When we need a healing reminder of what we have in common, music provides the balm. The 42-piece Cape Cod Concert Band, under the direction of John P. Hagon, presents a wide array of American works with backstories that may surprise you.

Take God Bless America. Did you know that Irving Berlin—an immigrant Russian Jew—originally wrote the piece while serving in the U.S. Army during WWI? He set it aside as too sentimental, only to rewrite and publish it  in 1939, as a response to the rise of Hitler’s Germany.  If Berlin’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he also wrote White Christmas, Puttin’ on the Ritz, Easter Parade and a slew of other tunes now ensconced in the American Songbook.

From Affirmation, a rousing full-band fanfare by African American composer William Owens, to Emblem of Unity, a circus-style march by the Welsh-born American Bandmaster J.J. Richards (who really did run away and join the circus), this program is a musical love letter to our nation—and that’s something we can all get behind.