 
Yale Concert Band director Tom Duffy, dressed as Glenn Miller, will lead the Feb. 11 performance.
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recall Glenn Miller era
The music of Glenn Miller and his 418th Army Air Corps Technical Training Command Band, whose performances on the Woolsey Hall stage during the tumultuous era of World War II gripped many Americans, will reverberate once again in Yale's historic music hall.
On Friday, Feb. 11, the Woolsey stage will have as its backdrop the same American flag that hung there during Glenn Miller's days on campus, and members of the Yale University Concert Band will be dressed in World War II-era Army surplus uniforms for their performance of music that the famed big band swing leader once conducted in the same hall. The concert, titled "Glen Miller Returns! Music of the Fight for Freedom," will begin at 8 p.m.
The performance will be a distillation of the historic Glenn Miller radio shows, titled "I Sustain the Wings," that were rehearsed and broadcast live from New Haven in 1943. Already by then a famous swing band leader, Miller disbanded his dance band in 1942 and enlisted in the Air Corps, where he held the rank of captain and was assigned to assemble bands for its U.S. posts. His 418th Army Air Corp Technical Training Command Band -- better known as the Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Band -- was stationed at Yale. The band made six live radio broadcasts from Woolsey Hall, which featured radio skits and musical selections.
The Yale Concert Band's retrospective performance will feature a re-enactment of portions of the radio broadcasts, with radio skits and big-band performances of the swing music for which Miller was famous. Thomas Duffy, director of University Bands, will lead the performance, donning military uniform and Miller-style wire-rim glasses in a portrayal of the famous swing-era bandleader and trombonist. Such enduring Miller favorites as "In the Mood," "St. Louis Blues March" and "Moonlight Serenade" will be performed.
The Glenn Miller band re-creation will take place during the second half of the program. The first half, which will be performed by the entire Yale Concert Band, will feature music memorializing World War II and other battles. These include "Armed Forces Salute," a medley of anthems of the U.S. Armed Forces; "Symphony No. 1, In Memoriam, Dresden," Daniel Bukvich's commemoration of the 1945 Allied forces fire-bombing of the German city; and Thomas Duffy's "Gnomon," a tribute to the U.S. Vietnam War experience.
Duffy and members of the Yale Band first recreated Glenn Miller's Yale concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994. The first concert was so successful that Duffy and about 70 Yale undergraduates took the show "on the road," playing at significant D-Day locations in France and England during the summer of 1994. The show was re-enacted in Woolsey Hall in 1995 before an audience that included former World War II servicemen or their family members, many of whom later contacted Duffy and members of the Yale Band to share poignant war-time memories stirred by the concert.
Tickets to the Feb. 11 concert are $12, $18 and $25. For tickets or further information, call (203) 432-4113.
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