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The United States Marine Band: Musical Airs

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  • U.S. Marine Band Concert at the White House in 1921

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    President and Mrs. John Tyler enjoyed weekly outdoor concerts initiated by future Director Francis Scala. These concerts were a tradition that continued until the Hoover administration. Here, the Marine Band performs on the South Lawn in 1921.

    Library of Congress
  • Harper's Weekly Journal - July 4, 1868

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    Harper's Weekly, July 4, 1868: "There were all the features of former concerts the preponderance of ladies, most of them young, and in gay attire, and all full of animation;... the strings [strains] of Verdi, Mayerbeer [Meyerbeer] of Strauss wafted to the ear..." Walt Whitman, Washington Sunday Herald.

    White House Collection
  • President and Mrs. Carter Enjoy the Marine Band Music after State Dinner

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    President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter and guests enjoy the Marine Band music after a State Dinner for Mexican President and Mrs. Jose Lopez Portillo, February 14, 1977.

    Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

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"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."

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