László Veres proposed to his wife Fran from the podium at Reid Park’s DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center in 1999.
She said yes.
That moment ranks among the longtime and revered conductor’s most treasured memories as music director for the Tucson Pops Orchestra, which he has led since 1992.
But there are many more memories that play through his head every time he raises his baton and strikes up the band of mostly moonlighting Tucson Symphony Orchestra musicians.
“To me, to be up on that podium is a tremendous honor,” he said this week, as he prepared for his final season with the Pops. Tucson music and entertainment producer Khris Dodge will take over the reins at the end of the Pops’ spring “Music Under the Stars” series that runs Sundays through June 12. The series opened May 8.
“To be in front of those amazing musicians, all I have to do is look at them and they know what I want,” he said. “I treat my musicians with respect. I try to communicate that I enjoy what I am doing so that they will follow me. Because of that, many times we are creating magic.”
That creating magic quote came from his longtime concertmaster Michael Fan, who once told Veres, “Sometimes we have magic on that stage.”
The magic can be felt in the audience, spread out on blankets that cover the park’s hillside as the orchestra performs a mix of light classical music and Broadway show tunes.
Veres, who dons his John Philip Sousa finery for the Memorial Day concert, loves to get the audience involved. At last Sunday’s opening concert, the audience hummed along to the popular song “Edelweiss” from “The Sound of Music.”
“It really was magic; 4,000, 5,000 people humming that song,” Veres recalled. “It gave me shivers.”
Veres announced plans to retire two years ago and auditioned for his replacement throughout the spring and fall concert series since. The orchestra named Dodge to the job in March; he officially takes the podium for the orchestra’s fall parks series, according to orchestra officials.
Veres, who turns 85 in June, said the time was right to retire from the Pops job. His final concert will be June 12.
“I had a good run and I think I had to make a decision,” he said. “We have a good man to take over, Khris Dodge, and it was a good decision.”
Veres also leads the volunteer Arizona Symphonic Winds, which he founded in 1986. He said he will continue leading that ensemble, which performs its “Music in the Park” series on Saturday nights at the László Veres Amphitheater at Udall Park, 7600 E. Tanque Verde Road.
Both ensembles perform at 7 p.m. and there is no cost to attend either.
