By Jack Weber
The legendary Alliance City Band will come to life in a special celebration on July 4.
As part of Alliance’s America 250 festivities, a “living history” concert will be performed inside Silver Park on Independence Day at 8 p.m., prior to the city’s annual fireworks display.
Presented by the Alliance Historical Society, Alliance Parks Department, and American Musical Productions, the concert will reenact a performance by the band from July 4, 1926, when Alliance was marking 150 years of freedom.
Joseph N. Rubin, a musicologist with American Musical Productions, will direct a period-authentic 26-piece wind band, attired in period uniform, in a 75-minute free concert based on a recently discovered program from that 1926 performance, which was held in Miller Pavilion with the audience sitting on the hillside.
Ahead of that concert, Rubin will present “Programming the Past: An Alliance City Band Encore” on Wednesday, July 1 at 11 a.m. at Rodman Public Library.
Registration is required to attend at rodmanlibrary.com.
During his library talk, Rubin will take the audience on a musical multimedia journey through his efforts to uncover and recreate turn-of-the-century band concert programs. Featuring video clips from his “living history” concerts throughout the state, he will detail newly discovered facts about the Alliance City Band and its longtime director Emil Rinkendorf.
The deep dive into Alliance’s musical past is a perfect prelude to the July 4 concert when Rubin, a Canton native now living in New York City, will portray Rinkendorf, who guided the Alliance City Band between 1917 and 1940.
It was during Rinkendorf’s tenure that the band, which provided music for the community from 1859 through 1992, was in its “golden era.”
The July 4 concert will feature many beloved band classics as well as a march written by Rinkendorf.
[Pictured above: Joseph Rubin and the American Musical Productions band]