Glenn Miller Orchestra to Perform in San Angelo 

SAN ANGELO, TX — The Glenn Miller Orchestra will swing into San Angelo on Saturday, Feb. 15, at the Murphey Performance Hall, 72 W. College Ave.

The legendary Glenn Miller was one of the most successful of all dance bandleaders back in the Swing Era of the 1930s and 40s. A string of hit records, the constant impact of radio broadcasts and the drawing power at theatres, hotels and dance pavilions built and sustained the momentum of popularity. 

Glenn disbanded his musical organization in 1942 at the height of its popularity to volunteer for the Army. There, he organized and led the famous Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. It went to Europe to entertain servicemen performing numerous live and radio shows. On Dec. 15, 1944, Major Miller took off in a single engine plane from Europe to precede his band to France, disappearing over the English Channel, never to be seen again. The army officially declared him dead a year later. 

With the release of the major motion movie The Glenn Miller Story featuring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson in 1954, interest and popular demand led the Miller Estate to authorize the formation of the present Glenn Miller Orchestra. On June 6, 1956, and under the direction of drummer Ray McKinley who had become the unofficial leader of the Army Air Force Band after Glenn’s disappearance, the reformed Glenn Miller Orchestra performed its first concert and has been on the road ever since. Since January 2012, vocalist Nick Hilscher leads the band. 

The current Glenn Miller Orchestra is a fully self-contained group consisting of the music director, five saxophone players, four trumpeters, four trombonists, and three rhythm musicians (piano, bass and drums). Also, there are two vocalists, one male and one female, who perform individually and as part of The Moonlight Serenaders vocal group. 

Today, the 18-member ensemble continues to play many of the original Miller arrangements both from the civilian band and the AAFB libraries. Additionally, it also plays some more modern selections arranged and performed in the Miller style and sound. 

The big-band business today requires almost constant travel as a result of an arduous schedule of one-night stands. The Glenn Miller Orchestra is “on the road” longer and more continuously than any other in the whole world, having celebrated its 65th year anniversary on June 6, 2021. It covers over a hundred thousand miles a year, working most every night for 48 weeks out of every 52-nearly 300 playing dates, performing for an “in person” audience that adds up to more than a half million people annually. 

The orchestra has performed in all 50 United States, as well as throughout Europe, Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Guam, the Philippines, South and Central America. Additionally, the orchestra has toured Japan annually since 1964. 

All of the biggest hits are included in a regular program. But so are arrangements of less well-known tunes like The White Cliffs of Dover, Rainbow Rhapsody, Everybody Loves My Baby, and That’s Sabotage.  The Glenn Miller Orchestra has always been very musical, disciplined, and visually entertaining. And it has its own distinctive “sound." That sound is created by the clarinet holding the melodic line, doubled or coupled with the tenor sax playing the same notes; and the harmonies produced by three other saxophones, while growling trombones and wailing trumpets add their oo-ahs.

It is now more than 80 years since Glenn Miller first succeeded with the Orchestra, which still bears his name to this day. Except for a few years following his disappearance, Glenn’s orchestra and music have been heard around the world continuously since 1938.

Tickets are available online at www.SanAngeloPAC.org, by phone at 325-284-3825, by visiting the box office at 82 Gillis St. (10 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday), or at the door starting at 6:30 p.m. on the day of the show.