Seventy-First Regiment Band Concert

"The new band of the Seventy-first Regiment, formed and conducted by Mr. D. L. DOWNING, gave its first concert last evening. It is well balanced, and numbers among its players some of the best instrumentalists in the City. This fact was fully demonstrated in BEETHOVEN’S ‘Leonore’ overture, which was superbly rendered, as indeed, were the other features of the programme. The regiment may be congratulated on having so fine a band. The vocalists were Mme. VARIAN-HOFFMANN and Mr. J. R. THOMAS, both of whom are too well known to need further mention at our hands. The hall was completely crowded.”

“The Seventy-first regiment concert took place at Steinway Hall last evening. Mme. Varian Hoffman sang for the first time in this hall, and fully sustained the high reputation she has always enjoyed in the concert room. The scena and aria from Traviata, in which she first appeared, was rewarded with an encore, which she responded to with ‘Five o’Clock in the Morning.’ She is an artist in every sense of the word, and deserved the commendations that the audience liberally bestowed on her. Mr. J. R. Thomas sang one of his own songs, ‘Sweet be Thy Repose,’ in his own artistic style. The band was excellent, and played the orchestral selections in excellent style.”