Akron library concert to feature music of Summit Beach Park
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Summit Beach is gone forever, but we still have the memories and the music.
Joseph Rubin and His Orchestra will present a tribute to Akron's lost amusement park during a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 13, in the downtown auditorium of the Main Library at 60 S. High St.
“Sentimental Journey: Musical Memories of Summit Beach Park” will offer some of the big band sounds of the summer resort that operated from 1917 to 1958. The world's greatest bands, including Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw, performed at the Wisteria Ballroom during its heyday.
Rubin, a Canton native, is the founder and director of American Musical Productions, a nonprofit group that specializes in re-creating U.S. music from 1890 to 1949 in a historically accurate manner. The 16-piece orchestra features vocalist Heidi Swinford.
The concert will feature the arrangements of Portsmouth band leader Clyde McCoy, who performed four times at Summit Beach Park from 1937 to 1946 and made nine other appearances at local venues, including the Akron Palace Theatre.
The Akron audience can expect to hear such classics as “Stompin' At The Savoy,” “When You're Smiling,” “Stardust,” “Opus No. 1,” “Sentimental Journey,” “Begin the Beguine” and more.
Doors open at 7 p.m. The concert is scheduled for 7:30 and will run two hours with a 15-minute intermission. Registration is not required. Parking is free after 6 p.m. in the High and Market parking deck next to the Main Library.
For more information, visit https://www.akronlibrary.org or call 330-643-9030.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Musical memories of Summit Beach
