Frankfort to host 2011 music festival for Civil War’s 150th observance

The Cornets and Cannons Civil War Sesquicentennial Music Festival is scheduled in Frankfort next year in observance of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

Outstanding ensembles and solo performers from across the eastern United States will be in Kentucky’s capital city to celebrate music from the War Between the States Sept. 1-4.

The festival will begin with an opening ceremony and a program about the history of Civil War era music at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History. A highlight will be piano music of the mid-19th century performed by Helen Beedle. A similar session will follow on the morning of Sept. 2 and will feature Jari Villanueva – the foremost expert on the bugle call Taps, the history of which is closely tied to the Civil War.

Other presentations will deal with the repertoire of Civil War brass bands, the technicalities of performing period music today, and band “tactics” – the relationship between musicians and other soldiers on the battlefield during the war and at modern-day reenactments.

The festival also will feature brass band music of the period. Concerts will begin on Sept. 2 with a performance on the lawn of the Old State Capitol by the Wildcat Band from Pennsylvania. That evening, Saxton’s Cornet Band – Frankfort’s hometown Civil War ensemble – will perform in the Grand Theatre. A performance of period string and vocal music will follow.

On the morning of Sept. 3, a performance by the Camp Chase Fifes and Drums from Ohio is scheduled at the Leslie Morris Park on Fort Hill – Frankfort’s main Civil War historic site. The Federal City Brass Band from Baltimore will perform on the Old State Capitol lawn at noon.  Alabama’s Olde Towne Brass will play in the First Methodist Church, followed by a parade of all the marching units through downtown Frankfort from the Old Capitol to Liberty Hall. Three of the brass bands will play for an 1860s style grand ball at the Capital Plaza Hotel that evening.

On the fourth, the bands will perform as part of services in several downtown Frankfort churches. A “battle of the bands” will be the climax of the event that afternoon. The joint performance will be at Frankfort’s new Ward Oates Amphitheatre overlooking the Kentucky River. Cannons will join the horns, fifes and drums in a dramatic – and loud – closing concert.

The City of Frankfort’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Sites is managing the event, for which all activities are free of charge.  Performers will offer recordings of their music at the festival and a recording of many of the festival performances will be available following the event.

Details about the performers, presenting scholars and venues are at the event website – www.cornetsandcannons.com.