Author: Steve Barrett

Steve Barrett is a retired government public affairs official with 43 years of experience (23 military, 20 with Federal Government). Married since 1987. Twin daughters are high school language teachers. Hobbies include music photography as a USBands marching band competition photographer (2012-present), high school band/chorus/theater photography in Maryland from 2002-2017 and 2018-present in Maine, playing trumpet and flugelhorn, reading and Scrabble. Played trumpet/flugelhorn recreationally with the Anne Arundel Community College community jazz band from 2007-2017. Now performs recreationally with the Maine Pops Concert Band and is an elected member of the band's board of directors. Holds a Master of Arts Degree in Communication from the University of Oklahoma and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland University College. Barrett is originally from Montour Falls, NY.

Maine Pops Concert Band to Perform Three Concerts in the Portland Area this Fall

Making its return to the performance stage for the first time since December 2019, the Maine Pops Concert Band has scheduled three public performances in the greater Portland area between November 21 and December 15.

"What better way to return to live performances than with a celebration of American music and resiliency!," said David Watts, Director of the Maine Pops."From jazz to pop to rock to movie soundtracks to Broadway with a march thrown in for good measure. I am proud of the Maine POPS organization and the community it has created and kept active throughout the pandemic. This concert has a simple dedication. In the words of the great composer and conductor Henry Fillmore, we are titling this concert Americans We, dedicated "To All of Us."

The first of these performances will be the band’s annual fall concert, slated for November 21 at St. Luke’s Cathedral at 143 State Street in Portland, beginning at 2:30 p.m. Under the direction of David Watts, the 60-member community concert band will perform eight compositions, including John Williams’ “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Eric Whitacre’s “Sleep,” a medley of hits from Benny Goodman, Bruno Mars, and the musical “Chicago,” and Toto’s “Africa.”

“The pandemic has been hard on wind players, first shutting down rehearsals and performances completely, and then requiring extra care to reduce the chance of spreading Covid-19,” said Bob Swerdlow, President of the Maine Pops. “Nonetheless, we are very excited to be returning to the stage and sharing our talents, even if it requires vaccination and other steps to keep everyone safe. This is a strong and caring community, and we could not be more proud to be playing together again.”

Admission to this concert is free to the public, but the band will accept donations to help with expenses, part of its recovery efforts following a 17-month in-person layoff due to the coronavirus pandemic. In compliance with St Luke’s health and safety requirements, the church will require concert attendees to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and patrons will be asked to mask while inside St. Luke’s for the performance.

The Maine Pops will also perform two holiday benefit concerts in December. The band returns to St. Luke’s on Saturday, December 4 at 2:30 p.m. to perform, with attendance donations going to support St. Luke’s school in Duny, Haiti. It concludes its fall performance schedule on December 15, beginning 7:30 p.m. at the Mountainside Community Church, located at 18 Mountain Road in Falmouth. The Mountainside donations will use donations to purchase clothing and food, supplementing the church’s weekly donations to the homeless in Portland.

Established in 1988, the Maine Pops Concert Band is a non-profit community group that encourages musicians of all ages and abilities – from school age to senior citizens – to foster a life-long love of music, music history, performance, and heritage. The Maine Pops performed music during the pandemic, recording and releasing a virtual holiday concert in December of 2020. The band followed that concert with a series of recorded video compositions from February to June 2021. The band resumed in-person, outdoor rehearsals in July.

For more information about joining, contributing, or sponsoring the Maine Pops Concert Band, please visit www.mainepops.org.

Maine Pops Looking to Increase its Members, Gain Volunteers for Positions

Now that the Maine Pops Concert Band has resumed fall rehearsals, the band is now conducting a pair of initiatives that it hopes not only to increase and diversify band membership, but also solicit musicians to fill volunteer positions needed to conduct the band’s outreach and administrative business for the 2021-2022 season.

The annual membership campaign started in late August, soliciting members on the band’s 2019-2020 roster to rejoin for the year. In the three weeks since registrations opened, the Maine Pops has registered over 50 members for the season and is looking to not only bring back current members, but also add new faces to mix.

“We know that many of our members are in a wait-and-see mode right now, based on COVID-19 precautions and our reacquiring a permanent rehearsal venue,” said band president Bob Swerdlow. “We’re doing everything we can to keep our members safe and healthy, and we are working with the schools and with other potential locations so that we can have an indoor facility before the weather gets cold.”

Currently, the band is conducting outdoor rehearsals every Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 p.m. at Falmouth Village Park. In the event of inclement weather, the band moves to a back-up indoor venue where musicians are socially distanced and rehearsal breaks are slated.

Swerdlow added that the band has lost musicians over the year to resignations, retirements and moves to other parts of the state and the country. When you combined those losses with the general age of many Maine Pops musicians, the board is increasing its efforts to diversify membership and recruit new members from the local communities.

“We’re open to any musician wanting to play in a concert band,” said Swerdlow. This includes recent high school and college graduates, and those who have recently moved to Maine and reside in the Greater Portland metro area. “Applicants don’t have to worry about passing an audition with the Maine Pops; we’re looking for people who can read music and want to play and contribute their talent to our efforts.”

To attract some younger musicians, Maine Pops Director David Watts has chosen a variety of compositions for the band’s fall concert series that might appeal to them. Selected music for the fall includes “Africa” by Toto; a medley of Bruno Mars hits, selections from the musical “Chicago,” and Symphonic Suite from “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Watts has also selected a Benny Goodman medley, a traditional march, a hymn, and an Eric Whitacre composition for the fall.

Membership registration for the 2021-2022 season can be done online at: https://forms.gle/3T2UBzF6zje3uckUA. A link to the registration form is also available to the weekly “Maine Pops Tribune.” Membership is $40 a year, payable this season in $20 installments for fall and spring segments. Details on submitting dues are included in the registration.

Volunteers Needed

While the band prepares for a tentative set of fall concerts in November and December, the band’s board of directors is asking members to look at possibly volunteering for some of the positions and committees that keep the Maine Pops operating administratively and historically.

At the first rehearsal of the fall season held September 8 in Falmouth, Swerdlow emphasized that the band is looking for musicians to fill volunteer roles important to the band’s continued success. These roles help the board and the band plan for events, conduct outreach to our community, record the organizations history, finance projects, recruit new members, and a variety of other functions. All the band’s volunteer needs are listed in Appendix C of the Maine Pops Concert Band Operating Procedure Manual (OPM).

Swerdlow mentioned needing volunteers for a variety of positions. These roles include concert ticket coordinator, personnel manager, newsletter editor, health and welfare coordinator, scholarships, uniform manager, sponsorship coordinator, program advertising, and donation coordinator. Please check the band’s OPM to look for a position you’d like to perform.

In addition, the band is looking for a music librarian, who would be responsible for maintaining the Maine Pops’ large library of musical selections. The librarian works with the band director and section leaders to acquire, register, distribute and collect sheet music used for each of the band’s performance seasons. The librarian would also coordinate with the director and staff on music to purge from library if no longer needed and assists in digitizing sheet music into PDFs for upload to the band’s digital web-based library.

There are also committees that members can join and contribute their talents and expertise. The Pops Board formed many of these committees during the 2020-2021 COVID campaign and they remain in place for the new season. These committees include pandemic safety, communications and technology, archives, marketing, finance, concert and rehearsal venue, membership, and operational procedures. Swerdlow is asking members to consider participating in at least one committee.

If you are interested in volunteering for a specific position or in joining a Maine Pops Concert Band committee, please contact Bob Swerdlow at president@mainepops.org.

Maine Pops Concert Band Returns to In-Person Rehearsals

The Maine Pops Concert Band is back!!!

After 16 months of Zoom calls, newsletter updates, muted online rehearsals, and a slew of virtual music performances, the Maine Pops Concert Band reunited for a 90-minute rehearsal session inside the Mason-Motz gymnasium in Falmouth on July 8.

Nearly 40 members of the band used the spacious surrounding of the gym floor to go over a series compositions under the direction of an elated David Watts. Band members saw a few new faces, as well as some musicians who have returned to the MPCB following an extended absence. Still, most attending were musicians who were with Maine Pops when COVID-19 brought the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 season to an abrupt end.

Watts indicated tonight that the weekly summer rehearsals – slated primarily for the Falmouth Village Park – will be treated more like a weekly performance more than standard rehearsal. He said the main focus is for musicians to get back together, rebuild endurance, and get used to playing together as an ensemble.

The 40 members who appeared tonight are hopefully the start of our gradual return to full strength. There is hope that many of our musicians start returning as the summer proceeds, but we also need to recruit musicians to fill our instrumentation needs. Some have indicated that will not be returning, and some have moved out of the greater Portland area. Band president Bob Swerdlow encouraged band members to look for potential members that can contribute to the band’s efforts as they prepare for the fall season.

The band’s next rehearsal is slated for July 15 at Falmouth Village Park, beginning at 6 p.m.

Maine Pops’ Return to In-Person Rehearsals Postponed One Week Due to Weather

The return of live rehearsals for the Maine Pops Concert Band must wait an additional week.

The July 1 rehearsal of the Maine Pops Concert Band – slated from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Falmouth Village Park – has been cancelled due to weather. The National Weather Service has called for for thunderstorms in the Portland metropolitan area during the band’s scheduled rehearsal time, so band leadership decided to cancel this evening’s session.

The band’s next scheduled rehearsal will be Thursday, July 8, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Falmouth Village Park.

Maine Pops Concludes Virtual Season with Release of a Massed-Band Performance of “New Colonial March.”

In honor of the annual Maine state tribute to native born march composer Robert Browne Hall, the Maine Pops Concert Band – combining with members of 31 community bands in five states – today released their final virtual performance of the 2020-2021 season – the composer’s New Colonial March.

Maine Pops Concert Band David Watts placed a tremendous amount of importance to this final selection and the inclusion of other Maine musicians in finding a way to celebrate R.B. Hall day – traditionally held annually on the last Saturday in June. "R.B. Hall Day has become a tradition that unites bands from across the state of Maine to honor’ our’ composer, said Watts. "In 2020, this celebration had to be cancelled. But this year, thanks to the willingness of musicians across the state and from around the country, we have kept alive the massed band tradition."

"We decided we could not go another year without honoring who we believe to be the greatest composer of marches the United States has produced, Robert Browne Hall," he said. "This Maine native is widely recognized throughout the world for his band music but is eclipsed in his own country simply because he rarely left his home state and was not covered by the press."

Calls for volunteer musicians from the many Maine Community Bands went out in early May, asking for video contributions to the R.B. Hall effort. Members of the MPCB technology team of Watts, Bob Swerdlow, Linda Hornig, and Ken Decoteau went to work on June 7 to produce the video and mix the sound tracks from over 40 musicians; some submitting multiple clips for different parts and for assorted instruments.

It has been a trying year for the not only the Maine Pops, but for all the community-based and school-based bands in Maine. "When the pandemic started we knew we had to shut down live events for the Band immediately," said Maine Pops President Bob Swerdlow. "We could not risk having a group of people of all ages blowing into horns in close proximity. However, Swerdlow said the band’s mission has always been about building community through music, and "we wanted to support our members through these difficult times."

Swerdlow said the band started with weekly Zoom get-togethers just to keep in touch. That grew into some creative thinking about how to focus on music again. "When our virtual holiday concert raised over $1500 for local food pantries in December 2020, we knew we were on to something! We learned some new computer skills and helped keep our members playing."

The Maine Pops successfully completed a virtual holiday concert in December of 2020, and released a monthly series of virtual band videos through the winter and spring of 2021. In completing this final virtual composition, Watts expressed tremendous pride in what the Maine Pops has accomplished during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown; accomplishments he hopes to build on as the Maine Pops returns to in-person rehearsals in Falmouth on July 1. The nine-week weekly outdoor rehearsal series will be the first Maine Pops rehearsals since March of 2020.

"I am very proud of and also humbled by the response we’ve had over the past year from our Maine POPS and wider band communities in providing music during the pandemic’s complete shutdown of live performances," Watts said. "It has shown me that, as in past times of upheaval, music pulls people together and provides both inspiration and comfort.

Swerdlow echoed Watts’ sentiments for the 2020-2021 season and looks forward to the new season. "We are so pleased that the pandemic is easing and that we will be meeting every week over the summer for in-person, outdoor rehearsals," said Swerdlow, adding that the summer sessions will lead the band back to our normal Wednesday night rehearsals in the fall. "As for so many others, this will be a rebuilding time, but we look forward to the challenge and to seeing so many of our friends face-to-face again! Thank you to our director, David Watts, our Board, the members of the Maine Pops and all of the amazing musicians from near and far who supported our efforts."

"To everyone in the Maine POPS family, thank you for keeping our community together over the past year and for going on this journey of exploration, trial, and error," said Watts. "To all of the musicians who have joined us over the past months from near and far to rehearse and create music for public enjoyment, you always have a home with us. As we now move back to in-person rehearsals and performances, to everyone who has allowed me into your homes as a director from afar, I thank you."

A listing of all musicians who contributed to the New Colonial March, their instruments, and their community bands are listed in the video credits.

[yourchannel user=”Maine Pops Concert Band” video=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Gd8VICwwg”]

Maine Pops Concert Band to Resume In-Person Rehearsals July 1

After 16 months of suspended rehearsals and performances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Maine Pops Concert Band will resume in-person rehearsals on July 1, 2021.

The band has slated weekly rehearsals every Thursday evening in July and August from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Falmouth Village Park in Falmouth, Maine. The sessions are the start of the band’s transition back from a virtual performance mode to a full concert band schedule. The Maine Pops have not rehearsed in person since March 11, 2020.

Maine Pops musicians are highly encouraged to take advantage of this nine-week outdoor period to download music, prepare individual instruments, and "work out the performance kinks" as the band focuses on a return to indoor rehearsals in September.

The band is also looking to recruit musicians from the greater Portland area to join the ensemble. Since the pandemic, many band members have either relocated to other parts of Maine or moved to other states. Those interested in joining the band should visit the band’s website at https://www.mainepops.org/the-band/#howtojoin.

The Maine Pops Concert Band has not been completely idle during the pandemic. Much has been done over the past 10 months to keep the band’s musicians actively performing via virtual means. Members of the spent the spring of 2021 in virtual rehearsal, with about 30 members recording music for five single performance releases between February and June. The band also released a Christmas concert in December of 2020 and conducted weekly online rehearsals to keep musical skills active.

Currently, the Maine Pops is rehearsing nearly 20 selections; compositions that will be rehearsed during nine-week summer session.

Maine Pops Concert Band thanks all members who participated in “Taps Across America”

The Maine Pops Concert Band would like to thank all of its musicians who participated in the 2nd annual "Taps Across America" observance held at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day, May 31.

Taps Across America began last year. With COVID-19 causing a cancellation of nearly all Memorial Day observances in the country, the non-profit organization Taps for Veterans organized a special campaign where musicians – mainly trumpeters and buglers – would sound Taps at 3 p.m. in their local area from front porches, apartment balconies, parking lots, and other locations to honor service members who gave their lives for this nation. This special campaign was done to sound honors, while also protecting our citizens from the spread of this virus.

This year, with some communities still hesitant to conduct public ceremonies, over 5,000 musicians from across the nation – including some of our own MPCB members – joined the solemn observance for a second year.

As the nation gradually reopens, the chances of more traditional Memorial Day parades, ceremonies and observances will likely return. However, the popularity of Taps Across America will likely continue, allowing local neighborhoods around the country to pay their own tribute to America’s fallen service members.

To those Maine Pops musicians who joined the thousands of musicians across Maine and the country, we say thank you for participating and for honoring our fallen service members.

Still Time to Join Maine Pops for a Combined Recording in Observance of R.B. Hall Day

Community band members throughout the state are reminded that they are invited to join the Maine Pops Concert Band for a virtual performance of R.B. Hall’s "The New Colonial March." Invitations were released last week inviting all Maine musicians to join the Maine Pops as part of the 2021 celebration of R.B. Hall Day on June 26.

So far, between 40 and 50 musicians have registered to participate in the virtual performance. Test tracks for the performance are due Sunday, May 23 and final recording submissions are due on Sunday, June 6. The Maine Pops plans to release the joint effort on June 26 in observance of R.B. Hall Day.

For details on joining this effort, please visit https://mainepops.org/maine-pops-to-organize-2021-r-b-hall-virtual-mass-band-performance/

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