Category: News

“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.

The Maine Pops Concert Band is looking to add a new dimension to its repertoire in providing music entertainment to its regional base. The 36-year-old concert band ensemble is forming a swing band – modeled after the classic big bands – with plans to begin local performances during the Maine Pops’ 2024-2025 season.

The idea of a Maine Pops Swing Band came from trumpeters Randy Kitano and Peter Flournoy, both recent additions to the Maine Pops Concert Band. Both experienced musicians with big band credentials, Kitano and Flournoy first proposed creating the big band during the February Maine Pops monthly board meeting.

“I have been looking to get back into jazz ever since I took up trumpet again in the late 90s,” said Flournoy. He said the drive behind starting the Maine Pops Swing Band was that he could not find any opportunities for trumpet players locally.

Kitano found the same frustration with finding a jazz band home in Maine. “I really enjoy playing and listening to big band swing music,” said Kitano, a veteran of two U.S. Navy regional big bands, plus a slew of local big bands in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. “Since moving to Maine this last fall, I have unsuccessfully been looking for a swing band to play with.”

At the time of his joining the Maine Pops, Kitano said he connected with Flournoy, and both decided to combine their efforts and see if they could start a swing band ensemble as part of the Maine Pops Concert Band. During his time with his past bands, Kitano assembled an impressive library of swing band music containing over 6,000 “charts.”

The recommendation of additional ensembles within the Maine Pops is not new. The concert band formed a flute choir in October of 2022, and added a woodwind quintet in January of 2023. The swing band would be the third ensemble under the Maine Pops as it looks to promote additional avenues of music performance to its members.

Under their proposal, both Kitano and Flournoy would co-manage the swing band operations, with the advice and consent of Maine Pops Concert Band Director David Watts. The swing band would align operations with the Maine Pops operating procedure, and the swing band managers would coordinate the audition process, rehearsal venues and times.

Most importantly, the Maine Pops Swing Band would be an internal asset of the Maine Pops Concert Band, with priority going to the current band members. With nearly one hundred musicians now part of the Maine Pops, both Kitano and Flournoy felt that current Maine Pops musicians should have top priority in staffing the swing ensemble. “We have had nothing but very positive and encouraging comments from other members of the Maine Pops Concert Band on starting up this ensemble,” said Kitano. He added that both the band president and the conductor have been incredibly supportive of their plans.

The ensemble will consist of a traditional big band instrumentation:
• four trumpets (flugelhorn and flugelhorn experience desired)
• three trombones,
• one bass trombone,
• two alto saxophones (soprano saxophone and clarinet experience desired),
• two tenor saxophones (soprano saxophone and clarinet experience desired),
• one baritone saxophone,
• one keyboard,
• one drummer,
• one rhythm guitar,
• one string bass or bass guitar.

Kitano said he and Flournoy are also looking for a male and female vocalist to join the ensemble and added that they would look outside the Maine Pops membership only if slots could not be filled from within the concert band. He added that he and Flournoy may modify instrumentation in time to allow other Maine Pops Concert Band members to join. Kitano also said the swing band will need alternate and substitute players to fill in for those missing at performances and rehearsals.

The interest of having a Maine Pops Swing Band was immediate. Kitano and Flournoy informed the concert band on February 14 about the proposal. As of March 6, Flournoy said all of the big band positions had applicants from within the concert band.

Organizing the band is only the first step. Both Flournoy and Kitano realize it’s going to take time to schedule rehearsal sites and dates, select music, and organize programs for performances in and around the greater Portland area. Flournoy indicated that “…a realistic goal would be to prepare for performances in Spring/Summer of 2025.” He did leave an option of “sooner” if the band is well-prepared.

To Kitano, the idea of having a Maine Pops Swing Band is a way to provide something different to the Maine Pops musicians. “My goals are to have an open, fun, and excellent sounding big band for performances in the Portland area,” said Kitano. “Our immediate goals are to find the musicians and vocalist for a full-size big band and to also locate a rehearsal location and space. We are looking forward to working with the Maine Pops Board and band members in fulfilling these goals.”