Celebrate Fourth of July with free UAB Summer Band concert, prime seats for fireworks

Enjoy show tunes, Broadway classics, patriotic favorites and standards, then watch the fireworks shot from atop Red Mountain. This free outdoor concert is presented by the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Music.

fireworks 2009 webBring blankets, chairs and picnics and enjoy the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s annual patriotic Summer Band concert, set for 7 p.m. Monday, July 4, on the UAB Bartow Arena lawn, 617 13th St. South.

All are invited to this family-friendly performance. Enjoy show tunes, Broadway classics, patriotic favorites and standards, then watch the fireworks shot from atop Red Mountain.

This year’s program will feature the famous “1812 Overture” by Tchaikovsky, complete with musical fireworks. Audience members will have the chance to win an opportunity to conduct the band playing “Stars and Stripes Forever” for the grand finale. The concert is conducted by UAB Music’s Sue Samuels, Ph.D., director of bands.

This is believed to be the 20th year of the free, outdoors July 4 concert, presented by the College of Arts and SciencesDepartment of Music. The UAB Summer Band, which numbers about 75 volunteers ages 13 to 75 and older, includes adult amateur musicians from various professions as well as UAB student musicians, faculty and area professionals who come together for six weeks annually to prepare this concert.

“As far as I know, it is the only opportunity of its kind where people can come together and make music who are of such varied ages, occupations and levels of experience,” Samuels said. “From middle school band students sitting next to middle school band teachers and college professors, UAB graduates and current students sitting side by side.”

Call the UAB Department of Music at 205-934-7376 or visit www.uab.edu/music.

  • July 4