PORTLAND, Maine — After several years without an a large orchestral performance at Portland’s July Fourth celebration on the Eastern Promenade, a group of volunteers is bringing the live music back.
The Casco Bay Wind Symphony, a collection of about 80 woodwind, brass, and percussion musicians are offering a performance of patriotic tunes and songs from Hollywood on Thursday evening.
“Typically, our audience is in the hundreds, not the tens of thousands,” Dr. William Kinne, the conductor of the band, said Monday.
The decision to offer the talents of what Kinne calls “Greater Portland’s community band” comes after years of roadblocks to live performance.
The Portland Symphony Orchestra once played the event regularly, but the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a lack of sponsorship funds, ended that arrangement.
This year, the Casco Bay Wind Symphony is finally trying to fill the gap—a duty Kinne finds deeply meaningful.
“To play in our hometown, for this crowd, and celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, it’s a wonderful opportunity to share the gift of music with our community.”
For many in the band, the Fourth will be their largest, or at least most consequential, gig yet.
“It doesn’t get any more important than this,” Jean Ginn Marvin, who still plays the euphonium horn that her parents gifted her decades ago at the age of fourteen, said Monday. “At a time when our country is kind of torn apart, what better [than] to bring Mainers and people from out of state together.”
Though the Casco Bay Wind Symphony is putting on the concert free of charge, it is in need of donations to help cover production costs. To donate, click here.