DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center has been a shell of its old self since the COVID-19 pandemic drove away the Sunday evening concerts with Tucson Pops Orchestra.
But the orchestra and its colorful, animated and beloved conductor László Veres are coming back.
On Sunday, Sept. 5, as the sun goes down just around 7 p.m., Veres will take his place at the podium to strike up the band — mostly moonlighting pros from the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the University of Arizona — for the first of four “Music Under the Stars” concerts through September.
“It’s going to be interesting after being away for a year and half,” Veres joked. “I’m out of the routine, but it’s going to come back.”
Before the pandemic, Tucson Pops Orchestra packed the grassy Reid Park on Sunday evenings in the fall and spring with thousands of families, who would spread out on blankets or set up lawn chairs to hear the orchestra perform light classical music and Broadway showtunes.
Veres also leads the volunteer Arizona Symphonic Winds, which performs its “Music in the Park” series on Saturday evenings at the Laszlo Veres Amphitheater at Udall Park, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road.
On Sunday, Tucson baritone Jack Neubeck will join the orchestra to perform a program of Broadway gems including works by Gershwin (“ ‘S Wonderful,” “But Not For Me”) selections from “Oklahoma” a montage of popular 1920 songs and Paul Anka’s “My Way.”
The program also includes Jerry Herman’s “Shalome” from the musical “Milk and Honey” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” as well as retired Hollywood composer and Tucson resident Mark Wolfram’s “Tucson March.”
And as he has for more than 25 years, Veres will close Sunday’s concert with “America the Beautiful.”
The last time Tucson Pops performed at Reid Park was in fall 2019. The group, which has been performing the Music Under the Stars series since 1955, had to cancel its 2020 series in the spring and fall, as well as its series this past spring because of rising numbers of COVID infections.
Veres, 84, has led the Pops for more than 25 of its 65-plus years. In 2018, the orchestra began auditioning Veres’s eventual replacement — he says he’s not ready to throw in the baton, but he wants the orchestra to be set when the time comes. They are now down to three finalists, two of whom will conduct the orchestra during the fall series.
The volunteer Arizona Symphonic Winds also is returning to the stage at Udall Park for Saturday evening Music in the Park series Sept. 11 through Oct. 2.
The orchestra, which Veres formed in 1986, marks its 35th anniversary this year.
