Playing for his last year, senior Anthony David said he is looking forward to the band’s upcoming POPS concert and feels more prepared than in the past despite not loving the theme.

“We get to pick the theme — this year it’s POPS spins the records — and we get to play the music and have a fun time,” David said. “As a senior, I’ve been doing it for more years, and although this POPS theme isn’t my favorite, they’re all fun and we get to play well-known music, which is pretty fun and nice.”

According to band director Steven Schmitz, the annual concert is about giving the band the opportunity to play well-known, popular music.

“The concept always is to play things that are a little bit catchier and more recognizable — POPS is short for popular,” Schmitz said. “This year’s (theme), POPS spins the records, includes music that would originally be on record. We have Led Zeppelin, and we have ABBA, and there is some other disco music.”

Sophomore Keely Berntsen said the band program has been preparing since December by practicing not only as whole group, but also separately within smaller bands.

“We’ve been preparing for a couple months,” Berntsen said. “We play the songs in class, and we’ve been doing practice as a whole band and practice in sectionals.”

The concert will begin with a jazz performance and a pizza dinner, which will be followed by performances from the rest of the band, according to Schmitz.

“The Jazz Band puts together a concert while people eat pizza, and they play about eight songs. It’s about a 45-minute concert,” Schmitz said. “We then move into the Auditorium, and the three concert bands each take their turn playing some music that fits the theme.”

Berntsen said the POPS concert will be the largest event of the year for the band program and gives high schoolers the opportunity to play more popular songs than they usually would.

“We are going to be playing lots of popular music,” Berntsen said. “This performance is pretty important. It’s probably our biggest performance of the year; it’s the whole band program.”

The concert is March 4, and although the music itself is free, the pizza dinner will cost $5 for Park students and $10 for adults, according to Schmitz.