Bands combine to salute veterans

Two area bands will once again join forces to mark Veterans Week with a special concert.

The fourth annual “Highland Salute to Veterans” will bring together the Truro Concert Band, and the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo / Black Watch Association (Atlantic) Pipes and Drums.

The Truro Novatones will also be guests on the program. The pipe band is led by George Macintosh. Musical Director of the Truro Concert Band is Ken Henderson.

“Audiences seem to especially enjoy the tunes that have the small pipe and drum band and the concert band join together in a unique musical experience,” said Henderson. “We’re also providing a chance for all to sing along to the familiar songs that helped keep spirits up during difficult times in our history.”

The concert, set for Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2:30 p.m., is at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall on Brunswick Street in Truro. The program has enough variety to please a wide audience: concert band numbers, songs from the time of the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War, and a wide variety of traditional pipe music.

Included in the program will be two medleys for Concert Band and Pipes and Drums arranged for the bands of the Royal Canadian Regiment in Gagetown in the 1970s by J.P. Montminy.

The centenary of the Number Two Construction Battalion, comprised predominantly of black soldiers and headquartered in Truro after its founding in Pictou, will be recognized in the performance of Eubie Blake’s Bugle Call Rag, published 1916.

Also on the program is Salute to the RCMP, arranged by Ron MacKay.

Veterans and their spouses/ caregivers are invited to attend free of charge. Others will be asked to make a donation; $10 is suggested. Proceeds will be donated to the Poppy Fund.