Strike up the Band! You’re a Grand Old Flag, so let’s Pledge Allegiance to the Stars and Stripes Forever, the Star Spangled Banner! I Hear America Singing, because This is My Country, “This is a great country—-my country, ‘tis of thee!”
Oh, Captain! My Captain! When Johnny Comes Marching Home, he’ll be a Yankee Doodle Dandy. All we ask is you bring him home to America, the Beautiful. O America, I can hear you calling me. I want to be in America.
It has been the tradition of the SaddleBrooke Singers to present a patriotic concert every national election year and this year is no exception with a program named Salute to America. In these first two paragraphs are mentioned sixteen of the songs they will be presenting at their spring concert on April 1 and 3. Our director, Tanya Elias-Graf, has selected a group of patriotic songs that are sure to raise your spirits and remind all of us of the great history and traditions of our country.
The program will be divided into five parts:
We Celebrate our Nation
We Recall our Words
We Revere our Colors
We Honor our Heroes
We Salute America!
Yes, we will be singing the Pledge of Allegiance as well as the Gettysburg Address, two songs you don’t hear every day. Another song, E Pluribus Unum, which means “out of many, one,” aptly pertains to both our country and to the SaddleBrooke Singers, whose goal is to combine many voices into one great sound.
We will also be saluting our armed forces who, for the protection of our country, variously “hit the dusty trail over hill and dale,” “weigh anchor,” fighting “in the air, on land, and sea” and also “into the wild blue yonder.” These are all lines from the service anthems of the armed forces which we will sing and invite the audience to join in on.
On a more meditative note, we will be singing The Glory, a song about the Civil War; In Memoriam, a song to honor those who gave their lives for our country and finally, the prayer that comes deep from the heart of all of us, Let There Be Peace on Earth.
SaddleBrooke Singers’ members come from all across the U.S.A. and are proud to be citizens of this great country. They are also proud to be part of the SaddleBrooke Singers and very excited about presenting this concert to the SaddleBrooke community. They are also involved in many different clubs and organizations, but still find the time to faithfully attend a two-hour rehearsal every week, polishing up both their singing skills and the musical numbers they will be performing.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 1 and 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 3. Tickets are on sale for $18 at the MountainView ticket office or the DesertView Theatre website, http://tickets.saddlebrooketwo.com. For more information contact Sam Page at 825-1047.