July 17, 2022 8a
(WGTD)---Two local musical organizations happen to be celebrating their centennial anniversaries together. Both the Kenosha Pops Concert Band and the Racine Concert Band were founded in the early 1920s.
During the summer, the Racine Concert Band, led by conductor Mark Eichner, performs Sunday nights at the Racine Zoo's Kiwanis Amphitheater. Under the direction of Craig Gall, the Kenosha Pops perform Wednesday nights at the Pennoyer Park Bandshell.
Medleys and marches are the mainstays of each group's repertoire, drawn from roomfuls of filing cabinets of musical scores that have been collected over the years.
Both groups are primarily made up of hometown musicians, and both ensembles rehearse just once prior to each concert. That's a money-savings and time-savings move, says Gall. "They're a remarkable bunch of people that they can sit down and just read all of this stuff...and with very little rehearsing we're able to put this (a concert) together," he said.
Both Gall and Eichner spoke on recent editions of the Morning Show.
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