Kiel Municipal Band kicks off 96th year April 26. Here's everything to know about its season-opening show.

KIEL — Kiel Municipal Band begins its 96th year of performing with a spring concert at 7 p.m. April 26 at Kiel High School Performing Arts Center.

The concert’s theme, “Introduction to Good Music,” is taken from a radio show hosted by Karl Haas.

Beginning in 1950, the radio show was on the air for four decades and was heard daily on Wisconsin Public Radio. Haas always began the program with his characteristic words of introduction — “Hello, everyone!” — and proceeded to inform and entertain listeners with stories, background and recordings of what he considered in the classical music genre to be “good music.”

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Haas covered a variety of music in his programs, including opera, symphonies, piano and chamber music, and he always did it with an engaging and light style.

This KMB concert pays tribute to Haas and his idea of bringing good music to all.

The concert is family-friendly, handicapped accessible and open to everyone. There is no admission charge, but a free-will offering can be made at the concert.

Program starts with Sousa march, ends with 'West Side Story' selections

Lena Kiel, media coordinator for Kiel Municipal Band, shared the following details about the show:

The program leads off with a John Philip Sousa march, “March of the Mitten Men.” The dedication of this march is to Thomas Mitten, head of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, whose trolleys transported thousands of visitors to Sousa’s summer concerts at Willow Grove Park (near the city). Mitten’s favorite song was “Onward Christian Soldiers,” which Sousa knit into the last section of the march.

One of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most beloved short works is the choral piece “Ave Verum Corpus.” Its warmth and radiance fits well into the category of “good music” and it will be presented in an arrangement by Barbara Buehlmann. Mozart’s contributions to the world of opera and symphony are well known, but this little gem of a piece displays his mastery of music, and how sound can deeply affect our emotions.

“Out of the Shadows,” a piece by Milwaukee composer Michael Sweeney, is a set of variations and meditation on the melody “The Ash Grove.” It is a deeply spiritual piece, beginning with mysterious and quiet hints of the melody, then proceeding into a strong, forceful section that leads back to the “Ash Grove” tune in all its beauty. The piece ends as quietly as it began.

In an exploration of good music, it is impossible to ignore the music of the great German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. His “Fantasia in G,” originally for organ, will be played in an arrangement by Richard Franko Goldman and demonstrate the full organ-like sound of the band.

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The Kiel and New Holstein area has also had its share of great musicians. One of them, Edgar P. Thiessen, was not only the director of the KMB for more than 50 years, but he was also a music educator and a composer. He wrote the march “USA ‘76” for the American Bicentennial in 1976 and it was performed when the band toured Washington, D.C., in that same year.

Richard Wagner, another German, gave the world many beautiful and memorable melodies. From his opera “Lohengrin” comes the excerpt, “Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral,” played by the KMB in the traditional arrangement of Kenosha bandmaster Lucien Cailliet. The music is very simple, yet is woven in a net of increasingly complex and ever more intense repetitions. The opera is the same one that introduced the “Bridal Chorus,” often heard at weddings for the entrance of the bride.

Larry Daehn, who lives in New Glarus, has composed many great original pieces for the concert band. “Remembrance” was composed in memory of a Westby (Wisconsin) High School band member who tragically was killed in a car crash in 2012. Daehn has a unique ability to create a poignant melody in a simple setting, beautifully honoring this young girl’s life.

The final number on the concert is “Selections from ‘West Side Story’” by Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein was able to create a wonderful combination of classical and jazz music in this 1957 musical. The songs in this medley are “I Feel Pretty,” “Maria,” Something’s Coming,” “Tonight,” “One Hand, One Heart,” “Cool” and “America.” The memorable tunes and snappy rhythms are among Bernstein’s contributions to our “Adventures in Good Music.”

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Kiel Municipal Band concert will include Sousa, Mozart and Bernstein