1) A Salute to the Duke: John Wayne
Sep. 28, 29, 30

Richard Kaufman opens the Pops series with a 100th-anniversary tribute to The Duke, John Wayne, featuring music from True Grit, The Comancheros, The Alamo, The Cowboys and more. With visuals from some of John Wayne's classic films projected above the orchestra, this program is as much a salute to The Duke as "hero of the West" as it is a tribute to the uniquely American film genre known as the Western, with its rough and tumble towns, vast American landscapes, gun-slinging sheriffs, rowdy cowboys, and the struggle between good and evil. In addition to film music by Elmer Bernstein, Dmitri Tiomkin and John Williams, the program also features fiddler extraordinaire Thomas Demer, who will perform such fiddle classics as Orange Blossom Special, Ashokan Farewell and others.

A Dallas Symphony violist since 1985, Thomas Demer earned a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Arizona. At age 16 in his hometown in Arizona, he won his first old-time fiddlers' contest while already the youngest member of the Tucson Symphony. He went on to become the principal violist of that orchestra and has also been a member of the Fort Worth and Omaha symphonies. In addition to performing on solo country fiddle with various symphonies, he also performs on mandolin, musical saw and tenor banjo as well as arranges full string section parts for commercial pop and rock recordings.

Fri, Sep 28, 8 pm /PAC-CMH
Sat. Sep 29, 8 pm /MAH
Sun, Sep 30, 7:30 pm /REH