The Arizona Pops Orchestra Celebrates America's 250th Anniversary

Greg Kostraba: This is KBACH’s Heart of the Arts podcast, I’m Greg Kostraba. The Arizona Pops Orchestra presents their Americana Homage program June 17th and 18th at Tempe Center for the Arts. John Doney is the president and CEO of the orchestra. He's in the studio to chat about the concert. He’s brought a couple of musicians from the orchestra in as well. Welcome!

John Doney: Thank you so much.

Kostraba: Tell us, since the last time you were here for that initial concert with Mat and Savanna Shaw, what's been happening with the orchestra? Have you been gaining traction, getting excitement? What's been going on for you?

Doney: Yes, we’ve been gaining more traction and we’re getting more and more people excited about what we’re doing. And obviously, we have phenomenal musicians. Sixty-five musicians will be in the orchestra for this concert. The first concert was more chamber, so that was just strings with combo and, of course, Mat and Savanna. That's the part that’s also exciting for me as president/CEO, to converse with all these musicians and we hire them. We’ve been around now for just over a year and I can’t think of better musicians to have in our orchestra than Morganne McIntyre, who’s our assistant concertmaster, and principal guitar Megan Marshall.

Kostraba: The folks that are new for the orchestra, did they hear about this concert and come to you and say, “this is a great opportunity, I’d love to be a part of it,” or did you go to ASU, and beat the bushes to get musicians? How did you get musicians to play in the orchestra, the ones that weren’t in the chamber concert?

Doney: I like to tell people it started with one musician—that was our concertmaster. He and I went to high school together, and we went from there, obviously our conductor as well, Michael Bryson. Then one person led to another connection and recommendations by a lot of our musicians. Most of our musicians have a master’s, and many of them have doctorates, too. So it’s building synergy on stage because everybody’s connected in some way, shape, or form with somebody else. It’s not just picking randomly one musician and another and just putting them together. I can’t think of a better way to form an orchestra—a team, as I like to call it, a family—for the Arizona Pops Orchestra.

Kostraba: The musicians you brought in, Morganne and Megan, they’ll be playing for us in just a little bit. We’ll get a sense of what’s on the concert. It’s very different than the first one. How did you decide on an Americana program? Did you talk to your concertmaster and conductor and team it up, or did you just have this idea right from the start given that it is the 250th birthday of America?

Doney: I had the idea from the start, the inception of the orchestra. I have different programs lined up in my mind and just pray and hope that everything will come together. And the funding, obviously, you work hard to try to get that support to push the orchestra to new heights and publicity and notoriety. But Americana Homage obviously speaks to a lot of people. Whatever background you come from to this great country, we want to celebrate that and bring people together from all walks of life. That’s what the mission of the Arizona Pops Orchestra is. And these concerts, most importantly, will honor the heritage, history, and legacy of our great country as we approach the 250th birthday. We have such a variety of pieces on this concert, from iconic American composers: John Williams, Michael Kamen, and George Gershwin, and transcendent through different decades and different styles of music. Then we have the great Rhapsody in Blue—George Gershwin, the classical piece—but he implements so many incredible layers into that sound, including banjo, which Megan’s going to play, also guitar on the Michael Kamen piece, electric guitar. So that’s from the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus.

Kostraba: Oh, the movie about the teacher who inspired so many students in music.

Doney: Correct.

Kostraba: Let’s talk about the program. You did start with the Star-Spangled Banner and then the Michael Kamen music, and then you go into this Gershwin set, Two Gershwin Portraits.

Doney: The portraits are a couple of different selections that were famous from the Gershwin repertoire. So this piece was commemorated for the 100th birthday of New York City and two great trumpet soloists: principal trumpet Daniel Birnschein and assistant principal trumpet Brandon Dicks.

Kostraba: And then Gershwin’s famous Rhapsody in Blue. This is an interesting arrangement you’ve got. It’s not the Grofé version of it, it’s not the Gershwin original, it was an edition by Tim and Louise Berens. Tell us a little bit about this. It's from 2020, so after the piece got out of copyright. What’s different about this arrangement?

Doney: Well, you can acquire this piece for one, so you can add this to the library. You can rent the work, and that’s what a lot of orchestras have done. There’s a few differences, but not noticeable from the original version in what Tim Berens was able to implement into this. It sounds pretty much the same as what you would hear for the rental. And so I think that’s what stood out to me is the ability to own this piece and perform it some years later down the road. And Tim is easy to reach out to and communicate with. The feedback he’s got back is phenomenal from all these different orchestras. And so these musicians love the size of the parts, they’re easy to read. So I thought this will be a tremendous addition for us, this version. And having you perform this, of course, as the piano soloist, and you’ve performed this so many times, it’s huge to have your expertise on stage and the draw that you have to—and your passion that you bring to the stage. That’s what we love most. Obviously the music is on the stand, and we want to go beyond that and be able to reach people from all walks of life and make the music come alive. So it’s not just great music on the stand and it’s easy to read, but having you make that come to life is what we’re aiming for.

Kostraba: Well, thank you. I’m very excited to be the soloist in Rhapsody in Blue. After the intermission, it’s pretty much John Williams film scores, from War Horse (1912) to selections from Lincoln and selections from American Journey. And we’ll hear a couple of those in just a little bit. Tell us about the collection of John Williams pieces that you’ve put on for the second half. It seems like there’s a lot of patriotic selections within this. I mean, you could have picked anything—he’s written so many scores over so many years—but you seem to really hone in on the Americana aspect.

Doney: Right. That was the goal. For instance, The Men of the Yorktown March is just a gorgeous march to open the second half. And then moving into the suite from The Patriot. It has a nice flare for every section in the orchestra. I mean, there’s moments where the brass just have their incredible fanfares—the typical John Williams fanfare that everybody’s come to love in the movies—and then you’ll hear more of the strings serenading the audience. And these pieces probably have been less performed than the typical—you might hear Star Wars, E.T., and so on and so forth. And so the suite from JFK is one of those pieces I’ve heard as a kid growing up, and to also think about Lincoln and his life as well. They were both presidents, they unfortunately were assassinated, and they’re just great films. The American Journey—that’s something that takes me back to 2000 when it came out with the CD for the Olympics, and that’s when I first was introduced to it. There’s three movements on this particular piece that we’ve been able to acquire. And then, of course, we’ll close out with a special, but I won’t mention what that is. It’ll be exciting for anybody and everybody. It will connect the entire audience. I realize it’s June 17th and 18th, middle of the week, 7:30 PM, but everybody needs a little break, a getaway for an evening. And I will say that Tempe Center for the Arts is such a beautiful concert hall. And if you have not been there, you will just absolutely love it and you’ll want to come back again for another concert, I guarantee it. You feel a connection between the audience and the orchestra.

Kostraba: And on the subject of the orchestra, Morganne McIntyre is the assistant concertmaster of the Arizona Pops Orchestra. What drew you to this orchestra? What drew you to this community? You're not a native Arizonan, right?

Morganne McIntyre: No, I’m actually from Minnesota. And I moved down here from Denver after grad school about three and a half years ago. And I heard about the Arizona Pops from a colleague, actually. And I was just immediately interested because I’ve always wanted to be a part of a pops orchestra specifically. I really like movie scores and, quote unquote, “fun” music. And so I decided to reach out to the orchestra’s webpage and John Doney emailed back and the rest is history.

Kostraba: And this will be your first concert with the orchestra, right?

McIntyre: It will be. Yeah, my first concert.

Kostraba: And you also teach, right? You're at Arizona Christian University?

McIntyre: Yep. I’m the professor of strings and music theory at Arizona Christian University.

Kostraba: Okay, well we can’t wait to hear you and Megan play a couple of selections. Megan Marshall is the banjo player for the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue and she’s also the guitarist for the Arizona Pops Orchestra. Tell us your story with the orchestra—how you came across it. Did you go to their website like Morganne did and just chat up with John, or how did all this work?

Megan Marshall: Yeah, so every year I actually play this show at Dream City Church called the Celebration of Christmas. And this year, Morganne also played this show—this was December 2025—and she actually approached me and said, “Hey, I’m part of this great orchestra called Arizona Pops. We are looking for a guitarist. Is this something that interests you?” And I said, “Yeah, I would love to hear more.” You know, got connected with John and had a phone call, and here we are.

Kostraba: That’s wonderful. Now, you are a native of the valley, right? Tell us a little bit about your guitar studies.

Marshall: Yes, so I grew up born and raised here. I started playing guitar in church, actually, at the age of twelve. The worship leader at the church I was attending said, “I'll give you guitar lessons and I'll also let you play electric guitar for our team if you are willing,” and of course I said yes. Played guitar all throughout high school, started taking jazz guitar lessons freshman year of high school. I played clarinet alongside as well, actually, in concert band, marching band. That’s where I learned to read sheet music. And when I was a senior in high school, it was time to choose: do I want to pursue guitar or do I want to pursue clarinet? And I chose the guitar. Ended up going to Arizona State University, majored in jazz performance for the guitar. And I also got very involved in the musical theater scene as well. And I continue to play. I actually music direct at Dream City Church now and I’m very, very honored and blessed to play weekly, and it’s a lot of fun.

Kostraba: Well, thank you all for coming in. It’s been a real pleasure to talk with you. Appreciate your time.

Doney: Thank you so much, Greg. And we appreciate the opportunity to come on the show and just highlight a lot of what we have in store.

Kostraba: John Doney is the president and CEO of the Arizona Pops Orchestra, which will present their Americana Homage program at Tempe Center for the Arts June 17th and 18th. I’ve also been joined by the orchestra’s assistant concertmaster, Morganne McIntyre, and guitarist Megan Marshall. Ticket information is at arizonapopsorchestra.org/concerts. And before we let you go, let’s hear two pieces by John Williams that’ll be on this Americana Homage concert: the theme from The Patriot and “Getting Out the Vote” from Lincoln, performed by violinist Morganne McIntyre and guitarist Megan Marshall.

[Audio of “The Theme from The Patriot” and “Getting Out the Vote” from Lincoln plays]

Kostraba: For the KBACH Heart of the Arts podcast, I’m Greg Kostraba.