West Point Bands Final Concert

Tonight was the final West Point music under the stars concert series and it was quite a show. But one of the first thoughts I had when I looked around was that it looked like an "over the hill" gang version of Woodstock.



The West Point bands are all professional soldiers who are permanently stationed at West Point to support the cadets by providing music for parades and drills and they also perform for the public as an extension of West Point and the Army.

The first group to perform was the "Hellcats" drum and bugle corp.
The narrator explained that many years ago drums and bugles were sounds that could be heard by soldiers above the noise of the battle and they played some of those bugle calls. It's amazing what they can do with an instrument witout any valves.



Then the Jazz portion of the West Point band performed.


Then the Concert Band


Then some members of the President's Own Army band from Washington D.C. performed some blue grass numbers. They were great!


Then the Concert Band performed their final number the 1812 Overture that was originally written to be accompanied by cannons at one point in the number. They had cannons and fireworks.


Then they played Stars and Stripes with more fireworks. I made a collage of several of the shots I got of the fireworks.