Wallingford Symphony Free Outdoor Pops Concert on Sunday

MUSIC OF AMERICA AT WSO CONCERT

American music with folk, popular and classical themes and a performance by the award-winning Farmington Valley Chorus will be features of the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra’s Pops Concert on Sunday, July 2 at 7:30 p.m. The free concert, sponsored by the Wallingford Town Council, the Wadsworth Family Foundation and Ulbrich Steel, will be held on the lawn in front of the Seymour St. John Chapel at Choate Rosemary Hall.

The orchestra, conducted by Musical Director Philip T. Ventre, will open with Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, composed and first performed in 1942 to foster patriotic spirit. This will be followed by the Overture to George Gershwin’s “Girl Crazy” including several hit songs. Another Copland piece, Our Town, a musical suite derived from his score for the movie of the same name, and The Waltzing Cat by Leroy Anderson, will precede a medley of Big Band hits by Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. The first part of the program will conclude with John Williams’ Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The second part opens with Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman by Joan Tower, one of the most famous women composers. The Farmington Valley Chorus, a chapter of the Sweet Adelines International, will then perform American songs in a cappella barbershop style. The orchestra will follow with Rossini’s William Tell Overture; Charles Ives’ Country Band March; patriotic songs from Yankee Doodle to Over There; and The Armed Forces Salute to honor veterans and their families in the audience.

A rousing Fourth of July ending will include Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture; Stars and Stripes Forever; George M. Cohan’s Star Spangled Spectacular, led by guest conductor Christopher Geist, music director of the First Baptist Church; and Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, sung by all.

Shuttles will run from campus parking lots to the Chapel Lawn. The audience is encouraged to picnic and bring chairs.