Musical Airs "The White House has been a showcase for the performing arts and has vividly mirrored American life from its earliest days." Dr. Elise K. Kirk, author, Musical Highlights from the White House. The Marine Band has been a premier performer on the White House stage, introducing America to Italian opera and the works of Wagner and Brahms as well as chamber music. Additionally, through the years the band has performed theatrical scores, folk music, and jazz. For over a century Saturday public concerts on the White House grounds were a fixture of cultural life in Washington. An 1891 account of the popular summer and fall concerts reported: "Administrations come and go, but the band plays on forever."