The Golden State Pops Orchestra (GSPO) is an American symphony pops orchestra located in the San Pedro district of Los Angeles, California in the United States of America. The GSPO is the resident orchestra of the Warner Grand Theatre, an Art Deco movie palace built by Warner Brothers Studios in 1931. The orchestra performs a wide variety of musical repertoire, including classical, Broadway, pop music and even video game soundtracks. However, the primary focus of the GSPO remains film music, a specialty of the orchestra since its founding in 2002. The Golden State Pops Orchestra is composed of professional freelance musicians from around the Los Angeles area.
History
The Golden State Pops Orchestra (GSPO) was founded in 2002 by conductor and composer Steven Allen Fox, a graduate of the University of Southern California's Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television (SMPTV) program. Joshua Godoy, also a USC film scoring graduate, served as the assistant conductor. Initially functioning as the instrumental division of the Southeast Civic Light Opera in Los Alamitos, California, the orchestra's original home venue was the Liberty Theatre on the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Military Base.
The first public performance of the Golden State Pops Orchestra took place on April 6, 2002 at the Riviera United Methodist Church in Redondo Beach, California. The concert featured film music, and was titled Hooked on Film Scores. The Orchestra then performed four additional concerts in 2002, mostly at the Liberty Theatre.
Following its début season, the GSPO separated from the Southeast Civic Light Opera and moved its performances to the Long Beach Events Center (Scottish Rite Cathedral) in Long Beach, California for a portion of the 2003-2004 season, beginning with a St. Patrick's Day themed concert titled St. Pat Goes Pops! on March 15, 2003, and continuing with four additional concerts in Long Beach. In 2004, the orchestra moved to its current home venue, the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, California, premiering with a Valentine's Day themed concert titled Music for Lovers and Other Strangers on February 7, 2004.
Since 2004, the GSPO has become the resident orchestra of the Warner Grand Theatre, and has grown into a professional ensemble of around 60 musicians. It continues to specialize in live performances of film scores, and frequently introduces new film music repertoire to its audiences; music that has not been performed since it was first recorded at the original scoring sessions. In 2005, the orchestra gave the North American concert premiere of film composer John Williams' Battle of the Heroes from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith as part of its all Star Wars concert. Since 2005, the orchestra has presented over seventy world premieres to its audiences, both from recent films such as Drag Me to Hell, Avatar, Astro Boy, Superman Returns, and Scream as well as older films such as Three Amigos, Mysterious Island, and The Fall of the Roman Empire.
GSPO Ensemble Series
In addition to its regular full orchestra concerts, the Golden State Pops Orchestra presents a series of chamber music concerts at the Grand Annex, Alvas Showroom, the First Presbyterian Church and other venues located near the orchestra's home venue of the Warner Grand Theatre. The GSPO Ensemble Series concerts consist of regular orchestra members who perform chamber music in a wide variety of styles from film and television music to classical repertoire.
World Premieres
The Golden State Pops Orchestra has focused on live concert performances of film music from its inception. Due to the orchestra's connections with the film and music industry in Los Angeles, it has been able to perform many pieces of music for the first time outside the original films, often with the original composer in attendance or even conducting the orchestra. Some of the world premieres that have been performed by the GSPO include:
2014
Elmer Bernstein: Comedy Suite, featuring music from the films Animal House, Airplane!, Stripes, Trading Places, Three Amigos and Spies Like Us. Arranged and conducted by the composer's son, Peter Bernstein. (February 15, 2014) Elmer Bernstein: Rarely Performed Works, a suite featuring Silver from the 1956 LP, Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color as well as Bernstein's scores to the films Desire Under the Elms and Stripes. Also featuring music from the composer's rejected scores to the films The Journey of Natty Gann and A River Runs Through It. Arranged and conducted by the composer's son, Peter Bernstein. (February 15, 2014)