Heritage Band to perform at UMO
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on October 1, 2016 10:09 PM
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Pictured are the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band. They will be performing in Mount Olive Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Kornegay Arena at the University of Mount Olive. The concert is free, but tickets are required.
The United States Air Force Heritage of America Band will be in concert Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Kornegay Arena at the University of Mount Olive.
The concert is free, but tickets are required.
The ensemble that is coming to Mount Olive is a large classical wind ensemble, said tour manager Staff Sgt. David Fatek.
"In addition to performing a classical repertoire, we also perform Broadway, pop and jazz," Fatek said. "And we always feature patriotic music for the military veterans in attendance."
The concert will last two hours with an intermission.
The Air Force band has three pillars to its mission, Fatek said. They are honor, inspire and communicate. They honor those who came before them (veterans), inspire patriotism - particularly in young people - and do so via communicating the message of Air Force excellence.
"When we're performing stateside, it's a community relations concert," he said. "We communicate through the universal language of music."
Fatek said the band is excited to be coming to Mount Olive for a concert.
"I came down in advance and was excited when I saw Kornegay Arena," he said. "The folks at the University of Mount Olive have been incredibly outstanding with their support."
Fatek, who is also a saxophonist with the band, said that playing with the band is a full-time job with the Air Force.
"We audition before we enlist and before we go to basic training," he said. "We are full-time active duty professional musicians.
"If you imagine this is our full-time job at the world-class level we will perform at when we come to town, all throughout the Air Force, whether it's in aircraft, the medical field, the cyber warfare field or what have you, all those people are performing their full-time jobs at the same professional level we are performing ours.
"If you are awed and impressed with our music we perform, you should see our brothers and sisters because they are just as awesome."
Fatek said someone always asks the band members if there is a recruiting part to their mission.
"If we do the job of honoring, inspiring and communicating, recruiting takes care of itself," he said. "We always mention during the concert that the Air Force is hiring trombone players and also C-130 loadmasters, doctors, lawyers and other professions."
The band is headquartered at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Va. It's comprised of more than 40 professional musicians who travel throughout the east coast giving free concerts.
On Oct. 1, Air Force bands celebrated their 75th anniversary. Fatek said the Heritage of America Band will feature some music at its Mount Olive concert in celebration of that anniversary.
For more information or tickets, contact Cindy Wellinger at 919-658-2787 or email to cwellinger@umo.edu.