Film tunes, light classics fill Purdue Summer Band concert

Family musical fare fills the Purdue Summer Band's annual outdoor concert set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 19, at Slayter Center , located on the corner of Intramural and Stadium in West Lafayette .

Tunes from the cinematic blockbuster of several summers ago, "Pirates of the Caribbean " will be featured at the concert which includes an array of marches and light classics.

To mix things up, director Jay Gephart and the band will explore catchy, but lesser-known, tunes by composer Leroy Anderson who's best known for his winter hit "Sleigh Ride."

The son of Swedish immigrants, Anderson was pursuing his master's in music at Harvard when his clever arrangements brought him to the attention of Arthur Fiedler, music director of the Boston Pops, who encouraged him to write original compositions for the orchestra.

During World War II, the Army made use of Anderson 's fluency in languages. He wrote " The Syncopated Clock" while working as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence at the Pentagon. "The Syncopated Clock" as well as "Bugler's Holiday " and "The Typewriter" will be performed at the July 19 concert.

Noted film composer John Williams has said of Leroy Anderson's music: "Though we have performed his works countless times over the years at the Boston Pops, his music remains forever as young and fresh as the very day on which it was composed."

Admission to the hour-long concert is free, and those attending are encouraged to bring picnics as well as blankets and/or lawn chairs for lawn seating.

In what's become a summer tradition, Purdue University Bands pulls together college students, Purdue faculty and staff members, high school students and community musicians for an intensive summer band experience. The musicians rehearse twice a week for a month with Gephart, director of the Purdue's Symphonic Band and Orchestra, then present an outdoor concert.

This year's band boasts 70 members from teenagers to octogenarians.

"The thing about summer band that I enjoy is the wonderful mix of people. It's the one time a year it exists and it takes a great collaboration to make it happen. That's what makes it so fun," says Gephart.

For more information on this concert, or to be put on a mailing list for the 2005-06 season brochure, call (765) 496-6785 or email Kathy Matter at kcmatter@purdue.edu .