United States Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus & Col. Jim R. Keene
Biography United States Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus & Col. Jim R. Keene
The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus
of Washington DC is the U.S. Army’s premier touring musical organization, traveling throughout the country and internationally to connect the American people to their Army and to represent the nation around the world. Members of the Army Field Band can be seen each year performing for the nationally televised “A Capitol Fourth,” the National Memorial Day Concert, and every four years leading the Army Element of the Presidential Inaugural Parade. The Band is comprised of the Jazz Ambassadors, “America’s Big Band,” the Six-String Soldiers which is the world’s most followed military band on social media, and the Concert Band and Soldiers’ Chorus, featured on this recording. At the heart of the Band’s mission is telling stories of service that honor veterans and remind people what makes America a country worth protecting. armyfieldband.com
Colonel Jim Keene
became the Commander of The United States Army Field Band in January 2015. Prior to this assignment, he served as Commander of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, New York; Commandant of the Army School of Music at Norfolk, Virginia; and at The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in Washington, DC, the U.S. Army Europe Band and Chorus in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Army Ground Forces Band in Atlanta, Georgia.
COL Keene has led numerous performances for international military and civilian leaders, dignitaries, and heads of state. During his time as Commander of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, he led performances for the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, co-directed the music for A&E’s and the National Park Service’s “A New Birth of Freedom” special for the 150th commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg, and directed a one-hour music special holiday production by the West Point Band aired on Fox News, “A West Point Holiday.” COL Keene led The U.S. Army Chorus in performances at the interments of former Presidents Ronald Reagan in Simi Valley, California, and Gerald R. Ford in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He has performed for seven U.S. presidents, at the 1996 Summer Olympic and Para-Olympic Games in Atlanta, the dedication of the National WWII Memorial, the one-year anniversary of 9/11 at the Pentagon, the “Kennedy Center Honors,” and the Military District of Washington’s production, “Spirit of America.” He has worked with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and Chorus and the National Symphony Orchestra, and has conducted the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. He holds a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of New Mexico.
