LAS VEGAS - The National Community Band, a project of the John Philip Sousa Foundation, presents a free concert at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 11 in the Artemus Ham Concert Hall on the UNLV campus. Sousa, known as "The March King," is famed for composing more than 100 marches, including "Stars and Stripes Forever," several operettas, and hundreds of additional pieces.

The 80-member concert band is comprised of adult amateur musicians from around the U.S. and Canada and is led by Colonel John R. Bourgeois, Director Emeritus of "The President's Own" United States Marine Band in Washington D.C. Band members will rehearse on campus Friday and Saturday.

Col. Bourgeois was the 25th director of "The President's Own" United States Marine Band and his acclaimed career spans nine presidential administrations, from Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower to Bill Clinton. Bourgeois is a graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans. He joined the Marine Corps in 1956, entered "The President's Own" as a french horn player and arranger in 1958, and was named director of the Marine Band in 1979; he was promoted to colonel in June 1983. Bourgeois retired from active duty July 11, 1996.

"The concert will have music for everyone, from a Tchaikowsky transcription to a John Philip Sousa medley from his operetta The Bride -Elect. Along with great continental marches and marches of Sousa, there will be music from Broadway and the silver screen," said Bourgeois.

The John Philip Sousa Foundation is a non-profit foundation dedicated to the promotion of international understanding through the medium of band music. Through the administration of band related projects, the group seeks to uphold the standards and ideals of that icon of the American spirit, John Philip Sousa.