More than a century ago, John Philip Sousa was among the acts that played the stage at Patchogue Theatre on East Main Street. On Sunday afternoon, November 8, his marches are back in the same room: the Atlantic Wind Symphony brings A Sousa Salute to our United States Veterans to the theater at 3 p.m., three days before Veterans Day.

What is on the program

The concert is built around Sousa, with marches both well known and rarely heard, plus popular pieces from Sousa's era and from today. The band will play its traditional Armed Forces Salute, and a set of patriotic music spanning the country's 250 years.

Maestro Don Sherman conducts. Guest vocalist Emily White is featured in two pieces: the aria Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix from Saint-Saens' opera Samson and Delilah, and The March of the Women Marines.

Art in the lobby

Before the music starts, the lobby is worth a look. Artwork by Suffolk County art students, made to thank veterans, will be on display through SCALA. The concert is funded in part by Suffolk County.

Sousa's stage

The connection to Sousa is not a stretch. The theater opened in 1923 as Ward and Glynne's Theater, and in its early years it drew first-run films, Broadway productions, vaudeville and live music, with performers that included Bette Davis, the Marx Brothers, the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and Sousa himself. Admission at the time was 40 cents for adults.

The building went through several lives after that. It survived a lobby fire in 1958, was split into a three-screen movie house in 1982 and closed in 1987. It sat empty for eight years, and when village officials and business leaders went through it in 1994 they found much of the original decor still intact behind later drywall and paneling. Today it is run by Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts, a nonprofit.

Tickets and getting there

The concert is Sunday, November 8, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $21 to $31, fees included, and are on sale through the Patchogue Theatre site or the box office at 631-207-1313, open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. and later on show nights.

Patchogue Theatre is at 71 East Main Street, Patchogue, in the middle of the village's downtown, with restaurants within a short walk for an early dinner after the concert lets out.

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