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Comedy Tonight: Cleveland POPS to premiere new Broadway review

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by Mike Telin

TOPILOW-red-clarinetOn Friday, November 14 at 8:00 pm in Severance Hall, Carl Topilow will conduct the Cleveland POPS Orchestra and Chorus in the world premiere of “Comedy Tonight,” a revue of musical theatre’s more light-hearted moments. The show features Broadway award-winning stars Christine Pedi, Christiane Noll and Jason Graee.

Why did Cleveland POPS decide to create a new Broadway review? “That’s an interesting question,” Carl Topilow said during a recent telephone conversation. “We’ve been working with John Such of Bravo Broadway for many years, and we realized that we have already performed all of his programs.”

But audiences need not worry, Cleveland POPS is a creative team of people, and Topilow credits Gordon Petitt in their marketing office for coming up with the idea of creating the new show. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland POPS salutes NASA

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by Mike Telin

NASA-LogoFor thousands of years humans believed the earth was flat and if you traveled too far you would eventually fall off the edge. It was the third century Greek scholar Eratosthenes who first began to calculate the circumference of the Earth. In the twentieth century, Ohio and specifically Cleveland, has played an important role in furthering space research. Founded in 1941as the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) NASA’s John H. Glenn Research Center actually predates NASA by 17 years and is named in honor of former senator John H. Glenn, an Ohioan who was the first American to orbit Earth.

On Friday, April 25 beginning at 8:00 pm in Severance Hall, Carl Topilow will lead the Cleveland POPS Orchestra and Chorus in a Salute to NASA. “We’re very excited about this concert. It’s literally a cast of stars,” Carl Topilow told us during a recent telephone conversation. “This is the first time we have done a salute to NASA, but they are right here in Cleveland.”

The concert honors the men and women of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration for their indomitable spirit of exploration and discovery and includes a special salute to the 25 Astronauts who come from Ohio. Special guests include NASA Glenn Director James M. Free and astronauts David Thomas and Michael Foreman. “We have astronauts, the director of the center, vocalists Lindsey Mitchell and Connor O’Brien, the chorus, members of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra and footage from space shuttle missions and exhibits in the lobby, so there is a lot happening.” [Read more…]

Cleveland POPS Orchestra announces its 2014-2015 Subscription Concerts

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ClePops&ChorusThe Cleveland POPS Orchestra (Carl Topilow, conducting) and Chorus will present five Friday evening subscription concerts at Severance Hall next season, in addition to “The Magic of Christmas” at the Palace Theatre on November 30 at 2pm and its 19th annual New Year’s Eve Concert and Dance at Severance Hall on December 31 at 9 pm.

November 14 – Comedy Tonight: light-hearted numbers from Broadway.
February 6 – A Night at the Oscars: Academy Award-winning songs and scores.
March 6 – Sinatra Centennial with Steve Lippia.
March 27 – La Musica di Italia: popular Italian music from pop to opera to romantic Neapolitan ballads.
May 1- 15th Annual Salute to our Armed Forces.

Preview: Cleveland POPS Orchestra to ring in the New Year with the Nunziata Brothers at Severance Hall

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by Mike Telin

Nunziatas“Whenever I talk about the Cleveland POPS season so many people tell me how much they love coming to the New Year’s Eve concert,” says Cleveland POPS Orchestra co-founder and conductor Carl Topilow. “So the event really has become a tradition for so many.” On Tuesday, December 31 beginning at 9:00 pm in Severance Hall, The Cleveland POPS Orchestra and Topilow will welcome 2014 with their 18th annual concert and dance party.

The evening’s special guest artists areup-and-coming musical theater headliners Will and Anthony Nunziata, performing their own “Broadway Nites Revue.” The show includes songs from the best of Broadway’s musicals, both past and recent, including The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd,Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, City of Angels, Company, The Secret Garden, West Side Story, and Anyone Can Whistle.

Following the star-studded concert, dancing begins at 11:00 pm. “There’s a band that I will lead in the Grand Foyer which includes some of the finest jazz players in the area,” says Topilow, “and again this year my brother, Dr. Arthur Topilow, will be coming in from New Jersey. He’s a very fine pianist but an even better oncologist-hematologist. There will also be another band in the Smith lobby.” [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland POPS Orchestra — “Ballroom with a Twist” (November 9)

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by Guytano Parks

TOPILOW-red-clarinetSeverance Hall sizzled on Saturday night as fifteen stellar performers from TV’s Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol took to the stage in Ballroom with a Twist. This razzle-dazzle production presented by Scott Stander with choreography by Louis van Amstel and Patricia Kaniowski as dance captain, music editing by Will Hollis, costumes by Randall Designs and lighting by Michael White —opened the Cleveland POPS Orchestra’s 18th season under founding artistic director and conductor Carl Topilow’s baton on a spectacular note.

Topilow led his orchestra in a tantalizing taste of the music of Henry Mancini as an overture to the evening. Among the most prolific and celebrated of film composers, Mancini “grew up just a stone’s throw away in Little Italy,” as Topilow said from the stage in his brief comments after conducting a rousing The Great Waldo Pepper March. Flutist Mary Kay Robinson then made her way to the front of the stage to play a very cool, laid-back theme from the Pink Panther which was followed by the orchestra in a funky and energetic Baby Elephant Walk from Hatari.

The Days of Wine and Roses was seductively romantic with lush, legato string playing. Topilow said in his introduction, “you may hear it like you’ve never heard it before,” and demonstrated by playing his clarinet as the song repeated, up-tempo and jazzy. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Pops Orchestra and Chorus at Severance Hall (May 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ClePops&ChorusThe troops were out in force for Cleveland POPS’ thirteenth annual Armed Forces Salute at Severance Hall on Friday, May 17 — not the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard who were honored in a medley of official songs, but in addition to the orchestra and its new Cleveland POPS Chorus, the evening featured a Joint Veterans Honor Guard, the Gates Keystone Club Police Pipes and Drums, the Mutual Gifts Gospel Choir (employees of Medical Mutual, who sponsored the evening) and a celebrity narrator, former Cavs star Austin Carr, aka “Mr. Cavalier.” All these participants were masterfully deployed and led by POPS conductor Carl Topilow, chorus master William Zurkey and gospel choir leader Jimmy L. Wilcher, Jr. in an evening of rousing patriotic and military-inspired music that brought the spirit of the Fourth of July indoors a few weeks early.

After a ceremonial entry by the honor guard, pipes and drums and a gospely version of the national anthem by the Mutual Gifts choir, those seventeen singers remained onstage for Kevin Bond’s God be praised with orchestral backup arranged by the POPS’s tubist, J.c. Sherman. [Read more…]

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