A historic figure that I look up to is John Philip Sousa. Sousa in his life accomplished more than any mere composer. Sousa pretty much defined the march style music with his well-known pieces such as Stars and Stripes Forever, The Washington Post, and Semper Fidelis. Not only did Sousa compose some of the genre defining pieces that he did, he conducted his pieces with the United States Marine Corps Band. There are not many composers who get to perform their own works, let alone here them. Sousa was the leader of the band of the USMC for a few years, and after leaving he started his own group, the Sousa Band. He performed with his groups different than how the music was written. The purpose of this was to keep other groups from playing it exactly
