The band and orchestra take on their first concert this year with their Pops and Pastries event. It takes place on November 3, at 7 p.m. in the main gym.

Pops and Pastries is the band and orchestra’s biggest event and fundraiser all year and a great opportunity to watch them play some of this year’s new music.

“It’s our first major performance of the year and it’s also our biggest fundraiser of the year, so you know you’ll see all of the bands live — the concert band, the symphony band, the ensemble band, the jazz band and the orchestras,” Director of Bands, Christopher Takis said.

According to Takis, this year the band and orchestra decided their theme will center around Italy and the music found there because the class will take a trip to Italy in the upcoming spring.

“We usually try to come up with a theme for the event and usually the themes are centered around what our next trip is going to be. Next March and April the band and orchestra are going to be travelling to Italy,” Takis said. “We’ve had an Italian theme the past couple of years to kind of get the people in the mood for it, and we play a lot of Italian themed music.”

Joseph Burgoyne ’20 along with the rest of the band and orchestra classes have been working so hard for their first event according to Mr. Takis.

“Each band has been working really hard on their own pieces,” said Burgoyne. “Mr. Takis has been a really great help as a conductor, he’s really put together a great program this year.”

Takis encourages students who have an interest in music to attend this year’s event and it’s also a great way to show support for all the hard work put into this year’s fundraiser.

“If you like seeing great music performances, it’s a great event to come to and it also supports the band and orchestra,” Takis said. “The money for tickets, everything that goes into it, raffles, there’s all sorts of things that people can do to support the groups.”

The Pops and Pastries is like no other event that the band and orchestra will put on this year according to Takis.

“This event is very unique in that it is our biggest fundraiser of the year and again it’s our first performance so it’s unique in that regard. There’s nothing we really do that’s like it, I mean it’s a ticket event, they decorate the gym in accordance with our theme,” Takis said. “I can’t really compare it to the other performances because it’s so different and it’s obviously not ideal for the students to play in the gymnasium, but that’s part of the effect, having the tables set up, the theme for the event as well, there’s nothing like it.”

According to Takis, he and the rest of his classes are eager to perform in their first performance this year and show off what they learned so far.

“I can’t wait to play in this year first performance,” Corey McGraw ‘21 said, “It should be an excellent performance and I hope to see my friends and family cheer me on.”