This past Wednesday, the WHS orchestra and choral groups teamed up to put on the first Wayland Pops Concert, an idea pioneered by orchestra director and fine arts department department head Susan Memoli.

Memoli, along with choral director Rachel Carroll, took advantage of a bad situation when town meetings conflicted with the original orchestra and chorus concert dates.

“It started to grow into this is a great opportunity. We decided to combine our concerts because our audiences don’t get a chance to see the other groups and the kids don’t get to see each other perform. We’re going to make lemonade out of our lemons do a combined concert,” Memoli said. “My husband is the director of music in Weston, and for years they’ve done a pops concert. Let’s go all out, let’s make this a fun event, let’s use this as an opportunity to have people hear each other’s groups and just make it fun.”

With support from Wayland parents, students and middle school servers, the commons was transformed into a pops hall. With all the positive feedback received, Memoli hopes to make this an annual tradition.

“I think it was an enormous undertaking, but it’s one of those things when once it’s over and you gage the student response and the audience response, I think it was an overwhelming success,” Memoli said. “I think I’ve received more feedback on this from almost any other concert we’ve ever done. Our attempt to do something with what got booted out will probably become an ongoing tradition.”

Attendees reserved dinner table seats in advance, and there were also rows of chairs for a free general admission. Food and drink were served while the choral and orchestral groups played and the songs were chosen to evoke nostalgic memories from listeners. From Cole Porter and Star Wars from the orchestra to Adele and Disney’s Hercules (sung in Spanish by senior chorus member Andres Pascual-Leone), the songs were easily recognized.

When it was all over, it didn’t take long for people to get off their feet for a standing ovation, but Memoli said her favorite part was the collaboration between everyone to make the event possible.

“I think one of my favorite things was we had a ton of kids who helped us set up and seeing everyone so invested, so busy and helping to create this atmosphere. Jonah and the lighting crew literally transformed the commons into a pops hall. When I stepped back into that space, the lights were on and everything was ready to go. It was magic.”