“Now at the cusp of its fifth season, the North Charleston Pops! is luring thousands of patrons to the Performing Arts Center for concerts featuring Broadway and movie music, big band tunes, famous singers such as Mary Wilson and a relaxed atmosphere,” writes Adam Parker in Saturday’s (7/30) Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.) “ ‘I wasn’t expecting it to become so important to the community so quickly,’ said Executive Director Tacy Edwards.” The music director is Nick Palmer, also music director of Kentucky’s Owensboro Symphony and Indiana’s Lafayette Symphony. The orchestra’s annual budget is $180,000, “with a big chunk of it coming from Boeing, the orchestra’s main sponsor. The city helps, too, providing venues, marketing and money. This enables the Pops to keep ticket prices low … The expanded new season kicks off Sept. 10 with … tunes from popular shows such as ‘Wicked,’ ‘Hairspray,’ ‘The Lion King,’ ‘Rent,’ ‘The Wiz’ and ‘Mamma Mia!’ Four more concerts follow. Plans also are being laid to present a few outdoor concerts in Riverfront Park…. Edwards remembers her joy at seeing more than 700 patrons in the audience for the first-ever Pops concert in November 2012. Nowadays, concerts easily draw at least 1,000.”
Posted August 3, 2016
