When you hear the name John Philip Sousa, chances are you immediately hear a march. Bold brass. Driving percussion. A soaring piccolo line. The unmistakable sound of American concert music. But there is more to Sousa than the music that made him famous.

The Pensacola Civic Band continues its 2026–27 season, A Season in Motion, with Sousa: Beyond the Marches, an evening that takes a broader look at one of the most recognizable names in American music.

Known around the world as the “March King,” Sousa became synonymous with the sound of the American concert band. His marches remain among the most familiar and enduring works in the repertoire, but his musical life reached far beyond the parade ground.

Sousa: Beyond the Marches invites audiences to look past the familiar image and discover the range, imagination and personality behind the composer.

Throughout the evening, the Pensacola Civic Band will explore music that showcases the many sides of Sousa’s musical world — from the unmistakable energy and precision associated with his most famous works to music that reveals a different sense of color, style and expression.

It is a program built around contrast. The familiar and the unexpected. Tradition and discovery. The Sousa audiences already know — and the Sousa they may not.

For longtime concert band fans, the evening offers an opportunity to hear this music with fresh ears. For those who may only know Sousa from patriotic celebrations, Fourth of July performances or the famous marches heard throughout American culture, the concert offers a chance to discover just how much more there is to the story.

And there is perhaps no ensemble better suited to tell it than a concert band.

Sousa understood the power of the band as a musical instrument in its own right — capable of tremendous excitement, subtle expression, brilliant color and extraordinary range. That legacy continues today whenever musicians gather on a concert stage and bring this repertoire to life.

Sousa: Beyond the Marches is not simply a tribute to a composer. It is an invitation to reconsider a familiar musical figure and experience the depth of a tradition that has helped shape the sound of the American concert band.

There will, of course, be moments that sound unmistakably like Sousa. But the evening is about everything that comes beyond them.

Join us for the spring centerpiece of A Season in Motion and discover the music, the personality and the broader story behind the March King.

Concert Details

Sousa: Beyond the Marches
Saturday, April 10, 2027
7:30 p.m.

Jean & Paul Amos Performance Studio
WSRE / Pensacola State College
Pensacola, Florida

Additional program selections and concert details will be announced.