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Summer Pops 2014
Date and Time
Saturday Jun 21, 2014
8:00 PM - 11:00 PM EDTJune 21, 2014 8pm
Location
Wilcox Park, Westerly RI
Fees/Admission
FREE (donations gladly accepted)
Website
Summer Pops 2014Description
Booming cannons, extravagant fireworks, church bells, and the sound of 180 singers and 60 orchestral musicians will fill Westerly?s beautiful Wilcox Park on Saturday, June 21, at 8 pm, as the Chorus of Westerly presents the 34th annual Summer Pops performance.
Andrew Howell will take the Pops conducting podium for the second time as music director of the Chorus of Westerly. Joining Howell and the Chorus, will be the Pops Festival Orchestra and bass vocalist, Dashon Burton.
A light, fun-filled program suitable for the entire family, Summer Pops will feature a wide range of traditional and recent ?pops? music including patriotic favorites, music from stage and screen, and a special performance by Dashon Burton. Mr. Burton will perform three movements from English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs, plus five of the great American Composer, Aaron Copland's, "Old American Songs".
The event will close with P. I. Tchaikovsky?s famous 1812 Overture complete with fireworks by Grucci, cannons of the Newport Artillery, and the bells of Christ Church. The 2014 Summer Pops will be the Chorus? final concert before they depart on their Central European Tour in July, visiting and performing in the three historic cities of Prague, Czech Republic, Vienna, Austria, and Budapest, Hungary.
Summer Pops is a free event and no tickets are required. Summer Pops takes place in Westerly?s Wilcox Park with the main show at 8 pm with a pre-show at 6 pm. This year?s pre-show features local area artists The Franklin Brothers, Happy and the Moonshine, and The Westerly Morris Men. In the event of inclement weather, rain dates are scheduled for Sunday, June 22 and Monday, June 23.
Summer Pops is presented free to the town thanks to the major sponsorship of The Washington Trust Company and several hundred area businesses and individuals. The Westerly Public Library graciously offers use of Wilcox Park for Summer Pops to the Chorus of Westerly. For more information on the performance, including day of event weather updates, please visit www.chorusofwesterly.org or call 401.596.8663.
Those wishing to put down blankets in Wilcox Park early to reserve a spot may do so only after 5 pm on Friday, June 20, 2014. Blankets and items put down before this time will be removed. Unattended coolers and/or any other items besides blankets will also be removed if left in the park prior to the event with no prior warning. Please note that parking in downtown Westerly will be limited to designated areas and traffic patterns will be modified before, during, and after the event.
About the concert
Now considered a staple in the southern New England arts landscape, Summer Pops 2014 will be the event?s 34th edition. However, in the beginning, three decades of Pops was not anticipated. In planning for the first concert in 1981, Summer Pops organizers intended the performance to be a one-time only event offered as thanks to the community for their support of the Chorus?s 1981 Concert Tour of Great Britain. But when the 1981 concert, held on the post office steps in downtown Westerly?s Dixon Square, proved to be incredibly popular and successful, the Chorus decided to repeat the event the following year. By 1983, audiences for the event had outgrown Dixon Square and the performance was moved permanently to Westerly?s Wilcox Park. Today, the tradition continues as more than 25,000 area residents attend the event each year. Over its 34 years, it is estimated that over 670,000 people have attend a Summer Pops performance in Westerly.
About Dashon Burton
Praised for his "nobility and rich tone," (The New York Times) and his "enormous, thrilling voice seemingly capable ... [of] raising the dead;" (Wall Street Journal), bass-baritone and Grammy winner Dashon Burton recently brought home a 2nd prize (no 1st prizes awarded) from the 2012 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, plus the first prize in Oratorio from the 49th International Vocal Competition in ?s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. These awards follow his First Place wins last spring in both the 2012 Oratorio Society of New York Competition and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's Competition for Young American Singers.
The 2013/2014 season will find him making his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in Janacek?s The Cunning Little Vixen led by Franz Welser-Möst, returning to the Charlotte Symphony for the St. Matthew Passion which he also sings on tour in the Netherlands, debuting with Boston?s Handel & Haydn Society in Handel?s Samson, and returning to Carnegie Hall twice with the Oratorio Society of New York for Handel?s Messiah, as well as Arvo Pärt?s Passion with Ensemble ACJW.
In the event of rain
In the event of rain, the Chorus of Westerly will post notices around the park of the new date, announce it on WBLQ (1230 AM) and WCRI (95.9 FM) radio stations, and post notice on its website at www.chorusofwesterly.org.
For further information on the pre-show performers (including more detailed biographies or photos), please contact the Chorus by emailing Lee Eastbourne at lee@chorusofwesterly.org or call him at 401.596.8663. Interviews with music director Andrew Howell can be arranged upon request to Mr. Eastbourne.
In 1981, as a salute to the entire region for helping to fund its first international concert tour that year, the Chorus of Westerly held a huge festive "Summer Pops" concert in downtown Westerly. Meant as a one-time performance, the audience was so enthusiastic with the event that many asked if the Chorus would do it again and think about doing it annually.
Thankfully, the Chorus agreed to give it another try, and soon the audience grew from 5,000 to 10,000 to, within five years, 25,000 people attending the "Summer Pops" concert annually. Next June, the Chorus will triumphantly present its 33rd (!) Summer Pops in Westerly's beautiful Victorian strolling park, Wilcox Park! The concert will not only includes the Chorus of Westerly and Boston Festival Orchestra, but will also feature fireworks by Grucci, canons from the Newport Artillery, and the pealing church bells of Christ Church in the breathtaking finale of the concert, Tchaikovsky's world famous Overture of 1812.
We are so very proud to say that since 1981, over a half a million people have experienced Summer Pops and have made it their annual kick-off to summer. Pretty good for a concert that was supposed to be a one-time deal!Tell a Friend
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