The Philly POPS Charts Upcoming Months And Its Return To Performance

The Philly POPS has announced its plans to move forward with upcoming performances through the summer and fall of 2020. The primary concern of the POPS remains the health and safety of patrons, musicians, and staff, and all planning is centered on emerging best practices in venue, performance, and audience protocol. The POPS will present in exciting and innovative ways, bringing Philly's orchestra to everyone, regardless of where they are-at home or in the concert hall.

Since its launch in March, POPS @ Home has helped keep POPS fans connected with exciting content to recall previous seasons and tease upcoming performances. POPS in Schools @ Home has connected the students of the Philadelphia School District with bilingual online music education and enrichment, featuring instructional content, student videos, and special chats with POPS artistic staff. POPS in Schools @ Home content has been included in the Philadelphia School District's Google Classroom and music curriculum.

The POPS begins its return to performance with its annual Comcast NBCUniversal Salute Series concerts for Wawa Welcome America. The programs on July 3rd and 4th will be featured in the festival's innovative virtual experience and will include fanfare and celebration that fans of the POPS and Wawa Welcome America have come to know and love over the years.

In line with developing health and safety guidelines provided by the City and the Commonwealth, The Philly POPS plans to perform through the summer and fall, culminating with its iconic Christmas series. Programs will be available first as streams, and will introduce audiences, likely at reduced capacity, over time. The POPS is in talks with The Met Philadelphia and it's likely that more POPS performances will be presented there during this timeframe. Fall POPS Rocks shows, including POPS Rocks Let It Be and Star Wars: A Galaxy of Music are particularly suited to The Met Philadelphia's audience demographic-as shown by the POPS' successful Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas performances in 2019.

Following the July 3 and 4 concerts, the POPS continues with its annual Christmas in July press conference and bicycle drive, providing bicycles to the children of police, fire, and first responder families, July 16 at 10AM. This year the distribution is likely to be made available to the public virtually.

Closing out the summer Salute Series performances, the rescheduled Memorial Salute performance will take place on Labor Day weekend at a to-be-announced venue.

At this time, the concerts scheduled at the Kimmel for this summer, Hammerstein: The Song is You and Sinatra: A Man and His Music will be rescheduled into the 2021-2022 Season. They will be made available for sale to Subscribers through a special pre-sale in September. Patrons are invited to choose from a menu of options including ticket donations, streaming opportunities and creating a My Account option with Ticket Philadelphia allowing for a reallocation of ticket monies to future programming.

In light of recent scheduling changes for all Kimmel Center programming, the POPS is currently coordinating with the Kimmel for a return to Verizon Hall on plans for appropriate 2020-2021 Subscription Series and POPS Presents performances. Current plans will allow guests to enjoy concerts in person, digitally, or as a hybrid experience. All guest experiences for Subscription Series performances will be informed by federal, state, and city guidelines.

Complementing all future performances, the POPS will feature exclusive content, including digital program books and interviews with POPS artistic staff, musical experts, radio personalities, and more. Streaming tickets will be made available for all ticket holders for any specific event and further will be made available for purchase to a wider public.

"Performance is a necessity-both for The Philly POPS and for the Philadelphia community," said Frank Giordano, President and CEO of The Philly POPS. "Above all, the health and safety of our patrons, musicians, and staff are our top priorities. So, while we are changing how we get our music to the people of our great city, it's never been more important to keep the music going, and we encourage everyone to join in for this exciting time."

For more details on all POPS upcoming performances, visit www.phillypops.org.

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