THANK YOU POPS

PHOTO GALLERY

Elyria – If you missed it this year you will have to make sure you mark it on your calendar for 2009.

Thousands enjoyed the music of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra under the Direction of Carl Topilow Saturday night on the steps of the old County Courthouse. People arrived hours early with lawn chairs and picnic baskets in hand to make sure they had their favorite spot for the evening.

Judy Nedwick of the Kiwanis Club is one of the main organizers for the concert; Nedwick says all of the hard work pays off when she takes her seats and enjoys the evening. “We basically start working on this during the winter and it’s a lot of phone calls and working with people to make this happen.”

Nedwick says that without the cooperation from city and county officials the event would never happen. “Since I have been working on this event, each person I talked to; be it Frank Gustoff from the Parks Department or Chris Eichenlaub our Safety Service Director, they have all been so wonderful to us and have never said no to a request.”


This year’s show opened with two numbers from an Elyria family – the Kellers –A Mom and her three son’s ages 19, 16 & 13. They performed two selections, the first was The Prayer, by Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster, which won the 1999 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and Nessun Dorma, a powerful piece from the opera, Turandot, by Giacomo Puccini.

A tribute was planned to celebrate Elyria’s 175th birthday just after the intermission. The plan was for the audience to sing Happy Birthday while the Orchestra played behind them – this worked out pretty well. There was one other part of the tribute that may have fallen a little short and that was the balloon drop. Obviously having a balloon drop at an outdoor event is darn near impossible – that is where the bucket truck came in. The balloons were lifted high into the air using a city of Elyria utility truck and then shook loose from the mesh bag they were in. Not exactly a balloon drop at a political convention but fun for the kids all the same.

One of my favorite lines from the evening was just after the balloon drop Conductor Topilow said; “Well I have seen many balloon drops in my life…. And that was one of them.”

When you set aside all of the balloons, opening acts and speeches what you were left with was an amazing concert event. The organizers from the Kiwanis Club and Main Street Elyria should be praised for bringing such an event to downtown Elyria. As many of you know I am no fan of the carny-fest that rolls into town in mid-September but in this event you have world class musicians performing on the steps of the old County Courthouse on a gorgeous evening – Does it get any better then that?

Take a moment to view the photo gallery from this event – if you didn’t make it check out what you missed and make plans to attend next year.

To learn more about the Cleveland Pops Orchestra: CLICK HERE

PHOTO GALLERY