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Keith Lockhart conducts the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra at Pops By The Sea in 2014.
HYANNIS – The Arts Foundation’s biggest party of the year is the Citizen’s Bank Pops By The Sea Concert that takes place this Sunday, August 9. In honor of the concert’s 30th anniversary, there are a number of special features planned.
“It’s going to be a very fun year,” Arts Foundation Interim Executive Director David Kaplan said.
As an homage to three decades of concerts, the Pops will have three celebrity guest conductors at the event this year.
Like in the concert’s first three years when journalists waved the conductor’s wand, the guest conductors will be three well-known journalists, Charlie Gibson, Maury Povich and Connie Chung.
There is a pre-concert with three local bands from 1 to 4 p.m. Featured this year are Steve Morgan & the Kingfish taking the stage at 1 p.m., Cerise Bynoe & the Charlie Jamieson Trio at 2 p.m., and the CrabGrass Bluegrass Band at 3 p.m.
The main event featuring the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra led by Keith Lockhart begins at 5 p.m. It is also Lockhart’s 20th year conducting the Pops orchestra. The Pops By The Sea concert is the only time the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra with Keith Lockhart will perform on the Cape.
“So it’s a special year for them and us,” Kaplan said.
The concert will also include Trooper Dan Clark singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” and leading a patriotic sing-a-long. Clark got his start singing at the Pops.
Also honoring the concert’s 30th year, the Arts Foundation has invited the founders of the concert in 1986 and intends to honor them.
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The Pops By The Sea concert attracts upwards of 15,000 people.
Among those founders is Lanny Chase, who, Kaplan said, is the honorary chair of the event.
Kaplan said one unverified story he has heard is that in order to get that first concert off the ground, Chase actually stood out on the Airport Rotary with a cup to raise the necessary funds.
Naming Leo Fein as another founder, Kaplan said, “It was really their efforts and hard work to make it happen.”
Back at the beginning and for many of the early years, the effort to put on the concert remained an all-volunteer effort. Putting on the big concert took a major grassroots effort.
Now there is a paid staff that works on the concert year-round, handling all the details from the security to the ice to the tickets. On the day of the event, the Arts Foundation uses a small army of 400 volunteers to make sure the event runs smoothly.
“It’s very, very festive and that’s how we like it to be,” Kaplan said, “People from all walks of life are there. It’s a great melting pot and just a fun, safe, good event for everybody.”
There are several different entrance levels. At the front closest to the stage, there are tables of 10, costing $1,800 to $3,000, where people can be seen having dinner during the concert. Individual table seats are $180 apiece.
Festival seats, which cost $50, come next after the table section. Many of those individual seats are taken up by tour groups, including local church groups.
Finally, there are lawn seats that cost $20 for adults and children under 10 years old are free.
“There’s really a place for everybody at the concert,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan said the event attracts about 12,000 to 15,000 people to the Hyannis Village Green.
“It’s the single largest cultural event on Cape Cod and certainly the largest concert on Cape Cod,” he said.
He pointed out that it is a major fundraiser for the Arts Foundation. The funds raised go to support the foundation’s work throughout the year.
There are a number of side events connected to the concert. Every year there is a student art competition for the official T-shirt design. This year, Kaplan said, there were 531 entries for the T-shirt design. There is a first place, second place, third place and seven honorable mentions. Each winning student gets scholarship money and each school art department gets a matching grant.
Nicholas Glaser a sophomore at Saint John Paul II High School is the winner of this year’s T-shirt contest. Nicholas and his school’s art department each received a $500 cash prize for the winning design. In second place was Kyle Gilmore from Nauset High School who received $250.
Winning third place and a $100 award for herself and her art department is Paulina Zuckerman from Cape Cod Academy. Seven students received Honorable Mentions and prizes of $50 each for themselves and their schools’ art departments: Kailer Antos, a 7th grade student at Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School; Natalie Fachada a junior at Cape Cod Academy; Emily Fowler, a junior at Nauset Regional High School; Abigail Hart, a sophomore at Sandwich High School; Jennifer McMullin, a sophomore from Barnstable High School; Jake Peramba, a junior at Falmouth High School; and Kevin Webb, a 7th grade student from Mashpee Middle School.
Kaplan said the T-shirt competition falls in line with the foundation’s mission.
“We’re trying to still connect the concert to our mission and give scholarships, reward artists, whatever we can do to help the arts,” he said.
Volunteers at the concert all get a free T-shirt and they are also for sale at the concert.
There is also an official painting every year. This year, the guest artist is Richard Loud. The artist donates the painting and it is auctioned. The funds raised from the auction and also from sales of lithographs of the painting go to the Arts Foundation.
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David Kaplan is Interim Executive Director of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod.
The other big Arts Foundation annual concert is the Cape Cod Five Pops in the Park concert in Orleans, which features the Cape Symphony and is in its 27th year. Sheena Easton is the guest star for the concert. The twilight concert starts at 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 22.
The Arts Foundation’s mission is to promote, support, celebrate and advocate for the arts and, Kaplan said, “that’s what we do 365 days a year, Woods Hole to Provincetown. All of our programming, our scholarships, our fellowships, our grants are just outgrowths of serving that mission.”
Kaplan said he first got involved in the arts on the Cape through volunteering at Eventide Theater Company, a community theater on Route 6A in Dennis. He then became involved with the Cape Cod Theater Coalition, which includes 26 nonprofit live theaters on the Cape and Islands, eventually becoming its first executive director.
Besides the Pops concerts, the Arts Foundation puts on free concerts—over 50 this year—of local Cape Cod bands at venues from all over Cape Cod. A new series this year is a solo series with singer-songwriters at Mashpee Commons.
“They’re free. They’re family friendly. They’re on the village greens. It really is kind of old Cape Cod but very well organized. It gives those groups an opportunity to shine in front of audiences they might not otherwise be able to play for,” he said.
The Arts Foundation holds an annual talent concert to find new bands to include in the concert series.
The foundation also gives grants through two grant cycles a year. A new Arts Foundation fellowship program is for working artists on the Cape. The first recipient is Richard Neal of Centerville. In addition, the Positively Different scholarship program is supported by The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod and goes to students going on to college in either performing arts, graphic arts or music, among other fields.
Listen below to David Kaplan of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod discuss Pops By The Sea and other Arts Foundation concerts and programs.
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