After Gary Sinise’s 33-year-old son died of a rare spinal cancer on Jan. 5, 2024, the actor, best known for his role as Lt. Dan Taylor in the 1994 “Forrest Gump,” went looking for ways to stay connected to McCanna “Mac” Anthony Sinise.
He went through his son’s laptop, phone, tablet and papers. The grieving father found a treasure trove of music Mac had never shared with him. There was sheet music, audio demos and melodies he sang into his phone.
The Bangor Symphony Orchestra will perform some of that music at 7 p.m. Saturday and at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Collins Center for the Arts in Orono. The concert will include Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band, which has performed in all 50 states and more than 600 times for troops around the globe.
Sinise said in a pre-concert interview with Lucas Richman, the conductor and music director for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and Executive Director Renia Shterenberg that discovering his son’s music was “a blessing.”
“Often, I think that parents who have lost children may not have that discovery, I have had that blessing,” Sinise said. “It has been so helpful to me [in the grieving process].”
In 2023, Mac recorded an album of his music titled “Resurrection & Revival.” Last year, his father gathered the music he’d found in 2024 in a second album. But Sinise kept finding compositions Mac had written and, earlier this year, recorded a third album.
Richman saw Sinise and his band perform Mac’s music in August in Milwaukee. Richman wanted to bring that music to Maine but felt he needed a personal connection to Sinise to quickly schedule a concert with the Bangor Symphony. It turned out that he had one. Richman’s brother-in-law is a first cousin to Danny Gottlieb, the Lt. Dan Band’s longtime drummer.
“As a father, I was incredibly touched by Mac’s journey and Gary’s dedication to bringing the treasure trove of his son’s music to light,” Richman said in announcing the concert. “It will be such a great honor to have Gary here with the BSO playing his son’s music, as well as paying tribute to the generations of veterans who are the focal point of the work being done by the Gary Sinise Foundation.”
Sinise started the foundation in 2011 to uplift America’s defenders and their families. Its mission statement says: “We serve our nation by honoring our defenders, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need. We do this by creating and supporting unique programs designed to entertain, educate, inspire, strengthen and build communities.”
This weekend’s concert will be presented in conjunction with Sinise’s upcoming book “Graceful Warrior,” which honors Mac and his own family’s journey of healing. It will officially be released on Nov. 10, on what would have been Mac’s 36th birthday and the day before Veterans Day.
In addition to Mac’s music, the program will include Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Richman’s “A Western Fanfare” and Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait,” narrated by Sinise. The second half of the concert will feature the Lt. Dan Band playing for the first time with a symphony orchestra.
Richman said the last time he conducted “A Lincoln Portrait” with the Bangor symphony was in October 2010, his first concert conducting. His actor father, Peter Mark Richman, narrated. The elder Richman died in January 2014.
“I have some big shoes to fill,” Sinise told Richman in the pre-concert interview.
A special book signing event with Gary Sinise will be held before each concert. For more information, visit bangorsymphony.org or call the Collins Center box office at 207-581-2787.