Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition under John Esputa and George Felix Benkert.

Upon the United States joining World War I, Sousa was awarded a wartime commission of lieutenant to lead the Naval Reserve Band in Illinois.

[7] Esputa shared his father's bad temper, and the relationship between teacher and pupil was often strained, but Sousa progressed very rapidly and was also found to have perfect pitch.

[12][13] In July 1892, Sousa requested a discharge from the Marine Corps to pursue a financially promising civilian career as a band leader.

[14] He conducted a farewell concert at the White House on July 30, 1892, and was discharged from the Marine Corps the next day.

In the early 1920s, Sousa was promoted to lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve but did not return to active duty.

On March 6, 1932, he died of heart failure at age 77 in his room at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Sousa had conducted a rehearsal of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" the day before with the Ringgold Band as its guest conductor.

His house Wildbank has been designated as a National Historic Landmark, although it remains a private home and is not open to the public.

He also received the Royal Victorian Medal from King Edward VII of the United Kingdom in December 1901 for conducting a private birthday concert for Queen Alexandra.

[32] In 1952, 20th Century Fox honored Sousa in their Technicolor feature film Stars and Stripes Forever with Clifton Webb portraying him.

[33] In 1987, an act of Congress named "The Stars and Stripes Forever" as the national march of the United States.

[5] Sousa was a member of the Sons of the Revolution, Military Order of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Freemasons, and the Society of Artists and Composers.

He was also a member of the Salmagundi, Players, Musicians, New York Athletic, Lambs, Army and Navy and the Gridiron clubs of Washington.

Sousa wrote over 130 marches, 15 operettas, 5 overtures, 11 suites, 24 dances, 28 fantasies, and countless arrangements of nineteenth-century western European symphonic works.

Sousa also composed the music for six operettas that were either unfinished or not produced: The Devils' Deputy, Florine, The Irish Dragoon, Katherine, The Victory, and The Wolf.

[52] In addition, Sousa wrote a march based on themes from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado, the elegant overture Our Flirtations, several musical suites, etc.

The violinist wins the love of the woman he desires, but out of jealous suspicion, she commands him to play the death string, which he does.

[57] Sousa published Pipetown Sandy in 1905, which includes a satirical poem titled "The Feast of the Monkeys".

[60] The marching brass bass or sousaphone is a modified helicon created in 1893 by Philadelphia instrument maker J. W. Pepper at Sousa's request, using several of his suggestions in its design.

He argued to a congressional hearing in 1906: These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country.

The non-profit organization, founded in 1981, recognizes one superior student in marching band for "musicianship, dependability, loyalty, and cooperation.