SAN ANTONIO – The community is invited to enjoy the holiday season with “Fort Sam’s Own” 323rd Army Band at this year’s holiday festival “Joy to the World.”
Every musician brings something unique to the band.
“Every year we get different personnel from different bases. We rotate through. We have people from all states. Lots of different backgrounds,” said Ryan Knight, Army CW2, Commander/ Conductor of the band.
The 323rd Army band is turning 80 years old next year.
“We have been at Fort Sam Houston since 1947. We’ve been here for a while and we have been doing these holiday concerts for many, many years,” Knight said.
Knight said this years festival will have some special surprises and musicians from the community will be involved.
“We have almost 60 musicians, professional musicians. Twenty to 25 of those are actually volunteers. They are friends. So this is Fort Sam’s Own holiday festival with friends. Those friends make up with musicians from the Heart of Texas Community Band, they are local educators, they are from other components, Army National Guard, Army Reserves. We have some select high school students,” Knight said.
U.S. Army Sgt. Eric Finkelstein, a bass player in the band, said he is excited about the concert.
“Its really eclectic. It’s a concert band setting with a few pop things, and of course we have the rock band portion, which is obviously my favorite,” Finkelstein said.
The free event will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. at McAllister Auditorium at the campus of San Antonio College.
Tickets must be reserved. You can register here to reserve tickets.