The Tucson Pops Orchestra’s annual Memorial Day concert, the springtime “Music Under the Stars” series finale at Reid Park on Sunday, historically ranks as one of the series’ biggest draws.
The audience Sunday evening is sure to nearly fill the sloping lawn of the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, South Country Club Road and East 22nd Street, where Pops Music Director Khris Dodge and the orchestra will open with the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Honor Guard's moving presentation of colors.
Khris Dodge will lead the Tucson Pops Orchestra in its annual Memorial Day concert on Sunday.
The orchestra, comprised of moonlighting University of Arizona and Tucson Symphony Orchestra musicians, will perform patriotic favorites including John Phillip Sousa marches and Morton Gould's “American Salute (based on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home").
Former Tucson broadcaster Greg Curtis Wakefield will narrate throughout the concert, which also will include John Williams’ “Hymn to the Fallen” and Dodge’s arrangements of several spirituals, including “Oh, Freedom,” “Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel” and Bob Marley's “Buffalo Soldier.”
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Sunday’s concert begins at 7 p.m., but several food trucks, coordinated by the Southern Arizona Animal Food Bank, will set up at 5:30. If you bring a bag of pet food to donate to the animal food bank, you can receive a free coffee or tea.
Admission to the concert is free, although donations are accepted. You also can stream it live through the Tucson Pops website at tucsonpops.org.
