A popular Tyrone summer event will begin this Sunday, July 8. Tyrone’s Summer Concert Series will get under way at the Reservoir Park amphitheater stage.
The Summer Concert Series will kick off with the sounds of the ‘Summit City Saints’, a Dixieland band. This group will feature old-fashioned, but familiar American Dixieland, Ragtime and Blues music that has evolved since the roaring twenties.
The ‘Summit City Saints’ were named after the very flat-land city in which it originated. Fort Wayne, Indiana is known as the ‘Summit City’ due to its relative higher elevation in that particular portion of the Midwest. This is contrary to misconceptions that this group comes from a mountain top area.
This eight piece ensemble includes Fred Lynn on trumpet, who originally formed the band in the Midwest in 1990. However, Lynn, a native of Central Pennsylvania, returned to the area in 1996 and reorganized the band with many talented musicians from the Centre Region that includes Dr. Ned Deihl from State College on clarinet, Bill Fatula from Howard on trumpet, Jay Vonada from Aaronsburg on trombone, Dr. Phil Jensen from Boalsburg on tuba, Dr. Frederick Brown from State College on keyboard, Jim Kerhin from State College on the plectrum banjo and Jim Franklin from Lock Haven on drums.
The ‘Summit City Saints’ recorded their first album, ‘Summit City Saints Favorites’ in 1995 and has opened for the ‘Smothers Brothers’ and a number of other well known celebrities in the entertainment world along with sports figures. They have been featured at county fairs, arts festivals, college football tailgates, park concerts, conventions, private parties, corporate outings, professional sporting events, riverboat cruises, and award-winning parade floats.
All Summer Sunday concerts will begin at 6 p.m. They are held at the Reservoir Park amphitheater. However, if rainy weather occurs, the concert will be held at the First English Lutheran Church at the corner of Logan Avenue and 13th Street. Audience members should bring a chair or blanket for seating.
All Summer Sunday concerts are free of charge and made possible by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and Tyrone Borough.
If anyone would like more information, call the Arts Line at 684-ART2.
