The romantic strains of Johannes Brahms and...

The romantic strains of Johannes Brahms and the patriotic pulse of John Philip Sousa will serenade the South Bay on Sunday when the Peninsula Symphony and the Palos Verdes Symphonic Band appear in separate performances on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The Palos Verdes Symphonic Band, celebrating its 30th season, will present a special Presidents’ Day program at 2 p.m. in Frances Young Hall at the South Coast Botanic Gardens. The 40-minute program of music, poetry and selected readings will feature guest narrator Paul Conrad, editorial cartoonist for The Los Angeles Times.

In a special tribute to presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Conrad will recite Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain, My Captain” and excerpts from a book of President Harry S. Truman’s personal writings.

The readings were selected “to honor what Washington did to put the country together and what Lincoln did to hold it together,” said Richard Schwalbe, the band’s director/conductor.

The Riviera United Methodist Church Choir, conducted by David Wilson, will perform with the band in a program that includes music from the Revolutionary and Civil War periods. The choir will present Irving Berlin’s “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor” a capella and will join the band for the concert’s moving finale, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

A brass sextet performing a medley of Revolutionary War marches will also be featured.

“If you have a good appetite for wonderful American music, you’ll get your fill of it,” band spokesman James Davison said of the event.

Admission to the gardens, including the concert, is $3 for adults, $1.50 for seniors and students and 75 cents for children 5 to 12. There will be no charge for children younger than 5. Information: (310) 544-1948.

The Peninsula Symphony, led by director-conductor Joseph A. Valenti, will present the second concert of its 26th season at 7 p.m. Sunday at Rolling Hills Covenant Church Auditorium, 2222 Palos Verdes Drive North, Rolling Hills Estates.

The program will feature Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, “Masquerade Suite” by Khatchaturian and Rossini’s Overture to “The Barber of Seville.”

Conrad Wedberg, a composer and former dean of admissions at USC, will give a preconcert lecture on the featured composers and their music. General admission to the lecture is $10, $5 for members of the Peninsula Symphony Assn. Concert admission is free. Information: (310) 544-0320.