Youngstown-area concert band will be joined by ‘friends’ for park show

Staff report

Boardman

The Youngstown Area Community Concert Band will present a free concert at 2 p.m. Sunday at Maag Outdoor Theater in Boardman Park, with special guest the Mercer Community Band.

The fifth annual “Music in the Park with Friends” concert will include a performance by the YACCB, directed by Joseph Pellegrini. Its selections will include “A Tribute to Jerome Kern,” “76 Trombones” and “Concerto for Horn” by R. Strauss, featuring soloist Danielle Bailey.

The Mercer Community Band from Mercer, Pa., directed by Hendley Hoague, will feature performances of the “Liberty Bell March,” “Gershwin in Concert” and “Amazing Grace.”

The concert series began in 2008 when the Somerset (Pa.) Community Band was invited for an exchange concert with the YACCB. “Flight of Valor,” written by James Swearingen to honor Flight 93 that crashed near Somerset, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001, was played as a combined band finale during that first concert.

The success of the concert helped turn the “... With Friends” concert series into an annual event. Past guest bands have been the Kettering Civic Band, Ashtabula Brass Band and Western Reserve Community Band.

Future Youngstown Area Community Concert Band concerts will include the Holiday Concert of Giving at Stambaugh Auditorium, a joint effort with the Stambaugh Chorus to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank, 4 p.m. Dec. 9.