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Title, Music Performances

Free concerts were an essential part of The Oaks experience. Picnickers gathered around the outdoor bandstand or inside the Oaks Auditorium to listen to performers play a mixture of classical and popular numbers. Big name bands – like John Philip Sousa’s Marching Band - would come and go, leaving lesser-known bands to play over longer stretches of time.

Clippings, D'Urbano, 1906 Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1912. This orchestra was backed by Signora Rachael Ruiss and Signor I. Lucci, grand opera singers.

Signor D'Urbano’s Royal Italian Band, 1905, 1906. D’Urbano was a flamboyant conductor who became somewhat of a sex-symbol among female patrons.
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Signor Nicola Donnatelli’s Italian Band, 1909. This band featured a notable dramatic soloist, Miss Bessie Bulpin.

Campbell’s Band, 1920. Soloist Dorothy Daphne Lewis accompanied this band.

Chiaffarelli’s Band, 1907, 1916, 1923-1925. This band’s claim to fame was their former status as a feature of the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.

Patrick Conway and his World-Famous Band, 1911. Billed as the "most expensive band in America.”

Signor Liberati and his Famous Band and Concert Company, 1909. A reviewer from the Seattle Times stated, "There have been a few great cornetists before the American people in the last quarter of a century, but we believe that it is the verdict of those who have heard them that Liberati stands at the head."

Herr Waldemar Lind’s Symphony of the White and Gold, 1908.

Luther College Concert Band and Choral Union, 1914, 1915. Local Norwegian churches and societies rallied for this band’s appearance at the park.

McElroy’s Band, 1914, 1918, 1919. Billed as an “American orchestra of fourteen pieces” during its first two years, this band was advertised as a jazz band in 1919.

D. P. Nason and his Concert Band, 1915. While The Oaks usually employed national or international bands, in 1915 the musicians in Portland were on strike against the managers of the downtown theaters. Oaks manager Cordray lured Nason from his position as musical director at the Heilig Theater downtown. Cordray stated that he felt as if he "owed it to Portland" to have a local band play the longest engagement that year.

Navassar Ladies Band, 1910. An advertisement’s description of this band: “Composed of about 50 young and beautiful women attired in natty uniforms and endowed with marked musical talent.” The women had recently played at the Hippodrome in New York.

Ruzzi’s Royal Italian Military Band, 1910, 1913. Signor Palacios was the director, but the twelve-year-old musical prodigy Angelo Vitale sometimes conducted the band.

Postcard, Bandstand, Click to View The John Philip Sousa Band, 1915. Known around the world as the “March King,” Sousa’s engagement at The Oaks was a special affair. A review in the Oregonian read, “Probably none will deny he is the premier band director of the world. At the same time he is thoroughly American as Coney Island, Pittsburg or baseball.”

Niklas Schilzonyi's Austrian Military Band, 1907. The forty “Imperial Hungarian Hussars,” as they called themselves, drew crowds to the gates even before the park opened for the season – Folks were eager just to hear the band practice. A newspaper review had this to say: "The Hungarians seem to have drunk deeply of the musical inspiration that is inbred in the race. Hungarians stand above other nationalities in orchestra and band work, as high as their native mountains.”

University of Wisconsin’s First Regimental Band, 1915. This large college band had sixty members.

The John C. Weber Band, 1910. This Cincinnati band was billed as the “Prize Band of America.” A reviewer touted, "A more skillful performance of the compositions of Von Weber, Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, Gottschalk and Tschalkowsky than that given by Weber and his band of artists would be difficult.”

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