by Daniel Hathaway | ClevelandClassical.com
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Conversations with fellow audience members at the Blossom Festival Band’s Salute to America last night, July 3, revealed that many had been glued to weather radar screens all afternoon in hopes that forecasts of evening thunderstorms would turn out to be wrong.
They were. Though some late afternoon rainfall increased humidity levels, the skies cleared and a large throng turned out to enjoy eve-of-Independence Day picnics on the lawn and band music from the pavilion stage — a Fourth of July tradition ever since the Blossom Music Center launched its second season in 1969.
Innumerable wind ensembles are featured in outdoor performances around Independence Day each year in America, but the Blossom Festival Band stands out for its excellent roster of musicians and soloists and its distinguished lineage of conductors.