Wallingford Symphomy performs free concert, Sunday

Brush up on your Shakespeare. That advice is sung in a vaudeville ramble from Cole Porter’s Broadway hit “Kiss Me Kate” and will emerge as a theme of the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra’s annual free Pops Concert on Sunday at Choate Rosemary Hall.

The concert is part of the traditional celebration of the Fourth of July, but willinclude a tribute to William Shakespeare, whose work is being honored worldwide on the 400th anniversary of his birth. The music of composers who took inspiration from Shakespeare will be presented. Orchestral masterworks by Otto Nicolai, Franz Schubert, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Felix Mendelssohn, and Sergei Prokofiev are all reflections on Shakespeare’s plays and poetry. Shakespeare’s influence on Broadway musicals, including “The Boys fromSyracuse” by Rodgers and Hart, “Kiss Me Kate” by Cole Porter and West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein, will also be highlighted during the concert.

Susan Yankee and Eric Dillner, a husband-and-wife team of professional singers, will performing with the orchestra on the Broadway tunes The audience will also be treated to some traditional Fourth of July favorites, including America theBeautiful, Bob Lowden’s Salute to the Armed Forces, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, George M. Cohan’s patriotic medley Star Spangled Spectacular and finally, and Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.

The concert, sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department and the Wadsworth Family Foundation, will be presented on the lawn of the Paul Mellon Art Centeron Christian Street.