One didn't have to look any further than Eric Liesman to see if the Northport Community Band's annual concert in Glen Arbor was a hit Sunday afternoon.

Liesman, a year-old boy from Missouri spending a week in the county with his family, clapped, bounced and squealed as the band performed traditional marches and swing tunes. Sitting on the knee of his father, Steve, with mother Stephanie and older sister Jenna, 4, sitting close by, Liesman embodied the spirit of the occasion. On a cool and cloudy afternoon with a threat of rain looming, the youngest Liesman was bundled up but didn’t seem to mind amid the music.

ERIC LIESMAN watches the Northport Community Band from his father's lap
as musicians perform on the lawn of the Glen Arbor Athletic Club Sunday.

“We’re up from southern Missouri and are spending a week with friends at Omena. We were looking for something to do, so Stephanie searched for events in the county and we found this,” Steve Liesman said.

This was the third year for the Northport Community Band to perform in Glen Arbor as part of the Glen Arbor Art Association’s Manitou Music Festival, a series of concerts and performances held throughout the summer. Sunday’s concert on the lawn of the Glen Arbor Athletic Club was billed as a head start to the Fourth of July with patriotic music “by one of Leelanau County’s most popular groups.”

“We had a great time at Glen Arbor and Onekama,” said band director Ken Bloomquist of Northport.

As soon as the Glen Arbor concert concluded, band members packed their instruments and music holder stands in a trailer and pick-up truck, and boarded a bus to Manistee County for a 7:30 p.m. performance in Onekama.

Bloomquist, a retired director of bands from Michigan State University, said it is always enjoyable playing outside, even on a cool day like Sunday. “When we started playing in Onekama the sun broke through the clouds, but then it got cloudier and cloudier as we played and it started to rain about half-way through,” he said. The rain ended the concert a little early.

The Glen Arbor concert drew about 100 people who sat in folding chairs, spread out on blankets on the lawn, or relaxed in their own beach chairs. Bloomquist said much of the fun of performing in front of a large local audience is seeing the people react to having family or friends playing in a peaceful setting.

“The crowds at both concerts were just great, very appreciative. In Onekama, the resident ‘Uncle Sam ‘showed up; it was a lot of fun,” he said.

The band opened with the Latin piece Malaguena by Lecuono, with some scoring done by Bloomquist as well. The 40-member band then performed Give My Regards to Broadway by George M. Cohen, and the United Nations March by Karl L. King. Bob Crane soloed on trumpet for an excerpt from an American in Paris by George Gershwin, and another King composition, the Lexington March.

The trumpet section consisting of Crane, Dick Allen, Karl Kirsten, Jennifer Carlson, Doug Scripps, Joan TenBrock and Bloomquist, with Dave Kjellberg accompanying on tuba, performed two numbers, Star Dust by Hoagy Carmichael and Bugler’s Dream Fanfare, by Arnaud and Grey.

The band had some help from the Mill Street Sisters, a vocal trio that performs in the style of the Andrew Sisters and similar groups. Joan Post-Brown, Mary Kay Davis and Judie Leece sang Bugle Boy from Company B by Don Raye and Hughie Price, and Alexander’s Ragime Band by Irving Berlin, with some tweaks by Bloomquist.

The concert ended on solid pre-July 4 footing with a rousing rendition of Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa.

With the performers’ ages ranging from 16-year-old Asher Carlson on clarinet to 91-year-old trombonist John Glover, the Northport Community Band contains a wide variety of players. “We have members from as far away as Glen Arbor, Long Lake and Traverse City,” Bloomquist said.

The band will perform July 4 starting at 7 p.m. in the Northport Marina Park, along with the Village Voices choir.