Vocals, alto sax highlight DeKalb Municipal Band concert

Vocalist Barb McCaskey and alto saxophonist Roger Ackert will be featured at the next DeKalb Municipal Band concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Dee Palmer Band Shell in Hopkins Park, 1403 Sycamore Road in DeKalb. The band is conducted by Kirk Lundbeck.

McCaskey has performed in theaters that include Stage Coach Players in DeKalb, Steel Beam Theater in St. Charles, and New American Theater and Clocktower Theater in Rockford.

Her favorite roles include Eva Peron in “Evita,” Mary in “Merrily We Roll Along,” The Witch and the Baker’s Wife in “Into The Woods,” The Narrator in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” and Joannie in the Stage Coach production of “Company.”

Tuesday will be McCaskey’s fourth appearance with the DeKalb band since she started soloing during the summer of 2013.

McCaskey will sing on George Gershwin’s “Embraceable You,” “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1945 film “State Fair” and Cole Porter’s “Night and Day.”

Roger Ackert earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a master’s degree in performance and composition from Northern Illinois University, as well as a music degree from the U.S. Navy School of Music.

He is skilled in the entire woodwinds family, with emphasis on the clarinet and saxophone, and studied with clarinet professionals Ben Stoller, George Waln, Thomas Thompson, Jerome Stowell, Wilbur Smith and Leon Russianoff.

His big-band performance experience includes the Eddie Peabody USO show, Johnny Kay Orchestra, Shannanigans II, Shannanigans Show Band and the Glen Gould Orchestra Premiere, and as a member in the backup bands at Rockford’s Metro Center for Bob Hope, George Burns, Linda Carter, Dion Warwick and the Pointer Sisters.

Ackert’s first performance in the DeKalb Municipal Band was during the summer of 1963, where he played clarinet.

In 1996, Director Dee Palmer moved him to principal alto saxophone, where he is now.

Ackert’s solos include “Piano Forte,” his own composition based on melodies by Sergei Rachmaninoff “Piano Concerto No. 2,” and the first movement of Frank Ticheli’s “Cajun Folk Songs” featuring the alto saxophone.

The show will open with Chris Sharp’s “The All American March.” Sharp wrote this work in the traditional style of Henry Fillmore, Karl King and John Philip Sousa, yet it includes a few clever twists and turns that showcase the woodwind section.

Images of galloping horses come forth in Franz Von Suppe’s “Light Cavalry Overture.” Suppe’s overtures continue to be played in many orchestras and will be more familiar to audience ears because of their use as background music for movies, cartoons and advertisements.

A variety of marches, music by movie composer Henry Mancini and Leroy Anderson’s “Belle of the Ball” will round out the evening’s entertainment.

Admission to the concert is free. Bench seating is available, or bring lawn chairs or a blanket. Concerts will continue Tuesday nights through Aug. 22.