In Our 11th Season

A Letter From the Artistic Director

Dear Visitor,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Key West Pops Orchestra’s updated website for the 2009/10 season. We hope you will find this site a useful tool for keeping up with Pops events, buying tickets and getting better acquainted with this season’s guest artists. ‘Diversity’ was my guiding principal for this season and I think I’ve come up with a nicely balanced and very audience-friendly season. From our cozy, yet up-lifting (because of the venue) Holiday Concert, through a superbly cast popular musical comedy through an unusual all-piano concert featuring multiple instruments, the Pops has lots to offer this year. I hope you will come to our concerts and support us through our fundraising events; I promise you will have a good time.

CONCERT AT ST PAUL’S: From my experience, the week between Christmas and New Year’s in Key West is a restless time. The first flush of the holidays is over, but we still have plenty of family visitors home for the holidays with little to do until New Year’s Eve. Therefore, the Pops is proud to present its Home for the Holidays Concert on the evening of Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at St. Paul’s Church right downtown on Duval Street. It will be a real down-home celebration since our soloists, both vocal and instrumental, will be former Pops alumni who have continued with their performance studies in college and beyond and who literally are home for the holidays. A full orchestra compliments the evening’s mix of styles from Baroque to Pop to The Great American Songbook. It will be a wonderful concert to bring the entire family and to see what a wonderful name these young artists are making for Key West in the wider performance world. Soloists include Lena Robles, Stephanie Leone, Ralph Garcia Jr., Clinton and Daniel Curtis. Special guest appearances by Carmen Rodriguez and Joe Lowe on the mighty St. Paul’s pipe organ.

MY FAIR LADY: It’s been called ‘the perfect musical’ and who am I to disagree? On Sunday, January 24, 2010 at the Tennessee Williams Theatre, it is my pleasure to present the Pops’ concert version of Lerner and Loewe’s classic hit musical, My Fair Lady. It’s a show filled with all those hummable melodies that were on everyone’s lips when it first premiered in the 1950’s. Key West’s own Mike Mulligan is the inimitable Henry Higgins, Laura Shofner, veteran of Sol Fest and Donna Roll’s Graduate Vocal Program, plays Eliza, the cockney flower-girl transformed into a duchess. Jack Agnew, Bruce Moore, Maria Zito-Kaufman, Scott Zimmerman, Marjorie Shook, Linda Greenberg and Dean Walters round out the cast. The production will be directed by Donna Roll with musical direction by yours truly, and choreography by Penny Leto. Come relive the magic of My Fair Lady or discover for the first time just why this show made such an entertainment and cultural impression on its generation.

PIANOMEN: A bare stage punctuated by two of the most ingenious machines ever devised by the human mind – the musical instrument properly called the pianoforte. Add six pianists - five of them returning Pops soloists - yearning to share their musical souls and you have the makings of a true evening of musical adventure. In solos, duets, one piano/two hands through two pianos/four hands, these wizards of the keys will dazzle you. Featuring Jeffrey Chappell, David Phillips, Thomas Pandolfi, Jono Mainelli, Daniel Curtis and David Troy Francis. There is no orchestra in this concert.

Sincerely,

Vincent P Zito,
Founder / Artistic Director

A Letter From the Chair

I begin my fourth season as President of the Key West Pops with gratitude to the generous people of Key West and the Lower Keys who have continued to support us in these difficult financial times. Thanks to that support, we on the Board of Directors are so pleased and proud that Artistic Director Vincent Zito is ready to present yet another season of exciting concerts and events. Along with Executive Director Stephanie Hellstrom, we look forward to seeing all the faithful Pops fans at each of them.

Hon. Lurana S. Snow,
President

A Letter From the Executive Director

Welcome to our 11th season. Thank you to our patrons, sponsors and to those who provide in-kind donations. Without all of you, it could not be done!

And as a big thank you to our audiences, it is our pleasure to announce that our ticket prices for the 2009 / 2010 season have gone down. It is important to everyone at the Pops to make our performances accessible to all members of the community and we thank you for your attendance year after year.

Season subscriptions are available through Saturday, October 31st by contacting me at 305.296.6059 or by writing info@keywestpops.org. Beginning Monday, November 2, subscriptions as well as tickets to individual concerts will be available through the Tennessee Williams box office at 305.295.7676 or at www.keystix.com.