Conductor LEONARD B. SMITH Autographed Program 1965

Description

Leonard B. Smith Program, Picture, Autograph
The back of the program was glued to a scrapbook page, and when removed  from the page, took some of the page with it.
Leonard B. Smith performed as the principal trumpet player with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and was considered a successor of John Philip Sousa.
He conducted the Blossom Festival Concert Band, near Cleveland, from 1972 until 1997. He also briefly played with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Toscanini's NBC Orchestra, and studied with Ernest Williams.
Born in Poughkeepsie, NY, Smith began studying the trumpet at age 8, received a musical scholarship to the New York Military Academy at 14 and joined the Edwin Franko Goldman Band at 19.
In the 1930s, he served his tenure as principal trumpet of the Detroit Symphony.
During World War II, he was principal cornetist and soloist with the U.S. Navy Band. Smith founded the Detroit Concert Band in 1946, recorded all of John Philip Sousa's marches, made a BBC documentary about Sousa's life and amassed a huge collection of symphonies, operas and ballet music arranged for band.
This concert program performance was at the Cumberland Valley High School in 1965 where he was a guest soloist at their spring concert.