EILEEN PILCHER (Contralto)
ANDREW CLAYTON (Tenor)
THE WIRELESS MILITARY BAND
Conducted by B. WALTON O'DONNELL
JOHN PHILIP SousA , of whom we in this country think as an out-and-out American, is actually of mixed Spanish and German parentage. Displaying unusual musical gifts, first as a violinist, at a very early age, he was only sixteen when he became the orchestral conductor of a theatre. For a few years he had valuable experience in that way, composing a good deal of incidental music, as well as arrangements of light operas, and producing one of his own. He was then only twenty-five, but the opera, The Smugglers, was not really a success. A year later he became conductor of the band of the United States Marines, and for the next twelve years his fame and that of the band grew steadily until it is not too much to say that the whole world knew of it. After resigning from that position he organized his own band, with which lie gave his first concert in 1892. It achieved a success for which it is difficult to think of a parallel, and played practically all over the world.
Two at least of his dozen or so comic operas were successfully played in London -El Capitan in 1896 and The Mystical Misstwo years later. But it is probably by his marches that he will bo best remembered wherever robust and vigorous music is played.
King Edward VII made him a member of the Victorian Order, and his own country gave him honorary rank in its Navy