What’s a 4th of July celebration without patriotic music?
The Lake County Orchestra will be providing the soundtrack to your holiday with a free concert at the Buffalo Creek Brewing Company in Long Grove to help you get into the spirit of Independence Day on July 4.
“We’ll be playing the stuff you’d expect us to play,” said Ron Arden, the artistic director of the Lake County Symphony Orchestra. “It’s a little bit of Copland. A little bit of Sousa. A little bit of Tchaikovsky. It’s not only great music, but it’s what people want to hear, right? At Christmastime, you don’t play a hoedown. This is what you want to hear on the 4th of July.”
The show, titled “American Salute,” features the work of the same name by Morton Gould, an American composer who wrote it in 1942.
“It’s one of my favorites,” Arden said.
The concert, held at the Buffalo Creek Brewing Company in Long Grove, begins at 7 p.m. July 4.
“We stumbled into this beautiful outdoor space at Buffalo Creek when they needed some brass players to play for their Oktoberfest,” Arden said. “I got to meet them, and they said, ‘what else do you do?’ The next thing I know they invited us to do our July concert last year, and we drew 750 people.
“So it became our new outdoor home,” he said. “We open and close our season there in the outdoors.”
The show will include “Buckaroo Holiday” and “Rodeo” from composer Aaron Copland.
“You can’t do patriotic music without Copland,” Arden said. “We’ll also include ‘Fanfare for the Common Man.’ It was written to celebrate the incredible tenacity of the people working back home during the second world war, including all the women who went to work then in the factories.”
The orchestra will also perform the armed forces salute, playing the themes to all branches of the armed services, with lyrics sung by Tanya Joy Gibson. The program includes a piece by American composer Brian Balmages called “Summer Dances.”
“It’s a piece that’s sort of between pop and classical,” Arden said. “It’s become very, very high-profile in high school, college and professional orchestras. It’s good stuff, and it’s a wonderful celebration.”
The orchestra also will perform selections from “An American in Paris,” the Gene Kelly film that would later become a Broadway musical.
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“It’s by George Gershwin, and it’s about an American going to Paris, and it’s sort of like Tchaikovsky, in that you might wonder what it’s doing in this program,” Arden said. “Well, because it’s an iconic number in the dance world, and it’s Gershwin’s take on what an American would see in Paris and how he would feel about it. It has these great jazz idioms, and it’s just beautiful. And truthfully, you can’t do an American concert without George Gershwin.”
A raffle at the event features several prizes, including the opportunity to conduct the orchestra for a song. And while there are no fireworks at the venue, the concert ends early enough for you to attend a nearby display after dark.
“You’ll have more than enough time to see them,” Arden said. “Or you can stay at Buffalo Creek, enjoy a beer, and take in the evening without the fireworks. Either way, you’ll have a wonderful time.”
Lake County Symphony Orchestra ‘American Salute’
When: 7 p.m. July 4
Where: Buffalo Creek Brewing Company, 360 Historical Lane, Long Grove
Tickets: Free
Information: lakecountysymphonyorchestra.com
Jeff Banowetz is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.