Pete Nowlen strikes up the Band for this lively celebration of landmarks in the LGBT Civil Rights Movement and our nation’s progress toward equality for all. The concert features musical tributes to Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., to the imminent demise of Prop 8 and repeal of DADT. The program also showcases Bay Area 20th Century Composer Henry Cowell, whose brilliant music influenced an entire generation of composers and whose career was clipped when he was incarcerated in San Quentin for homosexuality.

Mr. Nowlen has served as University of California, Davis’ Director of Concert Bands since 2002, and as a member of the UC Davis faculty since 1988 and of the California State University, Sacramento faculty since 1990. He was a member of the French horn section of the Sacramento Symphony from 1987 to 1996, and is active as an orchestral and chamber musician and conductor.

Bradley Connlain conducts the 35th Annual Pride Concert, co-produced with the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco. Mr. Connlain has 40 years of music and theatre experience with community, church, non-profit and semi-professional groups. He is a founding member of City Swing and has served as its artistic director and conductor for 25 years. A longtime member of the Freedom Band, he has stepped up as guest conductor several times, taking the podium in 2006 for the Dance-Along Nutcracker: CLARA-FIED, in 2009 for the Pride Concert and June concert: Cows, Corn and Music; and in 2012 for the September concert, The Band Came Back, and the 2012 Dance-Along Nutcracker(R) Goes Hollywood!