Macon Pops perseveres through pandemic, prepares for Christmas concert
What’s happening with the Macon Pops during the coronavirus epidemic?
The Pops are in their eighth season and two of the usual four main shows have been canceled and two remain. Still to come are the Main Street Christmas Light Extravaganza opening concert and – fingers crossed – a 2021 Cherry Blossom Festival show.
“The pandemic hindered our ability to do performances we’d planned at Hawkins Arena in August and had set for the Grand Opera House,” said Steve Moretti, drummer, co-founder and president/CEO of the Macon Pops. “But since the Main Street Christmas Lights Extravaganza opening and our Blossoms and Balloons Cherry Blossom concerts are outdoors, we’ll be doing those.”
Moretti said the Christmas concert, set for Nov. 27, won’t feature the usual full orchestra but use Macon Pops’ big band. That will allow social distancing among musicians onstage.
As for the award-winning holiday lights extravaganza itself, Bryan Nichols, creator and driving force behind it, said he’s in the process now of testing the half a million lights it takes and plans to start hanging them soon.
But there will be a few COVID-19 extravaganza adaptations.
Nichols said the light-synced music accompanying the show – provided each year by Macon Pops – will be able to be picked up on car radios so those medically fragile, elderly and others will be able to drive or park and enjoy the experience with windows rolled up.
Still, Nichols said at this point some of the live, gathered elements like the visiting Santa, carriage rides, live animals and such, are being excluded.
Moretti said the Macon Pops has had to face the scheduling fact that large, indoor concerts are medically unwise these days. On average, theirs bring audiences of 1,000 or more. Also to consider is that Pops musicians live elsewhere and fly into Macon for shows. Shelter-in-place conditions and health dangers and problems flying compound difficulties.
“Our industry and individual musicians, along with the arts in general, have been really hard hit,” Moretti said. “I think I’ve heard over 2 million people in the music industry across the board have been affected, and that included musicians, producers, sound people – all sorts of people behind the scenes you don’t think of. It’s a huge economic force. I’ve seen a statistic saying it’s something upwards of $300 billion. There’s a domino effect I’m in touch with a lot of folks who’ve been sidelined.”
Moretti said the Christmas concert will be his first live performance since the pandemic struck. Apart from his work with Macon Pops, he’s primarily a traveling musician who plays concerts, recording sessions and other events who’s won two Telly Awards and had two Grammy Award nominations. Aside from playing drums, he’s a producer and fills numerous other music-related roles.
A shortlist of some of his work includes appearances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Hawaii Pops, Buffalo Philharmonic and Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in Kobe, Japan. Among producer’s credits are Hip-Hop artist Floco Torres, singer/songwriter Joshua Neal, violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, cellist Matt Haimovitz and an all-Mozart concert with Joel Smirnoff conducting. He’s entertained alongside acts like The Pointer Sisters, Martin Short, Rosemary Clooney, Kenny Loggins, Marvin Hamlisch, Captain & Tennille, Lorna Luft, Debbie Boone, Chris Parker, The Mambo Kings, Norman Leyden, Byron Stripling, Chuck Leavell, The Coasters and many more.
“For someone who flies over 120,000 miles a year and is scheduled for work two-years out, I haven’t been on a plane since February and it’s definitely an eerie feeling looking at a blank calendar,” he said. “That’s 100s of concerts canceled, but my colleagues are in the same boat.”
But fortunately, Moretti said in this technological age there’s still ways to work and musicians across the world are exploiting possibilities.
For Moretti, that means a lot of time in his attic.
“That’s where I built a studio and can record drum tracks, do engineering, production work and related things,” he said. “A lot of that works by being sent digital tracts to work on or a video to play along with that will be added to someone’s project elsewhere. That’s how Matt Catingub and I are working toward the Christmas show. He co-founded the Macon Pops with me and is such an amazing arranger and musician. He’s the big part why we’re able to make Macon Pops so unique among pops orchestras.”
Another example of the work-at-home projects Moretti is involved in also involves Catingub. He said Catingub’s mother was famed jazz singer Mavis Rivers and he and Catingub are working on a number of tracks that combine Catingub and his mother. They’ll be heard on SiriusXM’s Siriusly Sinatra channel.
“Everyone’s trying to get by the best they can, however they can,” Moretti said. “But I’m happy to say the Macon Pops will go on. We’ve been looking long-term from the beginning and have a great board looking out for us. A future project we’re especially excited about is working in schools to help expose, educate and inspire young people to music and being a musician. We just can’t wait to get everything going full steam again.”
Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.