Mr. Chris Ludwa most recently conducted the 2007 Picnic with the POPS concert   (See his profile on the Maestro Page.)

The POPS' 70-member paid, community-based orchestra's mission is to present highly professional musical performances designed to entertain, educate, and enrich the lives of citizens of all ages.  This may appear to be an innocuous, mundane sentence, but please read on.

We have created a sense of community by bringing increasingly larger audiences together to enjoy a common shared interest in popular music.  This creates a bond between people of various ages and preserves America's classical popular music idiom of the future.

We have given the opportunity to local men and women, particularly students from Indiana University's renowned School of Music, not only the opportunity to play but also to earn pay for performing in our concerts.