Monterey County Pops! Fulfills Its Mission During the Pandemic

In a typical year, we perform free Memorial Day outdoor concerts on both the lawn of Monterey City Hall and the lawn of the Old Del Monte Hotel on the grounds of the Naval Postgraduate School. These are followed by an early evening 4th of July concert at the Golden State Theatre.

When school begins, we conduct Friday afternoon and evening residencies at Salinas Valley high schools. In the afternoon, we conduct instrumental clinics with the students and in the evening we present a bilingually hosted community concert where the students join with us in a varied program including our special arrangements of favorite Mexican songs. In Fall of 2019 we presented these events in Gonzales, Greenfield, King City, and the Alisal Center for the Fine Arts in Salinas.

This year has obviously not been a typical. At the beginning of the pandemic we were scheduled to offer residencies at Soledad High and North Salinas High. These were first postponed and then cancelled.

Here are links to our activities during the pandemic:

1. The July 4th Broadcast Concert [click here]
2. Pops! Pros Teach – creation of eight ½-hour episodes of instrument lessons to be broadcast on AMP and also posted on our site. [click here]
3. Peter and the Wolf – The symphonic fairy tale for children to be filmed and shared with county elementary schools via live Zoom sessions with the players. Also to be posted on our site. [click here]
4. Pops! Pros Teach LIVE – One-hour Zoom instrument classes for Monterey County Schools. [click here]