The Karl L. King Municipal Band of Fort Dodge will open its 2019 summer season on June 9 with a concert beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Karl L. King Band Shell at Oleson Park in Fort Dodge. There is no admission charge, with these concerts being provided by the City of Fort Dodge. Jerrold P. Jimmerson is the conductor of the Karl King Band, with Dr. David Klee serving as assistant conductor, and Paul Bloomquist as the announcer.

Karl King was born on February 21, 1891 in Paintersville, Ohio. After his childhood in Canton, Ohio, he left at the age of 19 to travel for nine years with several different circuses, conducted several of their bands, and reached the pinnacle of success as conductor of the world-famous Barnum and Bailey Circus Band during the 1917 and 1918 seasons. He returned to Canton after his trouping days were done in November of 1918 to settle down with his wife, Ruth, and direct the local Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Band there.

King had traveled for four years, from 1910 through 1913, with four different circuses and had already reached the peak of his playing career as the Euphonium player with the Barnum and Bailey Circus Band, the top job of that era. The 1914 season found Mr. King being named bandleader on the Sells-Floto/Buffalo Bill Combined Shows, a position he would hold through the 1915 and 1916 seasons as well. In 1917, John Ringling hired King to lead the most famous circus band of that era, the Barnum and Bailey Circus, and he was rehired for the 1918 season.

This June 9th concert was to have been held on February 17, which would have been the Band’s annual tribute to former Conductor Karl L. King in honor of his birthday. Conductor Jimmerson has drawn music for this concert from several of the compositions published 100 years ago in 1919, when Karl King was a 28-year old young man.

Selections to be performed from 1919 include two of Karl King’s marches, “Ohio Division,” and “Fame and Fortune,” which was dedicated to King’s “friend and benefactor, C.L. Barnhouse” of Oskaloosa. Karl King composed more than marches, however. Also included from 1919 on this tribute concert will be his beautiful aerial waltz, “Enchanted Night,” the two-step “Kentucky Sunrise,” his exciting circus galop “Majestic,” and a ragtime selection “Broadway One-Step.” This latter selection features the popular area Brass Quintet Jive For Five with the band accompanying.

In addition, one of the first marches Karl King had published in 1909 when he was just 18 years old, “Canton Aero Club,” will open the concert. An overture by Franz von Suppe, “Poet and Peasant,” as arranged for band by another Ohio native and friend of King, will be presented. Another of King’s close friends, Paul Yoder, composed “Rush Street Tarantella,” which King often performed with the band here in Fort Dodge.

A special feature on this concert will be the performance by a clarinet duet with the band accompanying of “The Two Little Bulfinches,” arranged by Conductor Jimmerson. This selection will highlight the talents of Christina Tait from Carroll and Nikole Nuttall from Newell.

Christina Tait is presently the 6th-8th grade chorus teacher and 6th-7th grade technology instructor at Kuemper Catholic Middle School in Carroll. After graduation from Ottumwa High School, she earned her Bachelor of Music Education degree at Iowa State University and her Master Degree in Clarinet Performance from Western Illinois University. She has performed with several different symphony orchestras in both Iowa and Illinois, including those in Fort Dodge and Des Moines. She has taught band, chorus, and general music at several different grade levels in Iowa schools and colleges in both Iowa and Illinois.

Nikole Nuttall is a native of Omaha NE, and a graduate of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education and Music Performance with an emphasis on clarinet. She is currently in her 8th year as the middle school band director at the Alta-Aurelia Schools, and also maintains a private clarinet studio. She has performed with several area municipal bands and symphony orchestras, including the Fort Dodge Area Symphony.

The concert will end with the “March of Time”, by J.J. Richards, which includes Karl King’s masterpiece and most famous composition, “Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite March.” This selection is “a composite of six World Famous Marches from the C.L. Barnhouse catalog, commemorating our Fiftieth Anniversary, 1886-1936.” Closing this concert will be our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

In case of inclement weather, the concert may be cancelled.