It’s not Woodstock, but an upcoming event at The Music Hall also celebrates peace with a big concert. Guests this weekend will commemorate the historic signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty with an evening of music fit for presidents. The Music Hall will host the second annual Portsmouth Peace Treaty Commemorative Concert on Saturday, May 17. The Seacoast Wind Ensemble will be on hand to perform a musical program titled “Peace & The Presidency: Music for George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.”

The concert memorializes the end of the Russo-Japanese War 103 years ago. It was in 1905 that diplomats from Japan and Russia met at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as guests of President Theodore Roosevelt to negotiate the end of the war. The meetings led to a new era of diplomacy between the warring nations and the United States, and Roosevelt later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the negotiations.
T

he program on Saturday will include a performance of American composer Aaron Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait,” with narration by Phillip’s Exeter Academy chaplain Rev. Robert Thompson, whose powerful voice will reverberate through the domed theater. The program is organized and conducted by SWE music director Richard Spicer.

Founded in 1984, the Seacoast Wind Ensemble consists of more than 60 volunteer members from 15 Seacoast communities, playing a variety of wind instruments that includes bassoon, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, flute, saxophone, French horn, piccolo, oboe, tuba, euphonium, harp and percussion. 

The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum is sponsoring the event with support from the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire. The annual Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum is held each December in honor of Roosevelt’s Nobel Prize. For more information about the treaty and other annual events, visit www.portsmouthpeacetreaty.org. 

The concert at The Music Hall will run from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 17. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $5 for s