The Lompoc Pops Orchestra is about to conclude its 2014-2015 season and finish the year’s worth of concerts featuring guest conductors. The upcoming concert on June 22 features Michael Shasberger, the orchestra and choir director for Westmont College in Santa Barbara, who’s the last maestro to be considered for a permanent conducting position with the orchestra.
Shasberger will bring two talented soloists from Westmont for the performance, explained the Lompoc Pops’ Communication Director Connie Barlow, who explained that Shasberger’s connection with soloists was part of the drive to get him to Lompoc to collaborate with the orchestra.
“There’s a common denominator in all four of the conductors; they are all highly accomplished, have great resources, have great conducting experience, and they are all full-time conductors,” Barlow said. “One of the criteria is based on how we wanted to invite to the podium someone who has great contacts with soloists so we could bring diversity to our performances.”
Shasberger certainly has a range of skilled student soloists to choose from at Westmont. He will bring vocal performance major Emmalee Wetzel to the concert as well as Ukrainian-born computer science major and studied vocalist Andrey Kitsen to perform vocal solos with the orchestra.
Wetzel will perform an aria from “The Old Maid and the Thief,” which Westmont’s music department fully produced this year. The Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti composed the opera, which qualifies it as part of the Lompoc Pops’ repertoire, Barlow explained.
“Our goal is to keep beloved American music alive,” she said. “It breaks my heart when I hear someone not recognize music from West Side Story, or Oklahoma, or Glenn Miller, or Artie Shaw.”
Modeled after the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Lompoc Pops pulls from Broadway, television, movies, spirituals, big band jazz, and the pop charts when selecting music for a program. The guest conductors selected by the Pops to guest perform this season all hold strong experience in classical repertoire and performance, Barlow explained, but the ensemble allows these conductors steeped in classical tradition to explore more contemporary and American composers.
So far, the Lompoc Pops enjoyed a September performance with guest conductor Olivia Tsui, a December performance with Keith Waibel, and a March performance with Brian Alhadeff. Shasberger’s performance will close the season and leave behind the difficult task of selecting the ensemble’s next maestro, Barlow explained.
“We will consider the opinion of the musicians—they work most directly with the conductor—and we will poll the patrons, and of course the Board of Directors,” she said. “All of that will be taken into consideration, and a new conductor will be named sometime in July.”
The orchestra members have enjoyed collaborating with new conductors and are excited to expand the scope of the ensemble’s repertoire under a new, more permanent baton. But the group isn’t ready to approach the decision until after the June 20 concert, Barlow explained.
“We have to reserve judgment; we haven’t seen what Dr. Shasberger can do with the orchestra, and we want to see how he interacts with the audience,” she said. “Honestly though, it’s going to be hard; I have been impressed with everyone so far.”
The nonprofit hopes to expand its reach and repertoire with a new conductor, Barlow said, and move the Lompoc Pops forward with its tradition of producing great American music live on the Central Coast.
Contact Arts Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 18-25, 2015.