Harvard’s band Pops at Hatch Shell

Under the artistic direction of Thomas Everett, the Harvard Summer Pops Band will present its annual concert at the Hatch Shell on Saturday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m. Bassoonist Dale Clark will be the guest soloist. The Harvard Summer Pops Band will also perform in Harvard Yard on Wednesday, Aug. 1, at 4 p.m.

Comprising 150 wind and percussion instrumentalists from the Greater Boston area, the Harvard Summer Pops Band is open to the public without audition. Members represent more than 30 towns in the area and range in age from 10 years old to well into retirement. Some members have played since the band’s inception in 1972, while others have brought their entire families to play together every summer.

In addition to Everett, who will make a cameo appearance conducting “Minuteman March” by Robert Pearson, Nat Dickey and Allen Feinstein will conduct the band. Feinstein will conduct his composition “Limerick for Bassoon and Band,” with guest soloist Clark. Dickey will perform as trombone soloist on Sammy Nestico’s “Reflective Mood” and conduct the remainder of the program, including Harvard Summer Band favorites by Leroy Anderson and John Williams, marches, medleys, and a movement from the epic suite “Lord of the Rings” by Dutch composer Johann DeMeij.

Since his appointment to the Harvard faculty in 1971, Thomas Everett has directed the Harvard University Wind Ensemble, the Harvard Jazz Band (which he founded), and the Harvard Summer Pops Band. He also prepares all ceremonial music for the University. A graduate of Ithaca College Conservatory of Music, Everett has held teaching positions at Brown University, the New England Conservatory, the Indiana University Summer School, and the International Trombone Workshop. At Harvard, he has taught courses on jazz and American music in the Afro-American and Music departments, through the Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School, and in seminars at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A noted bass trombonist, Everett has also performed extensively.

Dale Clark, assistant professor of bassoon at the University of Memphis, has performed throughout the United States and in Europe with the Boston Lyric Opera, Berlin Camerata Vocale, New Bedford Symphony, Granite State Symphony, and Nashville Symphony, among others. He has performed as a solo and chamber musician in many venues and has been artist-in-residence at Northeastern University, and guest artist at the University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Nat Dickey, assistant to the director of bands at Harvard, is also an award-winning chamber musician, an active freelance trombonist, and a noted conductor in the Boston area. A founding member of the Orion Trombone Quartet (winners of the 1989 Coleman Chamber Music Competition) and the Brass Mosaic (Carnegie Hall debut, 1997), Dickey has also performed with the Boston Ballet, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, New York Big Brass, and the Big and Phat Jazz Orchestra, among other ensembles.

Allen Feinstein ’86, has been a member of the Harvard Summer Pops Band for 17 years, appearing as guest conductor twice. His composition “The Little Engine That Could” received its premiere with the Harvard Summer Pops Band. At Harvard, Feinstein is music director of the Harvard Pops Orchestra, music supervisor of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and a resident artist in musical theater with the Freshman Arts Program. He is a member of the faculty of Northeastern University, where he conducts the Orchestra and Concert Band and teaches music theory.

The performance at the Hatch Shell is co-sponsored by the Metropolitan District Commission and Harvard Summer School. Harvard Summer Pops Band concerts are free and open to the public.

For more information, call (617) 496-BAND.