By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO –At the Tifereth Israel Community Orchesta’s Pops Concert last Sunday afternoon, KUSI-TV’s charming weekend weather anchor, Dave Scott, was the featured soloist. The dapper, mellow-voiced Scott demonstrated his versatility as vocalist and trombone soloist in a selection of his own compositions and a medley of Frank Sinatra favorites. Both were arranged by the talented Irving Flores, a native of Veracruz, Mexico, who played the electronic keyboard for the Sinatra songs.
The seventy-plus piece orchestra, increased by a cadre of college students, performed a varied selection of popular marches, movie scores and medleys from musicals that it will repeat Sunday evening, July 22 at 7:00 p.m. at the Allied Gardens Recreation Park.
A special treat on Sunday afternoon’s program at Tifereth Israel Synagogue was the sparkling performance of 16-year-old Danli Liang in the first movement of Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2. She looked like a princess in her light blue gown with spaghetti straps and flared toile skirt, and she played with confidence and flair, her fingers flying and her pony-tail bobbing to the beat. The orchestra, under David Amos’ precise direction, accompanied with accuracy and sensitivity.
TICO’s second oboe, Mark Donnelly, did a professional job conducting the orchestra in Purcell’s Trumpet Tune and Air. He was the recipient of this year’s Golden Baton Award, an honor given annually to someone whom the orchestra deems worthy.
Reflecting Conductor David Amos’ love of puns, the concert opened with two bells: The Belle of Chicago, a march by John Phillip Sousa, and Fire Bell Polka, a march by Johann Strauss. As the clever Amos mounted the podium, he made some remark about the Nobel prize.
One of the impressive solos during the course of the concert was the tuba solo in the medley of selections from Harold Arlen’s The Wizard of Oz. The orchestra completed the 2 1/2 hour concert with a lively rendition of Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. The three piccolo players and the brass section rose at the end to finish with a flourish.
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Wingard is a freelance writer and a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony