Wallingford Symphony Concert Saturday

The Wallingford Symphony Orchestra opens its forty-second season on Saturday with a pops program, “The Great American Songbook and Beyond,” featuring Rob Zappulla and his Big Band.

Rob, an accomplished trumpeter, singer and showman, grew up in the Hartford area and studied at the Hartt School of Music before embarking on the professional career that has placed him in prominent venues around the world. He started out in show bands and small groups, formed his own big band, then joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow. He toured with that ensemble for eight years, playing and singing as he developed his rich baritone voice, rhythmic sense and a style that put him out front. The WSO got a look at it last year when he opened the season with the orchestra in a lively salute to Frank Sinatra.

He performs frequently with his own quintet, septet, big band and symphony orchestras like the WSO, conducted by Maestro Philip Ventre. He enjoys all of them but finds the symphony events most exhilarating. “When you have good arrangements and have that big sound all around you, it’s just gorgeous. It doesn’t get any better than that,” he says.

The program will include the classic standards It Had To Be You, On a Clear Day, Bewitched, With a Song In My Heart, The Shadow of Your Smile and A Foggy Day as well as later recognized classics by Bobby Darin, Frankie Valli, Little Anthony and the Imperials and Stevie Wonder including Going Out Of My Head, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, and You are the Sunshine of My Life.

Ticket information is available on the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra website, www.wallingfordsymphony.org or at the Gallagher Travel Shoppe, 369 Center Street.