“Music of War and Peace” - a collection of musical selections that include patriotic compositions, a rock and roll medley, a variety of symphonic movie soundtracks, and historic and current classical works – is the theme of the Maine Pops Concert Band’s 2024 spring concert. The performance is slated for Saturday, April 27, at 2:30 p.m. inside Scarborough High School’s Winslow Home Center for the Arts in Scarborough, ME.
The Scarborough-based concert band has spent the last four months revisiting material originally slated for performance in April of 2020. The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 cancelled all musical performances and sent the Maine Pops into inactive status for over a year. After a three-year effort of rebuilding its ranks and instrumentation, Maine Pops Director David Watts felt the band – now with nearly 100 musicians – was ready to return to some of the challenging compositions originally slated for the 2020 concert.
“I’ve chosen a program full of challenges, drama, moments of deep reflection, and great uplifting, “said Watts of the musical program. He said there are compositions from the original 2020 agenda, but he’s also inserted a few new works into the line-up to provide some balance and some fun to the performance. “The group is focused and playing their hearts out,” said Watts, and he hopes the greater Portland area community will attend.
Music for the 90-minute concert will feature work from a variety of composers which include Brian Balmages, Eric Coates, Ron Goodwin, Richard Rodgers, Peter Tchaikovsky, and Peter Wilhousky. Auditorium doors open at 2 p.m. and the band is asking for a donation of $15 per adult to attend. Students are exempt from donations, as the band continues to promote “Music in Our Schools” and encourage enrollment in school music programs.
The Maine Pops Concert Band spring concert serves as a kickoff to the band’s summer performance season. Once this concert concludes, the band will start preparations for a series of public and private summer performances in the greater Portland area from June to August. These performances include the band’s participation in the annual Robert Browne Hall Day Festival, slated this year for June 29 in Bridgton, Maine. Hall - a Maine music composer of march music - is honored annually on the last Saturday in June with a day of music from community concert bands throughout the state.
More details on the summer performance schedule will be released soon. concert date approaches. Please visit our website at www.mainepops.org and our social media pages for information about the band and its upcoming performances.
The Maine Pops Concert Band is a 501(c)3 educational non-profit corporation. Contributors can donate to the band through the link below, and contributions may be tax-deductible.
