The Karl L. King Municipal Band will continue the 2021 summer season at the Karl L. King Band Shell in Oleson Park with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. There is no admission charge, courtesy of the City of Fort Dodge. Conductor of the band is Jerrold P. Jimmerson, along with assistant conductor Dan Cassady and announcer Paul Bloomquist.

Persons attending Sunday’s concert are reminded to bring their own lawn chairs, blankets, etc., since there is no seating available, and are still encouraged to socially distance as much as possible. There will be portable restrooms available for public use in the park behind the Band Shell. There will be no ice cream social available this summer.

A wide variety of band music is planned for this one-hour concert designed to appeal to all ages. Marches are always popular, and this concert will include several of them, from Karl King’s “Cyrus the Great,” R.B. Hall’s “The New Colonial,” Edwin Franko Goldman’s “On the Mall” that includes audience participation, to former King Band conductor W.B. Green’s Spanish-style march “La Roquina.”

A contemporary composition, “The Light Eternal,” by James Swearingen, is also on the program. This lengthy work for band tells the story in music of the four chaplains who died on February 3, 1943, when a German U-boat sank the USS Dorchester in the icy waters off the coast of Greenland. Of the 904 men aboard this American troop transport, 605 were lost. These four chaplains heroically gave away their life jackets, linked their arms together, prayed in either Latin or Hebrew or English, and then bravely sank with the ship. This thrilling composition is based on America’s national hymn, “God of Our Fathers.”

On the lighter side will be music from the blockbuster movie series, “Star Wars – The Marches,” along with Leroy Anderson’s novelty, “The Syncopated Clock.”

No concert would be complete without the music of the band’s namesake, Karl L. King. This concert will feature one of his many beautiful aerial waltzes, “Alpine Sunset,” his trombone novelty “Mournful Maggie,” along with one of his exciting circus galops, “Sunshine.”

Soloist for the evening will be Tim Miller, retired band director from the Humboldt Community Schools and a long-time member of both the Karl King Band and the Fort Dodge Area Symphony. Tim will be the featured trumpet soloist on “La Virgen de la Macarena,” a song widely heard during the bullfights in either Spain or Latin America.

In case of inclement weather, the concert may be cancelled at the starting time. Any announcements will be made on the band’s Facebook page listing for the Karl L. King Municipal Band at https://www.facebook.com/karlkingband/ or on the band’s website at www.karlking.us.