Due to the arrival of potentially hazardous thunderstorms entering the Portland area this evening, the scheduled Maine Pops Concert Band July 17 performance at 7 p.m. in Portland’s Heseltine Park has been cancelled.
The band regrets not being able to perform tonight in the Woodfords Corner community park for its residents and the Portland community. However, safety of the residents and the members of band is most important. The band thanks you for understanding.
No date for a potential rescheduled performance has been set at this time.
It was called "Pops and Popsicles"- the first of the Maine Pops Concert Band’s private concerts held July 3 at Ketcha Outdoors in Scarborough.
The band performed a series of music from both its 2023 Fall Concert and its 2024 Spring Concert before a private audience of Ketcha Outdoors parents and children enrolled in Ketcha’s summer programs. In performing at Ketcha, tonight’s 70-member band also provided thanks to the staff for their year-round support as one of the band’s back-up rehearsal sites.
Music performed at Ketcha Outdoors included:
Star Spangled Banner
Where Eagles Dare
Shipping up to Boston
Just A Closer Walk With Thee
Motown Portrait
The Rolling Stones On Tour
The Year 1812, Solemn Overture, Op. 49
Dam Busters March
Stars & Stripes Forever
The Maine Pops is conducting a private performance on Wednesday, July 10. It’s next public concert will be Wednesday, July 17 at 7 p.m. in Portland’s Heseltine Park.
The Maine Pops Concert held elections for half of its board of directors during the band’s end-of-season general membership meeting. The band conducted elections in conjunction with the band’s June 12 rehearsal at Scarborough High School.
Board members serve for two years and lead a variety of committees that support the band’s administrative, logical, financial, and outreach efforts. As a means of maintaining continuity with the board, the band staggers its band board terms so that half of the board members are up for reelection each year.
Reelected to board officer positions were flautist Lily King as secretary, and bassoonist Christina McCarthy as venue coordinator. McCarthy also has the dual role on the board as the Maine Pops’ past president. Elected as at-large board members are saxophonist Danielle Capozza, flautists Patty Lawson and Nanci Goudey, clarinetist Jane Ross and trombonist Gretchen Ascher.
Both Ross and Ascher at new to the board, replacing percussionist Leslie Oullette and saxophonist Sue Niemoeller.
The terms of board members elected June 12 will expire on June 30, 2026.
The remaining members of the Maine Pops board include clarinetist Robert Swerdlow as president, flautist/percussionist Yvonne Wentz as vice president, and percussionist Laura Merten as treasurer. Also serving as at-large board members are trumpeter Steve Barrett, clarinetists Rick Wacksman, Kara Larochelle, and Kathye Martin, and saxophonist Gary MacWhinnie.
Band director David Watts serves as a non-voting member of the Maine Pops Board.
The fall leaves of November are long gone, winter snow is fast approaching Southern Maine, and the temperatures have dropped to the low teens each evening. Yet for the Maine Pops Concert Band, it’s now time to finally finish its 35th anniversary celebration.
On Sunday, January 21, the Maine Pops will perform its “Bringer of Jollity” concert inside the Falmouth High School auditorium, beginning at 2:30 p.m. The school is located at 74 Woodville Road, in Falmouth, ME.
This concert was originally slated as the band’s November 19 fall performance, but was postponed due to circumstances beyond the band’s control. Having rehearsed the selection of fall music since September, Maine Pops Director David Watts said the band deserves to perform the music it’s worked so hard on the past six months. The concert was rebooked for Falmouth High School and all material slated for the November performance will be played January 21.
In staying with the anniversary theme set at its spring concert last April, Watts selected material that represents past performances by both the Maine Pops and the Italian Heritage Center Band – created in 1988 and forerunner of the current Maine Pops. Compositions will feature a variety of music – ranging from marches to medleys and classical to popular music. Composers of the music selected for the concert include Eric Whitacre, Billy Joel, Jaime Texidor, Morton Gould, Gustav Holst, Alfred Reed, and John Philip Sousa.
Following the January concert in Falmouth, the Maine Pops will resume rehearsals on January 24 at Scarborough High School to prepare for its April 28 spring concert. The April 28 concert will begin at 2:30 p.m. but the location of the spring concert is pending final approval.
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 – serving communities in the greater Portland area – has announced its concert schedule for the 2023 holiday season.
The band will hold its first holiday concert at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 13 at the Mountainside Community Church, located at 18 Mountain Road in Falmouth, ME. The event continues a long tradition of holiday concerts between the Maine Pops and the church and proceeds from the Mountainside performance will go to humanitarian efforts in the Portland region.
Band Pops Conductor David Watts has selected the following music for the Mountainside concert: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
A Fireside Christmas
Bashana Haba ‘ah
Brazilian Sleigh Bells
Lux Aurumque
Pat-a-Pan
Winter Rhapsody
Sleigh Ride
Gesu Bambino
Still, Still, Still
Christmas Music for Winds
Hallelujah Chorus
The December 13 concert will have a livestream available through the Mountainside Community Church. The link to the livestream is https://youtube.com/live/nWsI106MeX0?feature=share and will start at 6:45 p.m.
On December 20, the band will return to St. Luke’s Cathedral, located at 143 State Street in Portland, for its final holiday benefit concert. The performance – also slated for 7 p.m. – is also an annual event on the Maine Pops calendar. As with the Mountainside performance, proceeds are going to the church’s humanitarian efforts in and around the Portland area.
For more information, please contact president@mainepops.org or sbarrett@mainepops.org.
The Maine Pops Concert Band is a 501(c)3 educational non-profit corporation. Contributions may be tax-deductible.
The Maine Pops Concert Band’s 35th Anniversary Fall Concert, slated for Sunday, November 19 at 2:30 p.m. inside the Falmouth High School Auditorium, has been postponed. The band’s final rehearsal for this performance – slated for November 15 at Scarborough High School -was cancelled.
Officials with the Maine Pops Concert Band are looking at potential dates in the beginning weeks of 2024 to reschedule the performance. Updates will be posted to its web site and social media channels.
The band reminds its loyal patrons that the two holiday benefit performances – December 13 at Mountainside Community Church in Falmouth and December 20 at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland, are still on schedule.
Hurricane Lee has passed us by, cooler temperatures are arriving, and the leaves will begin changing colors soon. It is autumn in Maine – time for fall harvest, pumpkin spice everything and the fall season for the Maine Pops Concert Band.
The final phase of the Maine Pops’ 35th Anniversary celebration began September 6 when fall rehearsals started at Scarborough High School. Now two weeks into the season, the Maine Pops is focused on 10 musical selections it will perform at its 2023 fall concert, slated for November 19 at a place to be determined, beginning at 2:30 p.m.
In staying with the anniversary theme set at its spring concert, director David Watts has again selected material that represents past performances by both the Maine Pops and to the Italian Heritage Center Band – founded in 1988 and forerunner of the current Maine Pops. The fall concert will feature a variety of music – ranging from marches to medleys and classical to popular. Composers represented in the 2023 fall concert program include Gustav Holst, Eric Whitacre, Morton Gould, Franco Cesarini, John Phillip Sousa, and Billy Joel.
The band will release a full list of the performance compositions prior to the concert.
In addition to the fall concert in Scarborough, the Maine Pops also released the dates for its two Christmas holiday benefits concerts in December. The first will be Wednesday, December 13 at the Mountainside Community Church, located at 18 Mountain Road in Falmouth, ME. The second will be Wednesday, December 20 at St. Luke’s Cathedral at 143 State Street in Portland. Proceeds from the two concerts will go toward humanitarian programs sponsored by each congregation.
The Maine Pops Concert Band is a 501(c)3 educational non-profit corporation. Contributions may be tax-deductible.
The Maine Pops Concert Band completed its 2023 Summer Concert Series on August 16 with a 75-minute performance at the Cape Elizabeth (ME) Veterans Park. The performance was the band’s fourth public performance of the summer and the last of seven engagements for the Scarborough-based community band.
A late-gathering audience arrived to listen to the Maine Pops perform nearly a dozen compositions from its 2022-2023 season, filled with marches, medleys, movie symphonic scores, patriotic compositions, and traditional favorites as the band continued its celebration of 35 years.
It was a very successful summer that saw the band lose only one concert to the weather – our scheduled performance in Bath. “I think what I remember most about this summer is the connections we made with the audiences," said Maine Pops Director David Watts of the season.
For Watts, there was something special for each concert. He said everyone braving the weather at the start of the season at R.B. Hall Day on June 24 in Richmond was one memory, as the band returned to the annual festival for the first time since 2019. There, it joined over a dozen other community bands to perform in a resumption of the annual festival honoring Maine’s march king.
There were other highlights for the director; having conversations and fun with the folks sitting in the "splash zone" at The Park Danforth where the band had to move indoors during a downpour. There was the large and enthusiastic crowd at Portland’s Heseltine Park, as well as the joyous faces at 100 State Street in Portland. Watts highlighted the laughter and participation of the large crowd in Falmouth that stuck it out right through the rain that came during our finale, and he enjoyed the engagement of audience members at Cape Elizabeth on August 16. To Watts, all were wonderful season highlights for the band.
To recap the summer, the Maine Pops performed three public neighborhood concerts: in Portland’s Heseltine Park, Falmouth’s Village Green, and Cape Elizabeth’s Veteran’s Park. The band also conducted two private sessions for a pair of retirement communities in Portland – The Park Danforth and at 100 State Street.
“Everyone in the communities was so appreciative of our performances,” said Watts. “There were smiles and pats on the backs everywhere this summer — the summer of the Maine POPS Pirates (reference to our costumed performances of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End). We took no prisoners.”
Likely the biggest highlight of the band’s summer schedule was its selection to perform for the U.S. Coast Guard commissioning ceremony for the USCG Cutter John Patterson, held August 10 in Portland. The band performed a pre-ceremony concert featuring patriotic tunes and marches, then performed the ceremonial music associated with the commissioning. Hundreds of attendees, including U.S. Senator Angus King, and U.S. Coast Guard Vice Commandant Admiral Steven D. Poulin.
Watts said “…the proud moment of our band being asked to provide music for the commissioning ceremony of the Coast Guard’s new cutter will be something everyone involved will remember for the rest of our lives.”
“As a director, I’m most proud of the way the band performed at each concert, “said Watts. “Every location brought different set-ups, different acoustics, and different challenges because of weather and members taking time off. But I felt we were like a well ‘tuned’ team (pun intended!). I had such a deep ‘bench’ to pull from. We brought a diverse repertoire into the summer season and were very well-prepared for any challenges. I so appreciate the band putting their faith in me to lead and rising to anything I put in front of them this year.”
With the summer concert season complete, the band will take a few weeks off, then return to rehearsals on Wednesday, September 6 from 7-9 p.m. inside the Scarborough High School Band Room for the fall season. Watts says he hopes everyone is ready to work on the final celebratory concerts of the band’s 35th anniversary.
The Maine Pops next concert will be held on Sunday, November 19 at 2:30 p.m. Site for the concert will be announced when the venue is confirmed.
The Maine Pops Concert Band will conclude its scheduled 2023 public summer concert season on Wednesday, August 16 with a performance at the Cape Elizabeth Town Green, beginning at 7 p.m. The concert site is in the Cape Elizabeth downtown area adjacent to Maine Route 77.
Under the direction of David Watts, the 55-member summer ensemble will present a 60-to-75-minute concert featuring material from its fall 2022 and spring 2023 concerts. The music includes marches, medleys, selections from movies and musicals, and a couple of classical works. The concert is free to all wishing to attend. Bring a lawn chair, pack a picnic dinner, and enjoy the performance.
It’s been a busy summer for the Maine Pops, a band that serves the Greater Portland Region. In June, the Maine Pops participated in the successful return of the annual R.B. Hall Music Festival in Richmond; a festival cancelled the past three years due to the coronavirus pandemic. The band provided two private concerts to Portland area retirement homes and held public concert performances in Portland, and Falmouth. In addition, the Maine Pops was honored to provide the ceremonial music for the commissioning of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter “John Patterson” on August 10 in Portland.
Established in 1988 and celebrating its 35th anniversary this season, 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.
For more information about scheduling, joining, contributing, or sponsoring the Maine Pops Concert Band, please visit http://www.mainepops.org.
Due to the forecast of heavy thunderstorms working through southern and mid-coast Maine, tonight’s scheduled Maine Pops Concert Band performance at the Bath Liberty Park Gazebo at 6:30 p.m. in Bath has been cancelled.
Maine Pops president Bob Swerdlow notified band members about 1:15 p.m. The band is looking to potentially reschedule the concert sometime before the end of the 2023 summer concert season. It is the first summer concert cancellation for the Maine Pops this year.
The band has at least two remaining public performances for the summer season. It is slated to perform Monday, August 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the Falmouth Village Green in Falmouth, then perform August 16 the Cape Elizabeth Village Green at 7 p.m. Both peformances are free and open to the public.
