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June 12, 2012 — The concert band of the Band Camp for Adult Musicians at Allegheny College will perform a free gala concert at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 15 in the college’s Shafer Auditorium. No reservations or tickets are required.

Conducting the concert band will be Captain Michelle Rakers, assistant director of the United States Marine Band, which is known as “the President’s Own.” The first woman to serve as an assistant director for the Marine Band, Rakers is also the first active duty officer to serve as a conductor for the Band Camp at Allegheny College.

Performing as soloist for the concert will be James Seidel, the principal cornetist for the Band Camp and director of the Ringgold Band of Reading, which has been in existence since 1852. Seidel will play “Twilight Dreams” by Herbert L. Clarke.

The remainder of the program will be selected from the 31 works that the Band Camp has been playing this week. These include a mix of overtures, transcriptions, original works for band, lighter numbers and marches by composers including Johann Strauss, Antonin Dvorak, Eric Whitacre, Leroy Anderson, Frank Ticheli and John Philip Sousa.

The Band Camp for Adult Musicians – now in its 11th summer in Meadville – takes place over two weeks. Week I began on June 10, and Week II will be on June 24. A concert at the end of Week II will be held on Friday, June 29. That concert will be conducted by Colonel Timothy Foley, who retired in July 2004 as director of the U.S. Marine Band.

Band campers represent 19 states, including New Hampshire, Florida, Texas and California. Many campers return year after year, for the camaraderie as well as for the music, and the camp has even resulted in a few marriages that have grown out of a mutual love for band music.

All of the camp’s concerts and rehearsals are free and open to the public. The bands rehearse in the Campus Center from 9 to 11:30 a.m. each weekday during camp week. Small ensembles – ranging from woodwind and brass quintets to a Dixieland band and a stage band — hold a recital on Thursday beginning at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center.

For more information, call the Office of Conference and Event Services at Allegheny College at 814-332-3101.