After 13 years directing the Southeast Alabama Community Band, Dr. Johnny Long is passing the conductor’s baton to James Smith.

That will happen officially when Smith leads the Southeast Alabama Community Band in concert at 7 p.m. Monday night at the Claudia Crosby Theatre on the campus of Troy University.

Smith is a professor in the Troy University John M. Long School of Music. He has served as associate conductor and principal trombonist of the community band.

Long, who founded the Southeast Alabama Community Band, said that, with Smith as conductor, the band “will be better than ever.”

“The band will do its best to make Dr. Long proud and to continue the great community band tradition,” Smith said, who is a founding member of the Southeast Alabama Community Band.

The concert program will include “The Roman Carnival Overture,” “Hymn Medley,” featuring Raymond Smith, Troy University professor of music, and “The Music Man,” spotlighting Doc Kirby, radio host and university professor of journalism.

Dr. Mark Walker, Troy University director of bands, will conduct John Philip Sousa’s march “Fairest of the Fair.”

Long will lead the community band in performing the National March, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Long was the leader in the efforts to have “The Stars and Stripes Forever” declared the National March of the United States of America. By an act of Congress, Sousa’s famous march was declared the National March in 1987.

Smith will conclude the concert with “My Home’s in Alabama.”

The Southeast Alabama Community Band Concert is free and open to the public.

Members of the community band include local musicians as well as those from across the southeastern portion of the state.