The Karl L. King Municipal Band of Fort Dodge will continue its 2026 summer concert season on Sunday at the Karl L. King Band Shell in Oleson Park. Concert time is 7:30 p.m. The Southeast Valley School Fine Arts Boosters will have ice cream and brownies available for a freewill donation before and during the concert, starting around 6:45 p.m.

Persons attending this special Flag Day concert may bring small American flags to wave at appropriate times during the evening. There is no admission charge for these concerts, since they are provided as a public service by the City of Fort Dodge. People should bring lawn chairs or blankets, since no public seating is provided.

Conductor Dan Cassady will be gone from the podium this week. For many years, he has been on the staff of the Reggie Schive Summer Jazz Camp at Iowa Lakes Community College, the longest-operating jazz camp of its kind in the country. That camp is being held Sunday through Thursday. Band members Tim Miller and Paul Bloomquist will direct that band for this concert, and the announcer will be Monte Leichensring.

Tim Miller, a member of the band’s trumpet section, will conduct the first half of the concert. He is retired after a long and successful career at both Humboldt High School (seven years) and Humboldt Junior High School (24 years). He previously taught fifth- to 12th-grade band for nine years at Sheffield-Chapin Schools. Miller continues to perform locally with Jive for Five Brass Quintet, Humboldt Big Band, 515 Big Band, Lone Tree Revival, and Oak Hill Church Praise Band.

He has chosen several selections for his portion, including E.E. Bagley’s “National Emblem March,” Henry Fillmore’s march, “Americans We,” and a concert march by James Curnow, “High Bridge.” He has also chosen the exciting “Overture for Winds” by Charles Carter, Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and a collection of patriotic songs to observe Flag Day, “An American Celebration.”

Paul Bloomquist, a member of the band’s trombone section, will conduct the second half of the concert. Bloomquist is a native of Dayton and graduated from Southeast Webster High School. He previously taught ninth- to 12th-grade band at Manson Northwest Webster. He is currently an instructor and director of bands at Iowa Central Community College, and performs with Jive for Five and the 515 Big Band.

For his portion of the concert, Bloomquist has also chosen several selections, including one of Karl L. King’s earliest published compositions, “Emblem of Freedom March,” C.E. Duble’s “Old Glory Triumphant March,” and Fred Jewell’s “The Boy Scouts March.” Rounding out his portion will be a tribute to members of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard with “Heroes of the Sea,” and a collection of well-known songs from the Big Band era by Clarinda’s own, “Glenn Miller in Concert.”

Monte Leichsenring, a member of the tuba section, will handle the announcing duties this week. From 1981 to 1986, he was the fifth- to 12th-grade band director at Boone Valley Schools in Renwick. He then became the sixth- to eighth-grade band director at Clarion-Goldfield Dows Community Schools until his retirement in 2015. Leichsenring is a long-time member of both the Karl L. King Municipal Band and the Fort Dodge Area Symphony.

This Flag Day concert will close in the traditional way, with the playing of John Philip Sousa’s classic march, “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” followed by our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

In case of inclement weather at the starting time, the concert may be delayed or canceled. Any announcement will be made on the band’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/karlkingband/.

Plan now to spend Sunday evenings during June and July with the Karl L. King Municipal Band in beautiful Oleson Park, located in the southern part of the city of Fort Dodge. Next week’s concert on June 21 will be a Father’s Day tribute as Conductor Dan Cassady will return to the podium.