Macon Magazine

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 | maconmagazine.com 45 CAPRICORN COLLABORATION In February, Steve spent a weekend not in his home studio but behind the console as producer for special sessions at Mercer's Capricorn Sound Studios featuring Amy, 18 students and Macon Pops co-founder and artistic director Matt Catingub. The recordings were for an album and use on SiriusXM Satellite Radio's Siriusly Sinatra channel. The musicians also performed the arrangements before a live audience at a Fabian Concert Series performance at the Grand Opera House. "What made the recordings so special is that Matt's mother was famous jazz singer Mavis Rivers, a colleague of Frank Sinatra and the first female artist on his Reprise record label," Steve said. "The songs were his arrangements of her songs and a tribute to her. It also meant an opportunity for Amy to showcase McDuffie students and the center. It showed what can be done right here in Macon at a very demanding level and that you don't have to go to LA or New York to make fantastic recordings or do great projects." Amy said the collaborative experience showed something the center has always prided itself in: teaching students not only music but real-world matters of being working musicians. She said addressing the problems of COVID-19 created another way of showing that there are solutions to problems musicians always face while building careers. "You could feel such a sense of history at Capricorn," Amy said. "What the Allman Brothers and others did there, and the wonderful songs connected to Mavis Rivers, made up a variety of music and styles so different but all so good. Those recordings will go on and on all over the world." MAKING MACON POPS When the Morettis first moved to Macon, Amy had ambitions for the McDuffie Center while Steve concentrated on furthering his flourishing travel career. "Macon Pops wasn't in my crystal ball at all when we came," he said. "If you had told me a pops orchestra was in my future, I'd have said you were nuts." In the 2013 Macon Magazine article, Steve only alluded to a future concert that would eventually become the Macon Pops. "I was busy traveling the US and Canada, doing work in Japan, recording in LA, and I love all that. But the Pops lets me dig in and have roots in Macon like I haven't been able to elsewhere. It's a pleasure getting involved with organizations, charities and events like the Cherry Blossom Festival and Main Street Christmas Lights Extravaganza," he said. "Our Pops concerts bring outstanding musicians to town and give local singers a wider community audience. Older students at the McDuffie Center are often part of the Pops orchestra." Macon Pops brings energetic, themed shows with songs arranged and directed by Catingub that invite audience participation. Past themes have included Southern rock and music from James Bond films. Future shows this year include "Big Band Remix" at the Grand Opera House on Nov. 12, which also will highlight Catingub's coming solo recording, "From Samoa to Sinatra," with its Sinatra standards and the recordings honoring his mother. Hopes are that Reprise will release the album in tribute to Sinatra and Rivers. The Pops will open 2021's fourth annual Main Street Christmas Light Show Extravaganza Nov. 26 and, in 2022, headline the Cherry Blossom Festival's Tunes and Balloons event. Pops board member Rosemary Spiegel has been a Macon Pops fan since its beginning. "I feel one of the greatest things has been seeing how audiences have grown and come to represent such a diverse cross-section of our community," she said. "It's unlike anything else I've seen in Macon. People come together and truly enjoy all types and genres of music. I have such admiration for Steve and what he and Matt have done and how we get to enjoy their immense talents and energy. When people ask me about Macon, the Pops is one of the great things I get to tell them about." Left: Steve Moretti. Above: Recording sessions at Mercer's Capricorn Sound Studios in February included the Morettis, 18 students and Macon Pops co-founder Matt Catingub, and were for an album and use on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

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