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Long Beach Symphony Pops Live
Performing more than 100 concerts and events a year, the Long Beach Symphony plays primarily at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center's Terrace Theater, where it premiered in 1978 with a sold-out performance from pianist Van Cliburn. The season comprises a variety of offerings, from classical and POPS! series to family and educational concerts. The diverse repertoire includes works by Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Copland, Beethoven, Brahms and more. The POPS! series sees crossover concerts with music by the likes of Josh Groban, the Rat Pack and George Gershwin. The ensemble has performed with lauded area groups including the Long Beach Camerata Singers, the Jazz Angels and Musical Theater West. A Long Beach Symphony Pops concert is a rousing celebration of classical music in all its crossover forms.
Long Beach Symphony Background
For over 85 years, the Long Beach Symphony has been one of Southern California's greatest regional orchestras. And between its first premiered work in 1939 and the almost two dozen since, the group has sought to support both new and established composers. With music director JoAnn Falletta, who took charge in 1989, the group won the 1998 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. They would go on to win the Long Beach Heritage Preservation Award in 2012. Conductor Eckart Preu took over the reigns of the group in 2017. Before moving to Long Beach, Preu was the music director for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He also held posts in numerous other cities, leading groups like the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, the Wichita Symphony, and the Jerusalem Symphony, performing at esteemed venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Sorbonne in Paris. As part of the Long Beach Symphony's community education initiative, numerous concerts for youth entertain more than 10,000 elementary school children each year.
Although we did not purchase floor seating, the music was great and the big screens were very helpful. As a critique, it believe the program was a tad short.
Show was entertaining and fun. Perfect night to spend with a loved one. Sound system was clear, no hassle parking, multiple security lines with no waiting.
My friend and I were very disappointed that the Music of the 80s as advertised on our Ticketmaster turned out to be music of the 60s. We bought the tickets several months ago, after seeing the Long Beach Symphony website advertising it as Music of the 80s.There was no communication given to me by email that this event was changed to 60s instead of the 80s.
Loved the orchestra they were wonderful, I always enjoy the Long Beach orchestra. The Divas were okay, but not my main reason for attending.
I liked Molly Ringwald but I wished she had sung more of the program. We would have loved to have her do the entire second half of the program, at least. She was a real draw for us, we wouldn't have gone to the Long Beach Symphony otherwise. We did think she was charming and funny and her stories were great. Just wanted to hear more songs. The rest of the program was fine. It's a great event to have dinner and the Pops together. I wish my county had something like this!
We had a lovely evening at the LB Symphony Spooktacular! It is a fun venue because you can arrive early and bring your own picnic. The music was beautiful and it was a fun selection with many pieces that we knew. We especially enjoyed the electric violin which was something we hadn't heard before. The acoustics at the arena leave something to be desired but the rest was wonderful.
Was an incredible weekend, with the Long Beach Arena being so close to the Queen Mary we booked a weekend stay aboard the ship. Good places to eat on board, rooms were nice and historic. With the Scottish/Highland Festival going on it made for a very memorable weekend. We spent Saturday listening to bagpipes and watching the Highland games compete along with Scottish dancing. Then after a nice meal and some wine we headed over to the Arena for the Pops concert. Most memorable part of the concert was stories about Ella, the Symphony and singing was incredible. Dance floors were packed but still maneuverable and enjoyed the fun with all. Meet some great people there too and hope to see them at another show in the near future. The table consisted of 2 Korean War Veterans and a WWII Veteran along with their dates. They had incredible stories and such a fantastic time sharing the evening with them too. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE GENTLEMAN!! Then to wrap the weekend we did the Sunday Brunch on the Queen Mary which was a fantastic spread of food. Looking forward to the next event but I scored a lot of points on this 2015 Valentine’s weekend…
This review is not for the symphonic orchestra, as I could not hear them over the cover band that was playing with them. Not sure whose idea it was to have a Beach Boys cover band playing over the orchestra the whole time, but that was definitely not what I was expecting when I attended this event and not what I wanted when I bought the tickets. The orchestra by themselves played an opening piece which was FANTASTIC at the beginning of each half of the show, but then this dumb cover band was playing for the rest of it and you could not hear the orchestra whatsoever. It was terrible. If I wanted to go and listen to a cover band I would have bought a ticket for one and never have paid as much money as I did. Very disappointed that I didn't get to have the symphonic orchestra experience, especially since this was the first event of theirs I attended. Very poorly thought out event.
This was my first time going to the LB symphony Pops and it was great. While we didn't get a table the seats in the balcony were fine and the music sounded and great. I loved that you can bring in your own food or wine(which we did) and even did some dancing.
Love the Bosa Nova style of jazz music but this event was disappointing at best. The dancer girls did not appear until after the intermission as did the guest singer. All should have been the attraction of the show from start to finish.
Music was great. Could have used a little more theatrics -- the Brazilian dancers should have been on stage instead of below it. Hard for people to see them and the program needed their colorful costumes and performance.
The orchestra performance was excellent as well as the conduction. I am a Brazilian and I found the repertoire adequate. The public that I talked with enjoyed the show. The only thing that needed improvement was that the samba dancers were not visible to most of the public .
I had never attended any events at the Arena and did not know exactly what to expect with the Table seating. We decided at the last moment to attend and was not prepared for "Picnicking" so decided to see what food was available at the event. You definitely want to plan ahead and bring your own food as concession stands have a very limited and expensive offering, OR have dinner before you go, sit in the loge section and enjoy the music. This event was a lot of fun with great music. It would be even more fun to get a group of 10 people to share a table and bring potluck food to eat before the concert which is what most people seem to do. The symphony sounded wonderful. I wished the camera for the big screens had focused more often on symphony musicians rather than just the singer, Michael Cavanaugh. Our seats were too close to the front and too far to the left to see the most of the musicians. Next time I would eat dinner first, and buy seats in the loge section and enjoy the view and sound even more! But overall, a great experience and fun evening of music!
First of all, I love music!! I came in with an expectation to hear the Symphony - instead I heard a rock and roll band covering major hits - unsuccessfully. I get what they're trying to do - If these reviews get read - please, please let us hear the "actual" orchestra - and maybe thrown in some of the electric guitar - not make it the focal point.
The Long Beach Symphony pops with Tony Desare was Amazing. The wonderful selection of songs and the orchestra arrangements by conductor Steven Reineke were spot on! I hope this pairing will become a yearly event.
The symphony was perfect, and Tony Desare was more than what I expected! He is a great performer,and singer song writer If he ever does another show here in california, Me and my friends will attend for sure We just loved the whole show Sincerely richie
I really enjoyed the music with the combination of performers. I recommend the Long Beach Symphony Pops Concert. It exceeded my expectations. The music was enchanting.
I really enjoyed the show, the acts and music were brilliantly done!
Spectacular event. All the great movie scores were performed as well and acurately as the originals by the LBSO. Completely seamless . . . The Conductor did a superb job in orchastra leading, as well as pesonally entertaining the audience with numerous overviews and lead-ins to each score which enabled the auduence to easily and clearly re-visualize the involved movie scenes from the music being played . . . Just Incredible. Having the costumed Star Wars characters on hand for photo ops - Darth Vader, Bobba Fett, various era Storm Troopers, and Jedi Pilots, erved as "over the top" cake frosting. Definitely an 11-rated evening . . .
Wonderful Christmas fun! The Children's choir was fantastic, The bell group from Azusa Pacific University was amazing! It was good that our military folk were remembered in the "I'll be home for Christmas" song!