POTSDAM — Seventy members of the Potsdam Community Band will return for a concert in Ives Park Friday, July 9 at 5 p.m.

After 18 months of silence, the band welcomes the community to join them for PCB’s now-familiar mix of marches, music from musicals and the movies, and concert band music, led by music director Theresa Witmer.

Renowned composer John O’Reilly will take the podium to conduct one of his compositions. O’Reilly is known not only for his band pieces, but his instruction books which every student who has participated in band or orchestra has probably played from, including Accent on Achievement, The Yamaha Band Student, and Strictly Strings.

O’Reilly grew up near Albany, graduated from the Crane School of Music and Columbia University, and has taught music at all levels, from elementary school through college.

The band will open the program with a march published 101 years ago, Karl King’s Hosts of Freedom. Moving quickly back to the present, the next selection is David Eastmond’s St. Lawrence Chronicles, a tribute to the mighty and historic river that serves as our border with Canada.

The next piece is a familiar theme from the old TV series and more recent movies, Mission Impossible! After that, Melanie Donahue’s Celtic Voyage.

The music from West Side Story follows, including the songs “Maria,” “Tonight” “One Hand, One Heart,” “Cool,” and “Somewhere.”

O’Reilly will then direct his Hudson River Suite. The three short movements represent distinct areas of the river: “The Lady of the Harbor” (Statute of Liberty), “Pastoral Highlands,” and “The Source” (Adirondack mountain streams that feed the Hudson).

The American folk song “Shenandoah” is next, in a lush arrangement by Frank Ticheli. PCB is dedicating the performance of Shenandoah to long-time PCB member of the French horn section Patricia Mustakangas, who passed away at the end of May.

The band then moves to Broadway for three songs by George M. Cohan: “Yankee Doodle Boy,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” The arrangement is by former Crane School of Music faculty member Elliot Del Borgo, who composed over 600 works, including music for the closing ceremony of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

The band will then perform the theme from the 2019 film Captain Marvel.

To end the concert, the band plays the classic John Philip Sousa march, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

For information about playing with PCB, or to contribute to the Band (for music, rental fees, insurance, etc.) visit potsdamband.org.