Music

Destiney Boyd of Hagerstown, 11, took advantage of the cooler temperatures and practiced her clarinet curbside outside her Frederick Manor home Thursday afternoon. Boyd is a sixth-grader at E. Russell Hicks Middle School and a second-year clarinet student.

Emmanuel Chapel , Smithsburg, The Down Home Gospel Singers, By Faith and The Bluegrass Travelers will perform from 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday.

WILLIAMSPORT -- It used to house dairy cattle, but on Sunday, the big, bold sounds of the Williamsport Community Band blasted from the Springfield Barn. The Town of Williamsport has been making improvements to the historic structure next to Byron Memorial Park with the intent of making it available for public events. Last December, the town held a Charlie Brown Christmas celebration in the barn and Mayor James G. McCleaf said Sunday that about eight weddings are planned at the barn this year.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- The Shepherd University Department of Music will host a visitation day on Friday, Oct. 15. The event is open to all high school seniors and juniors who are considering pursuing a degree in music at Shepherd. Students will attend classes, meet the music faculty and current students, visit with representatives from the admissions office, hear ensemble rehearsals and performances, have lunch in the dining hall and take a guided campus tour. Interested parents are also welcome to attend.

The delicate dancing squeak of the fife and the rum-pum stickings and rudiments of the calfskin drums called Saturday afternoon visitors to Antietam National Battlefield to a shady patch beneath the trees just behind Dunker Church. The sounds luring them were the tunes of the Fort McHenry Guard Fife and Drum Corps. Led by Director Tim Ertel, the corps demonstrated Union field music that marked the moments of a soldier's day. "We give a program teaching music through the day of the soldier from 'Reveille' to 'Tattoo,' or lights out," Ertel said.

Bundled in their winter coats and shivering from the December cold, members of Hagerstown Choral Arts streamed into Trinity Lutheran Church on a recent evening for rehearsal. Their weekend performance of Handel’s “Messiah” was just days away and on this night it was about fine tuning. Clutching their scores, the singers did what comes naturally. First one voice, and then another, and soon the room was swelling with song so rich and strong it almost spilled outdoors.