The Pops Orchestra's ‘Jersey Boys, California Girls’ concert too good to be true

The Pops Orchestra of Bradenton and Sarasota loves a good theme concert. 

This month’s “Jersey Boys, California Girls” might be a stretch, but it’ll be packed with Valentine’s Day fun.

“I joke that yes, I know it’s Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and we only have two guys singing, but in Florida there’s only two seasons so it turns out OK,” conductor Robyn Bell says with a laugh. “They’re both Florida boys, but for an afternoon or an evening we’ll pretend they’re from Jersey.”

The female guest musicians of Stiletto Brass Quintet are also not from California, but their talent will make up for their lack of connection to the theme.

This Valentine’s Day-themed concert of — you guessed it — love songs will feature the entire soundtrack of “Jersey Boys,” the Broadway production of which was orchestrated by now-Sarasota resident Steve Orich. He also arranged several songs for the orchestra’s “From Dallas with Love” Audrey Landers concert last year.

Bell says love songs are timely for a February concert, but her biggest source of inspiration was seeing the touring Broadway production of “Jersey Boys” last year at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.

“It was sold out and everybody was singing along and I thought, ‘Ah, the crowd is going to love this (as a pops) show,’” Bell says.

But she also wanted a women-are-from-Venus, men-are-from-Mars spin to the concert, so she thought of other popular songs about love and relationships. The Beach Boys’ “California Girls” came to mind, and thus “Jersey Boys, California Girls” was born.

The two “Jersey Boys” will be guest vocalists AJ Cali and Alex Zickafoose, whom Bell knows from her day job as the director of instrumental studies at the State College of Florida. Both singers are former students of the SCF musical theater program. Zickafoose is the choir director at Booker High School and Cali is a student at the University of Tampa.

“So through working at the college I knew them and thought they would be perfect — young, dark hair, dashing,” says Bell.

The Stiletto Brass Quintet is a five-woman group of musicians from all over the U.S. who, ever since 2010, have been getting together to tour as fierce, red high-heeled powerhouses on the trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba. Bell met the women last year when they came to SCF to teach some clinics for her music students.

“Sometimes you see something and you ask ‘how can we put that in our fold?’” she says. “I approached them afterward and they said, ‘Oh sure, we’ll be back in Florida next spring.’”

The group will perform six songs with the orchestra, three as the featured performers and three alongside the vocalists. Besides “California Girls,” their program includes “My Boyfriend’s Back”  and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” from “Jersey Boys.”

Along with all the musical hits, Cali and Zickafoose will perform other Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons classics such as “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and a “Grease” medley.

Bell is excited to see how the orchestra’s devoted audience, some of whom love themes so much they’ve donned patriotic and Christmas-themed glow necklaces for the past two Veteran’s Day and holiday concerts, respond to this fun-loving show, which she says is unique for the group. 

Regardless of their reaction, though, she’s proud of her orchestra.

“Our players didn’t go to Juilliard, and they don’t play on $1 million Stradivarius violins ... they have other jobs and families and just developed a love of music,” Bell says. “We provide them an audience to hear the fruits of their labor, and as that audience has grown, it’s just made it so rewarding.”