The Maine POPS Concert Band will perform its 2025 spring concert on Wednesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center located at 471 Stroudwater Street in Westbrook, ME. The suggested donation to attend is $15 per person, with students granted free admission.
The Maine POPS – under the direction of David Watts – has been working on spring performance material since January 7th. The Spring Concert on April 29th will be the final formal concert of the band’s 2025-2026 season and will kick off preparations for the band’s annual 2026 summer concert series tentatively slated to start June 27.
Highlighting the concert is a performance of “Give Us This Day,” an exceptional short symphony in two movements for band by noted contemporary composer David Maslanka. In addition, the Maine POPS will perform a variety of compositions ranging from contemporary classics, movie soundtracks, concert marches, and traditional favorites.
To Watts, the performance of “Give Us This Day” is a milestone in the band’s musical growth over the past three years. Last performed in Maine in 2015 by the Maine All-State Concert Band, Watts sees the Maslanka piece as another step in taking the band to higher levels of music excellence.
“For our 25-26 season, I chose to explore a theme of Who We Are, The Music That Shaped Us,” said Watts. “The repertoire I’ve chosen for our spring concert continues this exploration. In addition to movie and Broadway themes, this concert pushes us into standard wind ensemble works of the 20th and 21st centuries performed by top college, international, and military ensembles.”
Watts added that composers such as Henry Filmore, Frank Ticheli, Ralph Vaughn Williams and David Maslanka are front and center on this performance. “These composers are studied by musicians every season, every year, around the world. Their music not only inspires musicians to grow but gives audiences exposure to music written specially for our genre, the wind band. They are not arrangements of music written for jazz band, pop singers, or movie soundtracks. They are pieces written just for us. “
Based in Scarborough, Maine, the Maine Pops Concert Band has been an active concert band in Southern Maine since its founding in 1988. Reduced in numbers due to the 2020-2021 Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the band has significantly rebounded in membership, now boasting over 100 active members, ranging from high school students to retirees. Its growth isn’t only in numbers, but also in its level of music proficiency; a level that allows Watts to select the challenging music the band members perform.
For more information about the April 29 concert performance, please contact Gretchen Ascher, at (248) 697-7552 or ascherg100@gmail.com, or Steve Barrett at (410) 279-0987 or stevebarrett@verizon.net.
For more information about scheduling, joining, contributing, or sponsoring the Maine Pops Concert Band, please visit http://www.mainepops.org.
The Maine Pops Concert Band is an educational 501(c)3 non-profit corporation with a mission of building community through music. Contributions may be tax-deductible.
