The summer season has closed for the Maine Pops Concert Band, concluding a seven-concert summer with performances August 13 at the Cape Elizabeth Town Green and at the annual Scarborough Summerfest event August 15.
Under the direction of David Watts, the band held five public and two private performances in 2025, playing material from the band’s fall 2024 and spring 2025 concerts as well as a couple of extra patriotic favorites. In all cases, the band drew enthusiastic support from many bringing lawn chairs, blankets, and picnic dinners to listen to the variety of concert band music. In the case of Scarborough Summerfest, the audience included hundreds of food truck patrons gathering meals while the band performed its program from a nearby festival tent.
“Our final performance was AMAZING!,” said Watts after the season-ending Scarborough performance. “When people holler and stand up after performances, you know you’ve made a connection. When you pull people in who just happened to be passing by, you know you’ve made a connection. When you see teenagers start dancing and singing along with your performance, you know you’ve made a connection. And that’s what we did in our final performance of the season.”
In addition to the shows in Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough, the band held public concerts in St. David’s Episcopal Church in Kennebunk (June 25), Portland’s Heseltine Park (July 16), and the Bath Library Gazebo (August 1). They also had private engagements for Scarborough’s Ketcha Outdoors (July 2) and for the residents of Portland’s 100 State Street senior housing center (August 6).
Music for the summer season included the following works:
• The Star-Spangled Banner,
• Eighties Flashback
• Light Cavalry Overture
• The Rakes of Mallow
• Seventy-Six Trombones
• Summer of ‘69
• An American in Paris
• Fuego del Alma
• Finlandia
• Galop
• (Back Home in) Indiana
• The Pathfinder of Panama
• Star Trek Symphonic Suite
• Three Celtic Dances
• Travellin’ Music
• The Stars and Stripes Forever
The Maine Pops is now on a three-week break. The band will resume rehearsals on Wednesday, September 3 at 7 p.m. inside the Scarborough High School band room from 7 to 9 p.m. The annual Maine Pops fall concert is slated for Sunday, November 2 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center in Westbrook, Maine.
