The Philly Pops will celebrate its 40th anniversary season in 2018-19 with a focus on the orchestra’s history and ties to the city of Philadelphia. The Pops will perform a song or arrangement of a piece of music that has a tie to the Pops’ legacy at each concert; increase its ongoing effort to showcase artists and music with Philly roots; and ask each guest artist to perform American popular songs. Events at the Kimmel Center will include September concerts will featuring Hamilton’s Leslie Odom, Jr., who grew up in East Oak Lane and attended two School District of Philadelphia schools. Other Philadelphians featured in 2018-19 will include Terell Stafford, director of jazz studies and chair of instrumental studies in the Boyer College of Music at Temple and Director of the School District’s All-City Jazz Festival, which is presented by the Pops; Principal Guest Conductor David Charles Abell, who lived in Philadelphia and attended Germantown Friends School; tributes to Philadelphia musical artists; and a show dedicated to American Bandstand, a Philadelphia institution for more than a decade. Michael Krajewski is the Philly Pops’ music director.
Posted March 28, 2018
