MUSIC : Adding Snap, Crackle to Pops : Director John Hall Says Variety Keeps Cypress Orchestra’s Programs Lively

Pops orchestras draw audiences but generally don’t get the critical attention that more “serious” orchestras seem to get automatically, and “it’s frustrating,” John Hall says.

Hall, the director of the Cypress Pops, who will lead the group in a free concert Saturday at Boisseranc Park in Buena Park, knows that “pops orchestras have always had to fight to get recognition. I suppose the material is more lighthearted and more relaxing to listen to. It’s not as sophisticated as classical symphonic material.

“Still, that doesn’t mean it isn’t quality music.”

He also notes that pops orchestras don’t exclude classical material. A typical program, he says, may be almost 30% classical, 30% to 35% show music and the rest “film and novelty solo material, like flute or tuba solos.”

The Saturday program will have just such a mix, with music from “Star Wars” and “Phantom of the Opera,” “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” a trumpet solo (“Spanish Trumpet”), Strauss’ “Blue Danube” Waltz and Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture, with fireworks and cannons.

Hall argues that such variety is necessary because of the competition for the entertainment dollar, especially here in the Southland. “It’s important we don’t bore our audiences with one style of music,” he says. “We want to get people out of thinking, ‘Oh, a symphony orchestra. You have to hear sometimes very boring, very tedious symphonic material.’ ”

Along with varying the kinds of music, Hall tries to further keep his programs from getting “tedious” by avoiding “pieces that are very long. I’m very cautious in performing works that last more than eight or 10 minutes. Most pieces come in around six to seven minutes long.” And, his concerts are free.

The approach seems to work. Hall says his summer concerts, usually on Cypress Green, “average about 2,000 people.” Indoor concerts fill the 625-seat hall at Cypress College where the orchestra plays in winter. Hall says he would like to book the orchestra into the larger Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, which is scheduled to open in January.

A 1972 graduate (in trombone and conducting) of the Juilliard School in New York, Hall conducted and played in Europe for four years before coming to Orange County in 1976.

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He taught at Cypress College and Compton Community College and, in 1984, took over the Long Beach Community Band (some members of which will join the pops orchestra for the “1812” on Saturday). He and his wife, Marie, whom he married in 1986, formed the Cypress Pops in March of 1989 “with no seed money, on pure faith,” he says.

“We went to the city and they gave us $4,000 the first year. Target Stores came in with $4,000 for that first season, and it’s mushroomed from there.”

Last year, the orchestra operated on a $62,000 budget. This year Hall says he expects “a small shortfall” on a projected budget of about $98,000. Even so, he stresses, “we are not a deficit orchestra. If we come up with a shortfall, we all have to cut back.

“I’m salaried on the budget, too. So if a concert runs short, we all get cutbacks. The musicians say yes to that because they want the orchestra to continue.”

The money still comes from the city of Cypress, corporate and private donations and fund-raising activities.

Besides giving concerts, Hall and the orchestra recorded the two-hour soundtrack composed for the Medieval Times dinner theater in Buena Park by Dan Friedman and Michael Schwartz, friends of the conductor. Hall hopes that the recording, the orchestra’s first, will help give the group “credibility, respectability and visibility.”

On top of that, “we will have the opportunity to sell CDs (of the soundtrack) at our concerts and make a small profit,” Hall said.

Hall’s orchestra numbers 55 players, a combination of professionals, students and community musicians. All, Hall says, are loyal to the Pops. “We have a very strong, consistent core. About 85% have been playing in the group since I started it.”

Like the audiences, “our musicians like a variety of styles of music. That keeps them entertained and their energy level up and makes them play better.” If he had the money, he feels, he “could establish another two or three orchestras easily” from the list of substitute musicians he maintains.

Now if only the critics would pay attention.

* John Hall will conduct the Cypress Pops Orchestra in a free program on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Boisseranc Park in Buena Park. (714) 527-0964.