Shriners to Present Summertime Pops Concert June 15

SPRINGFIELD — Shriners Hospitals for Children – Springfield will welcome the Old Post Road Orchestra for a free summertime pops performance on the hospital lawn on Wednesday, June 15 from 7 to 9 p.m.

The Old Post Road Orchestra (OPRO) is enjoying its 30th concert season as a volunteer community orchestra based in Wilbraham. OPRO’s mission is to provide quality symphonic music at convenient locations in and around Western Mass., and to offer people of all ages the opportunity to play their instruments in a friendly, community-based orchestra.

This summertime pops performance will feature a guest vocalist, Anita Anderson Cooper. Trained at Westminster College and Boston University, she has worked as a professional musician, conductor, and teacher. Career highlights include solo performances at Carnegie Hall; leading roles with various opera, Broadway, and regional theater companies, and solo appearances through the Hampshire Choral Society. Recent conducting roles were with the Green Mountain District in Vermont and the Quabbin Valley Music Festival.

Cooper has been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and studied Mozart’s music in Vienna, Austria. She currently teaches three choirs, music theory, and jazz at Amherst Regional High School; conducts the New Valley Singers in Holyoke; and is the soprano soloist for South Church, Springfield. Her Chorale recently won the WGBY television series Together in Song, and WGBY produced a special about the group.

Light refreshments will be available at the concert. Lawn chairs are permitted, but alcohol, smoking, and pets are not. For more information, contact Lee Roberts at (413) 755-2307 or leeroberts@shrinenet.org. For more information about OPRO, visit www.opro.org/content/about-us.