KinSource - Tale of the Week

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, October 26, 1885, p. 2

AMUSEMENTS.

Anniversary Concert of the Great Western Band.

About every seat in the Grand Opera house was taken last evening when the opening number of the concert by the Great Western Band was begun. It was the twenty-fifth anniversary concert of this popular musical organization and was of rare excellence. The full quota were present and participated, assisted by Miss Agnes Mulrine, soprano; Miss Henrietta H. Haas, elocutionist; Mr. J. H. Donohoe, tenor; Mr. J. F. Gehan, basso; Signor Jannotta and a double male quartet; Charles P. Pottgeiser, piano virtuoso, and Danz orchestra of Minneapolis. The stage was handsomely set and a large bouquet had been placed immediately in the center before the footlights. The program, embracing eleven numbers, was varied and contained many classical pieces. The evening was one of such rare enjoyment as is seldom given in this city. The programs were neatly gotten up, containing on the front an engraving of Mr. George Seibert, and on the reverse, the following historical data concerning the organization of which he is the leader:

The Great Western band of St. Paul was organized in the spring of 1860, prepratory to the great political combat of Lincoln and Douglas in which it figured most extensively with the Wide-awakes and the Little Giants, two great party organizations of those days, furnished the music for the first state fair at Fort Snelling the same fall, was badly demoralized during the war period (many of its members answering the national call), survived and surmounted all the difficulties in its onward march in 1870, was the first to inaugurate public concerts at parks and to-day stands before you in the prime of its existence, full of vigor, ready to toil on in the cause of music and striving to gain a position of merit and usefulness second to none in this country.