This concert will be the Band’s annual tribute to former Conductor Karl L. King in honor of his birthday. With previous conductor Jerrold Jimmerson’s retirement last July, the band will be led by Interim Conductor Dan Cassady, who previously served as the Assistant Conductor. Cassady is a retired music educator who currently lives at Twin Lakes.

Previously he taught music and directed bands at Fort Dodge Senior High, Iowa Central Community College, and St. Edmond High School. He currently performs as trombonist with Jive for Five and other area bands.

Karl King was born on February 21, 1891 in the small village of Paintersville, Ohio. After his childhood growing up in Canton OH, he left at the age of 19 to travel for 9 years with several different circuses. He first played Euphonium with their bands, then conducted several of them, and reached the pinnacle of success as conductor of the world-famous Barnum and Bailey Circus Band during the 1917 and 1918 seasons.

He returned to Canton after his trouping days were done in November of 1918 to settle down with his wife, Ruth, and direct the local Grand Army of the Republic Band there. In addition, the Kings’ only son, Karl Jr., was born in November of 1919. In the fall of 1920, King and his family moved to Fort Dodge when he was hired to conduct the local Municipal Band, a career that lasted more than 50 years until his death on March 31, 1971.

This concert will open with Henry Fillmore’s musical tribute to one of Fort Dodge’s most famous citizens, “King Karl King”. Both King and Fillmore were natives of Ohio and well-known composers. Fillmore directed the municipal band in Cincinnati OH, while King was famous for his circus career and his years spent directing the municipal band here.

Other selections to be performed include several of Karl King’s marches. There are two famous circus marches, “Sells-Floto Triumphal” from 1914, and “Woody Van’s” from 1911, along with his 1925 march, “Step On It!” dedicated to band manager Walter Engelbart, otherwise known as ‘Speed King’.

However, King published more than marches among his 300 compositions. Also included on this tribute concert will be King’s popular 1912 overture, “Princess of India”, his ragtime selection from 1919, “Kentucky Sunrise”, and his exciting 1910 circus galop “Excelsior”.

Bringing an international flavor to this concert is the thrilling march by Vasilij Agapkin, titled “A Slavic Farewell”, which is one of the gems to come out of post-Cold War Russia, along with Narciso Serredell Sevilla’s beautiful Mexican waltz, “La Golondrina (The Swallow)”.

Other familiar selections on this one-hour concert include Hoagy Carmichael’s familiar 1927 standard, “Stardust”, along with a medley of popular songs from several well-known musicals, titled “The Golden Age of Broadway” by the famous song-writing team of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

The concert will conclude with Karl King’s most famous and well-known 1913 composition, “Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite March”, one of the most recorded marches ever written, followed by our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

In case of inclement weather, the concert may be cancelled. Any announcements will be made on the band’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/karlkingband/, or on the band’s website at www.karlking.us.