The Winnipeg Pops Orchestra's latest concert showcases the unique role that it plays in the city’s cultural landscape: an opportunity for volunteer musicians to play at a high level and offering an accessible window into classical music for audiences.
“The Winnipeg Pops Orchestra is a great group of people,” said conductor Tony Cyre in an interview on Morning Light. “They just want to play, they just want to have fun, and they want to make the best music possible.”
The orchestra’s Springtime Concert will have a cinematic bent to it, with repertoire from soundtracks to films like The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, and Titanic. The orchestra will also be joined by the Springfield Theatre Company in a performance of selections from the hit musical Wicked and present a tribute to Frank Sinatra with four of the iconic crooner’s most beloved hits.
All of this represents an ambitious program for Cyre. A former player in the orchestra, Cyre picked up the baton five months ago and hasn’t looked back.
“The former conductor... chose to go on holiday every January, so he needed somebody to sub for him,” Cyre explains about how he got the job in the first place. “And so, I volunteered. I figured, ‘Could be fun,’ because that’s where the action is.”
In the context of the Winnipeg Pops Orchestra, the action comes not only from the exciting repertoire that they present, but also the nature of the players, which range from former members of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra through to teenagers getting their first taste of ensemble experience. Throw in the fact that Cyre did not have any professional conducting experience coming into this position, and you are left with the most essential element for any orchestra: a community of people coming together to create the greatest music that they can.
“I told the orchestra a few weeks ago, I said to them, ‘I’m not perfect,’” says Cyre. “It’s a learning curve. And we’re just going to make some good music the best we can and see what happens.”
Audiences can see and hear what happens at the Winnipeg Pops Orchestra’s Springtime Concert on May 29 at 7 p.m. at the Lutheran Church of the Cross on Arlington Street. For tickets and more information, visit the orchestra’s website.