The band performs a broad range of music, including ceremonial ruffles and flourishes, classical, rock, jazz, and country.

The multiple ensembles help meet the public demand for different types of music and the needs of Navy recruiting.

Additionally, the Ceremonial Band performs at command changes, retirements, patriotic openers, wreath-layings, and arrivals.

In 1956, Lt. Harold Fultz, then the band's assistant leader, organized a Navy School of Music group to sing chanteys and patriotic songs for the State of the Nation dinner.

Next came trumpeters, drummers, and fifers who were carried on the early frigates to sound calls, give general orders, and perform at funerals and other ceremonies.

Other band units afloat and ashore played a significant role in promoting sailors' and civilians' morale.

The new unit became known as the "Washington Navy Yard Band" and was given rehearsal space near the power plant's coal pile.

The increasing tempo of the band's duties led the bandmaster to seek more suitable quarters in the yard's "Sail Loft", and sailmakers were soon cutting and stitching their canvas to the rhythms of the music.

In 1923, a 35-man contingent from the Navy Yard Band accompanied President Warren G. Harding on his trip to the Alaska Territory.

[3] Held on a special stage located on the east side of the Capitol, the daily and weekly concerts ran without interruption from the 1930s until the early 1970s.

[2] From 1929 to 1939, the United States Navy Band took to the airwaves with Arthur Godfrey on NBC's "Hour of Memories" radio program.

The United States Navy Band has performed at the following ceremonies and events: This article incorporates public domain text from a U.S. federal government website.