, official musical representative of the nation's oldest continuous seagoing service, the U.S. Coast Guard. This event established the band as one of the ten premier service bands in the U.S.
The duties of the Coast Guard Band have greatly expanded since 1965. Originally a small command band located at the Academy and used primarily for local purposes, today the band routinely tours throughout the U.S. and has performed in the former Soviet Union as well as in England. The band represents the U.S. Coast Guard around the nation and the world, at presidential functions, and for the Secretary of Homeland Security and other cabinet officials on formal and informal occasions.
The Coast Guard Band is headquartered in New London, Connecticut.
Read more about this topic: United States Coast Guard Band
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“As I am, so shall I associate, and so shall I act; Caesar’s history will paint out Caesar.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)