The Rappahannock POPS Orchestra, formed in November, 1999, is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization of more than 75 professional, semi-professional, highly talented amateur, and student musicians based in Fredericksburg, VA. The orchestra is celebrating their 15th Anniversary Season in 2014-2015. Over the course of their tenure, the orchestra has reached approximately 75,000 audience members at perfor
mances throughout the region. Part of the Mission of the RPO is to promote music education and musical outreach in our community. In support of this mission, the RPO has given approximately $2,500.00 to local school music programs; has granted over $5,000.00 in scholarships to graduating high school seniors for further music study; and has 6-10 students who rehearse and perform with the orchestra each year in our “Play with the POPS” program. To that end, the orchestra performs an annual Memorial Day concert that is free to the public and which honors men and women who serve or have served in all branches of the United States military. This concert typically draws over two thousand audience members. In addition to this performance, our subscriptions series concerts throughout the year are designed to engage and excite every listener. In addition, the orchestra performs educational outreach initiatives that are free to schools in the Rappahannock region in order to support the music programs of local schools and to bring high quality musical performances to students of all backgrounds. One legacy of the educational outreach program is that students under age 18 are admitted to all performances at no charge. This has been true of every performance by the Rappahannock POPS Orchestra since their inception. The orchestra collaborates with many local cultural organizations to increase musical awareness to the Rappahannock community. In collaboration with the Fredericksburg Festival of the Performing Arts, student winners of the Young Artist competition perform with the orchestra during one of the orchestra’s subscription series performances in the succeeding season. Past performances have occurred in various locations in and around the Fredericksburg community; and have included a broad range of musical styles, such as classical orchestral favorites, Broadway music, movie themes, contemporary popular music, big band music, jazz music, chamber music, and educational programs for both adults and students. In addition the orchestra has sponsored a variety of guest artists, from professionals to students. The orchestra offers performance opportunities to music programs from local schools in City of Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania County, Stafford County, and Orange County (among others) at each subscription series concert. We partners with local music teachers to develop educational outreach programs. The orchestra engages approximately 25-40 volunteers yearly for support purposes, and maintains a board of approximately ten to twenty members with a volunteer staff of five to seven for daily operations. A founding member of the Rappahannock POPS Orchestra, Kirk E. Wilke has been the organization’s Music Director since 1999. Now is his fifteenth season, Mr. Wilke has led the orchestra to become a vital cultural asset to the community. The orchestra now performs regular subscription series concerts of live classical and pops music to Rappahannock-area audiences in a variety of venues.
