20 Years and Blowing Strong
Twenty Years. 2 Decades. Has it really been that long? As one of the founding members of the Golden West Pops I was part of the original 15 people who decided that music was essential, and we needed to form a band. We worked together to bring a group of musicians, our friends, to perform our first concert in December 2003. Rehearsing in an old warehouse, borrowing music from other groups, and pooling our network of resources, the Golden West Pops was formed.
In the following years we have had some remarkable changes in leadership, reorganization, and rebuilding of our membership. We’ve lost some beloved family members, John, Delores, Fred, Tim, Janice, Pat, Pam, Janine.
We’ve been on 6 tours, Cambria, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas and just recently Arizona.
We had the privilege of performing at Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, the Orange County Fair, Segerstrom Performing Arts Center, the USS Iowa, the USS Midway, under the skirt of Marilyn Monroe in Palm Springs, for the American Legion, the Lions Club Fish Fry, the Field of Valor in Orange and Huntington Beach Summer concert series just to name a few.
And we are still going strong. Under the leadership of our conductor, Pollyanna Gorman, who has been our leader since the beginning, we have built a strong group of quality musicians from all over Orange County. But we are not just musicians that meet every week, we are family. We rehearse, we do performances but most of all we have a great time. We laugh, we have fun, we take care of each other, and we have a great respect for our fellow musicians.
Our Holiday Concerts are our biggest events of the year. And we go all out. There is fun and exciting music, incredible decorations, pictures galore and some awesome costume changes. This year’s event is going to be something special. With 20 years of holiday music under our belt we are putting together our finest from each year and creating a unique show.
I have so many memories. Most I can’t add to this article, we would be here all day. All I can say is that this has been one exciting and incredible experience so far. I can’t wait for another 20 years!
