“In 1926, the Sousa Band was arguably the most well-known musical organization in the world,” says Allentown Band Conductor Ronald Demkee.

“It was in that year that [Albertus] ‘Bert’ Meyers, a cornet soloist with the famous Sousa Band, returned to the Allentown Band to serve as conductor for 50 years,” Demkee continues.

“When I started playing in the [Allentown] Band in 1964, he [Meyers] was literally a local living legend.

“Like Sousa, he [Meyers] would unabashedly follow a serious symphonic or operatic work with a march, novelty or popular selection of the day,” says Demkee.

The Allentown Band’s annual “Tribute to Bert Meyers Concert,” 3 p.m. Sept. 8, West Park, Allentown, follows that format with many of Meyers’ favorites, according to Demkee.

The concert will open with “The Star Spangled Banner,” followed by Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Die Fledermaus Overture.” Premiered in 1874, Strauss’ comic operetta involves a masquerade ball, mistaken identities, romantic flirtations and lots of champagne.

The fitting encore piece is the “Clear Track Polka,” composed in 1869 by Eduard Strauss, Strauss Jr’s younger brother.

The next selection, “Bayrische Polka” (“Bavarian Polka”), is one of the most popular works by composer Georg Lohmann, a renowned trombonist in Germany from the 1920s-1950s. Allentown Band solo trombonist Caitlin Heckman will impress the audience with what is expected to be her superb performance of the very difficult triple-tongued staccato and glissando passages.

The band’s trombone section joins Heckman in the performance of “Trombone Blues” by American composer Fred Jewell, euphonium player and a former leader of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band.

Sousa composed 15 operettas, of which “El Capitan” (1895) was the most successful. “Selections from El Capitan” references a comic portrayal of the Spanish administration in colonial Peru.

Two complementary marches follow: the 1926 novelty “March Hampden Firemen” by G. Robert Rehrer, a former member of the renowned Ringgold Band, Reading, Berks County, and Edwin Franko Goldman’s 1923 march “On the Mall,” which refers to the mall in Central Park, New York City, where Goldman’s band frequently performed.

J.J. Richard’s arrangement, “Selections from ‘Andrea Chenier,” is taken from Umberto Giordano’s 1896 opera portraying a poet and love triangle during the French Revolution.

The concert concludes with V. F. Safranek’s re-arrangement of the familiar “Finale from William Tell Overture” in Gioachino Rossini’s 1829 popular opera, “William Tell,” followed by the Allentown Band’s traditional concert-closer, John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Albertus “Bert” L. Meyers (1890-1979) began music lessons at age 7, studied piano, pipe organ, music harmony and theory, cornet and French horn. He performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, the Allentown Symphony directed by Victor Herbert, Arthur Pryor’s Band and the Sousa Band prior to serving as conductor of the Allentown Band from 1926-1976.

Meyers was a true pillar of the Allentown community, having attended Allentown public schools, later serving as Director of Instrumental Music of then Allentown High School (1940-1956) and Band Director at Muhlenberg College (1957-1965). In 1965, Muhlenberg College awarded him an honorary doctorate.

He was a guest conductor of the Marine Band, Navy Band, Army Band, Military Academy Band at West Point, Municipal Band of Hagerstown (Md.), Armco Band (Middletown, Oh.) and numerous scholastic bands.

As conductor of the Allentown Band, Meyers invited many leading professional soloists and conductors as featured guests. In 1974, to honor his many achievements and dedication to Allentown, the Eighth Street Bridge was renamed the Albertus L. Meyers Bridge.

Meyers was likely one of the last persons to have been with Sousa on the evening of Sousa’s death.

In 1932, Sousa was to guest conduct the Ringgold Band. After the dress rehearsal and banquet, Sousa invited Meyers for a “nightcap,” much reminiscing and an invitation for Meyers to serve as tour manager of the Sousa Band, which Meyers graciously declined.

Upon Meyers’ return to Allentown that evening, he was advised that Sousa had a heart attack and died.

“Meyers passed away in 1979, but his legacy lives on,” says Demkee.

“Annual Bert Meyer’s Concert,” Allentown Band, 3 p.m. Sept. 8, West Park, 16th and Linden streets, Allentown; inclement weather location: Lehigh Valley Active Life, 1633 Elm St., Allentown; Tickets not required; information: https://allentownband.com

“Classical View” is a column about classical music concerts, conductors and performers. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com