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Eastern’s Wind Symphony and Concert Band will have their Veteran’s Day concert at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Dvorak Concert Hall in the Doudna Fine Arts Center. The concert is titled “Call Of Duty: A Veteran’s Day,” and will feature a variety of music to paying tribute to military veterans, all of those who have served and who are currently serving.

Daniel Crews, the director of Patron Services, said the reason Doudna is having their Veteran’s Day concert almost a week in advance is because of scheduling issues.

“The reason we are having the concert nearly a week prior to Veteran’s Day is primarily due to scheduling and the availability of the venue,” Crews said. “As you can imagine scheduling the facilities and venues at the Doudna can be very challenging.”

Crews said with the number of the different performing groups at Doudna, scheduling a time for each of the groups to have their opportunities to perform can be quite challenging.

“As you can imagine scheduling the facilities and venues at the Doudna can be a very challenging. With the number of ensembles that perform regularly as well as the student musicians and the faculty conductors, not to mention those students and staff involved on the production side, it can be like putting a giant puzzle together,” Crews said. “The schedule is planned out nearly a year in advance of the actual date of the performance, so while the concert isn’t occurring exactly on Veterans Day, it is in November and we tried to get as close to the actual date.”

Crews said the concert is usually quite attended and Doudna has sold out tickets in the past.

“From memory we have been scheduling the Call of Duty concert for nearly 10 years,” Crews said. “It began when Dr. Milt Allen was director of bands.”

The performance will feature songs such as Julie Giroux’s “Fort McHenry Suite,” the “Star-Spangled Banner,” Paul Murtha’s “Arlington” and later on during the performance, there will an Armed Forces Salute, featuring songs from each branch of the military, and veterans will be asked to stand when their song is being played.

“These tunes and songs are extremely important to the veterans. Every one who has served feel their branch of the service is the best and everyone who has been in the military has a close association with the military march of their branch of service,” Crews said. “I have seen this song performed by various different events by a variety of different ensembles and when it’s performed it never fails to be one of the highlights of the concert. It’s very patriotic and somewhat emotional.”

Tickets for the show are $12 for general admission, $10 for seniors, $5 for students, and veterans will receive free admission.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu