John philip sousa short biography

Who was this man who became a musical legend during his own lifetime with such hits as "Stars and Stripes Forever", "The Liberty Bell" (best known as the theme song for Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and "The Washington Post"?

Fittingly, John Philip Sousa was born on Nov.

6, 1854 at 636 G Street, SE, Washington, D.C., near the Marine Barracks where his father, Antonio, played trombone in the U.S. Marine Band. John Philip was the third of 10 children of John Antonio Sousa (born in Spain of Portuguese parents) and Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus (born in Bavaria).

Young John Philip grew up surrounded by military band music, and when he was just six, he began studying voice, violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone, trombone and alto horn.

By all accounts, John Philip was an adventure-loving boy, and when at the age of 13 he tried to run away to join a circus band, his father instead enlisted him in the Marine Band as a band apprentice.

Except for a period of six months, Sousa