Sixty & Sensational: A Musical Memoir

What have you been doing for the last sixty years? Maestro John Hagon has been making music–in the schools, with the military, and in our Cape Cod communities. On Sunday, May 27, the Cape Cod Concert Band salutes their conductor with a musical retrospective and a world premiere performance. Sixty & Sensational: A Musical Memoir travels back in time, highlighting musical moments from John Hagon’s career, beginning in the spring of 1958, when Mr. Hagon, in his senior year of college, was asked if he’d like to conduct Aaron Copland’s An Outdoor Overture. He said yes—with enthusiasm—and made his conducting debut that May with the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra. A 2014 concert band arrangement of selected themes from An Outdoor Overture will open Sunday’s concert.

Other selections pay tribute to Mr. Hagon’s work as a lifelong music educator in the public schools and at Berklee College of Music, his tenure as the director of the 215^thArmy Band of the National Guard, and his ongoing connection to community music. But Sixty & Sensational is more than a career retrospective. The program looks to the future, with the world premiere performance of Suite from “American Pickers” by film and TV composer, Sean Hagon. The younger Mr. Hagon has an impressive CV, too. Currently the Chair of Professional Music at Berklee College of Music, recent credits include music for PBS, MNBC, and CNBC. The suite on Sunday’s program is based on tunes he has written for the History Channel’s hit show, American Pickers, and has been arranged for concert band by—you guessed it—Maestro John Hagon.