History

The Golden State Pops Orchestra (GSPO) was founded in 2002 by conductor and composer Steven Allen Fox, a graduate of the USC  Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television (SMPTV) program, fellow graduate, composer Joshua Godoy and L.A. based arranger and orchestrator Victor Pesavento. Initially functioning as the instrumental division of the Southeast Civic Light Opera in Los Alamitos, California, the orchestra's original home venue was the Liberty Theatre on the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Military Base.

The first public performance of the Golden State Pops Orchestra took place on April 6, 2002 at the Riviera United Methodist Church in Redondo Beach, California. The concert featured film music, and was titled Hooked on Film Scores. The orchestra then performed four additional concerts in 2002, mostly at the Liberty Theatre.

Following its début season, the GSPO separated from the Southeast Civic Light Opera and moved its performances to the Long Beach Events Center (Scottish Rite Cathedral) in Long Beach, California for a portion of the 2003-2004 season, beginning with a St. Patrick's Day themed concert titled St. Pat Goes Pops! on March 15, 2003, and continuing with four additional concerts in Long Beach. In 2004, the orchestra moved to its current home venue, the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, California, premiering with a Valentine's Day themed concert titled Music for Lovers and Other Strangers on February 7, 2004.

Since 2004, the GSPO has become the orchestra-in-residence at the Warner Grand Theatre, and has grown into a professional ensemble of approximately 60 performing musicians. It continues to specialize in live performances of film scores, and frequently introduces new film music repertoire to its audiences; music that has not been performed since it was first recorded at the original scoring sessions. In 2005, the orchestra gave the North American concert premiere of film composer John Williams' Battle of the Heroes from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as part of its all-Star Wars concert. Since 2005, the orchestra has presented over 100 world premieres to its audiences, both from recent films such as Drag Me to Hell, Avatar, Astro Boy, Superman Returns, and Scream as well as older films such as Three Amigos, Mysterious Island, and The Fall of the Roman Empire. In addition the orchestra has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, John Debney, Richard Sherman, Robert Townson, William Ross, Shoshana Bean, Bill Rogers and Christopher Young. In 2011, GSPO was honored by the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce as the 2011 Business of the Year, a coup for an arts organization. Please click here to view our Wikipedia page, which includes a comprehensive list of the world premieres that have been performed by the GSPO.

In 2021 the organization expanded and created the Entertainment in Music Association, which is now the parent organization to GPSO and the Los Angeles Film Orchestra.