It's meant to be a brilliant evening filled with nostalgic tunes,, a well-tuned orchestra, LimeLight dancers and a double dose of maestros. Friday, March 30, the annual Pops concert is celebrating the "Greatest Generation" at 7:30 PM in Buena Performing Arts Center. Dr. Lloyd DuVall, a past president of the Sierra Vista Symphony Association and presently a board member, is the guest conductor as founding music director Roger Bayes also performs.

DuVall is to direct "Choose Your Own Music," in which several sponsors have paid an additional sum to hear their favorite works. Bayes hosts the "Salute to the Greatest Generation," a combination of popular songs and dance tunes from the middle Twentieth Century, augmented by dancers from LimeLight Productions.

Guest percussionist Rick Alden studied under DuVall in Bedford, Ohio's high school Mr. Alden was percussionist for Chicago's Lyric Opera Orchestra, and joins the symphony to perform one more time under a beloved teacher.

"The legacy of what history calls 'the Great Generation' had as profound an effect upon music as upon culture, society, politics and anything else you can name," states Bayes. "It is this generation which saw the greatest transition of technology, that was central to that period that we know to be the bloodiest of all centuries of mankind." Bayes cites the transitions from wax recordings to CD's as indicative of the rapid change in music. "Among the first to be made popular are those sounds emanating from the era of the Big Band."

Big Band era composers' represented in the concert include Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, W. C. Handy and Duke Ellington among other great dance band leaders of that time. Toes will be merrily tapping as "April in Paris," and "Pennsylvania 6-5000" flood the Performing Arts Center. W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" will keep the audience in rhythmic locomotion as Maestro Bayes takes us on a musical trip back to a past many in the audience will remember very well

Lloyd DuVall's section features works by Wolfgang Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nacht Musik's" first movement. A simple sonata, this whole work is placed "in form and scope" somewhere between a suite and a symphony, says Marrilyn Black. An anonymous patron requested this piece.

Richard Rodgers "Guadalcanal March" begins the evening as a remembrance of the Second World War, and Kenneth Alford's "Colonel Bogey March" recognizes the World War I era. Said to be arguably the most famous march ever written, it was published in 1914. By the Depression, over one million copies had been sold, as well as recorded by numerous groups. Many people will remember it as the theme from the 1958 film, The Bridge On the River Kwai.

Richard Rodgers, of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame, wrote the background music for a television series about the World War II U.S. Navy role called "Victory at Sea." There were 26 half-hour episodes for this 1952 series. The 26 compositions were edited by Robert Russell Bennett to a 42-minute symphony. "Guadalcanal March" is one of the movements. Northrup Grumman Corporation is the sponsor for this work.

Bob Brunt provides for the performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Egmont Overture," It was selected when the Shostakovich work he originally wanted was discovered to be out of print.

"Blues" and "swing" are two expressions of jazz that figure prominently in the history of American music as well as in this pops concert.

William Christopher Handy, the "father of the Blues," is to be heard in his most celebrated composition: "St. Louis Blues." Born in Alabama, in 1873, the son and grandson of Methodist clergymen, Handy published his first tune , "Memphis Blues," in 1912. He standardized this unique American idiom, and went on to become a successful music publisher himself. In the 1930's, his eyesight dimmed to blindness, which prompted him to published music in Braille.

Duke Ellington was the son of a White House butler, who came to music at age 9 and by his teens was busily composing. He is considered the preeminent composer of swing and jazz music, a dance band director who kept his group performing for nearly fifty years. His accomplishments range from some of the most popular songs of his time to sacred works, as well as film scores and at least one musical. He died of lung cancer in 1974. The SVSO performs 5 of his timeless tunes as the LimeLight dancers recall the moves of that era..

"Music for each concert," explains Dr. DuVall, "is programmed by a knowledgeable team of musicians. However, it is impossible to choose the favorite of each person in the audience. 'Choose Your Own Music' offers members the opportunity to request their favorites." That's the reason this concert includes personal favorites for which patrons have contributed a special fee.

Tickets may be purchased in advance of the concert at the regular outlets, including Fry's, Safeway, YES at the Mall at Sierra Vista, Oscar Yrun, and the Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce. In addition, the night of the concert the Buena Performing Arts Center box office will handle tickets. The seats are $20 each. Paying adults may bring a child 14 years and under in with them free.