Air Force Band, ‘Singing Sergeants’ Come to UALR Oct. 18
The United States Air Force Concert Band and the Singing Sergeants, the flagship musical ensemble of the Air Force, come to Little Rock Saturday, Oct. 18, at UALR’s Jack Stephens Center.
Admission for the 7 p.m. concert is free and is open to the public.
The concert band – a premier band of the Air Force – is a world-class symphonic wind ensemble consisting of 52 musicians performing a wide repertoire of music from light classics, popular favorites, and instrumentals to serious classical transcriptions and original works for bands.
The Singing Sergeants, the Air Force’s official 23-voice chorus, is one of the world’s most versatile and traveled choral organizations. The ensemble is internationally recognized for its continuing commitment to excellence in vocal performance.
The ensemble performs a wide range of musical numbers from opera, traditional and contemporary choral works, oratorio, folk songs, pop standards, musical theater, and jazz – with an emphasis on the choral music of America.
Col. Dennis M. Layendecker commands the band and chorus as music director of the Air Force. A native of Springfield, Mo., he is a graduate of the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. An accomplished pianist, Layendecker began his conducting in 1977 while on scholarship at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Belgium. He earned a master of music degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University in Illinois and earned a musical arts doctorate in conducting from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Layendecker is a graduate of the Air War College, a distinguished graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, and a graduate of the Air Force Academic Instructor’s School and Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.
The Air Force Band was commissioned on Sept. 24, 1941. Collectively, the groups have performed live for more than 1 billion people.