San Francisco Pops Orchestra
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The San Francisco Pops Orchestra is an orchestra in San Francisco.
When the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1911, its first music director, Henry Hadley, began the tradition of "pops" concerts, devoted to lighter classics and special arrangements of music from operettas, musicals, and popular tunes. With the completion of the Civic Auditorium in 1915, most of the "pops" concerts were held in that 10,000-seat auditorium. Eventually, municipal taxes helped to keep ticket prices very affordable.
The "pops" concerts took on new life in the summer of 1949 when Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops Orchestra was invited by music director Pierre Monteux to lead the orchestra. Fiedler continued to conduct the summer concerts until the mid-1970s. Besides the regular concerts in the Civic Auditorium, Fiedler led annual performances at Sigmund Stern Grove, as well as occasional performances at Stanford University's Frost Ampitheatre and Oakland's Paramount Theatre.
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