Musical chairs
Hamlisch set to take the baton from Worby in leading the Pasadena POPS next summer
By André Coleman 08/27/2010
Beginning next summer, multiple-award-winning musician Marvin Hamlisch will take the baton from outgoing Conductor Rachael Worby in leading the Pasadena POPS, the Pasadena Symphony Association announced Friday morning.
The announcement comes a week after Worby announced her resignation from the organization. In May, Jorge Mester announced his resignation after 25 years as conductor of the Pasadena Symphony, a move in which Mester’s manager told the Los Angeles Times the maestro was forced out.
Both Mester and Worby were asked to take 10 percent pay cuts last year to help the financially struggling symphony association save money, according to the Times. Paul Jan Zdunek, the association’s chief executive officer, told the newspaper that that the organization is only expected to post a half-million-dollar deficit this year, as opposed to $1.7 million and $700,000 in its two most recent seasons. In a prepared statement, Zdunek did not mention the controversy in his remarks welcoming Hamlisch to Pasadena.
“We are so delighted to welcome Marvin Hamlisch to Pasadena and look forward to him continuing to position the Pasadena POPS, at its new home on the lawn adjacent the Rose Bowl, as the Southern California destination for exhilarating POPS concerts,” Zdunek said in the statement.
Worby, who has led the POPS since 1999, was first lady West Virginia from 1990 to 1997, when her ex-husband Gaston Caperton served as governor of that state. Her last performance with the POPS is set for Sept. 30. Among other engagements, in January, Worby is expected to preside over “Saturday Morning Mash-Ups,” a children’s concert series at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
Hamlisch, winner of four Emmys, four Grammys, three Golden Globes, three Oscars, a Tony and even a Pulitzer Prize, will conduct the POPS on July 23, Aug. 6 and Aug. 27 2011.
Hamlisch is the composer of 40 motion picture scores, including his Oscar-winning score and song for “The Way We Were” and his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s music for “The Sting,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973.
“After a dynamic 10-year tenure under the baton of Rachael Worby, we welcome Marvin Hamlisch to the Pasadena POPS as we build on the past with an eye to an even more robust future,” Melinda Shea, president of the association’s board of directors, said in the association’s press release.
The 2011 season will open on June 18 on the lawn adjacent to the Rose Bowl with a Summer POPS concert program that will led by a guest conductor. Hamlisch will conduct the remaining shows, beginning on July 23.
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