The Austin Civic Wind Ensemble celebrates America's 250th birthday this Independence Day with a program that spans the full arc of American music — from stirring marches to sweeping cinematic landscapes.

The concert opens, as tradition demands, with The Star Spangled Banner in the U.S. Armed Forces Edition, honoring those who serve.

Aaron Copland's An Outdoor Overture captures the optimism and wide-open energy that defined American concert music in the mid-twentieth century. Composed in 1938 for the High School of Music and Art in New York City, it remains one of Copland's most exhilarating works — bright, rhythmically driven, and unapologetically joyful.

Celebrating America's 250th Birthday

The Austin Civic Wind Ensemble celebrates America's Semiquincentennial this Independence Day with a program spanning the full arc of American music — from stirring marches to sweeping cinematic landscapes.

From Sousa's Sesquicentennial Exposition March, written for America's 150th birthday in 1926, to Noah D. Taylor's Fanfare 250, composed expressly for this milestone, the program bridges a century of celebration. Along the way, Copland's unapologetic optimism, John Williams' cinematic grandeur, and the urgency of Galante's Midnight Ride trace the American story in sound.