Aubrey Logan, Ilya Serov and the Reading Pops Orchestra

Trombone-playing singer-songwriter Aubrey Logan hails from the picturesque surroundings near Seattle, WA. Raised by her two music-educator parents, she began her artistic endeavors as a child singing in theatre and in church. Thoughtful songwriters like Billy Joel & Carole King influenced her early childhood via her singing mother and trumpet-playing father, as well as the soulful musicianship of American horn bands such as Chicago, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Steeley Dan, and more. Things took an intriguing turn when she picked up the trombone at the age of 12, igniting her passion for the jazz tradition.

Aubrey possesses a distinct yet truly unique voice, able to take a song from practically any era or genre and really making it her own, through surprising vocal melisma, scatt jazz interludes and a blissful warm tone that expands over her entire catalogue of originals to innovatively-arranged hits.

Aubrey's musical footprint can be traced from Seattle to Boston to LA, and now Austin, TX, where she continues to captivate audiences with her extraordinary vocals and unmatched Jazz finesse.

Award-winning trumpeter/singer/guitarist /band leader Ilya Serov has a passion for jazz that knows no bounds. A talented young musician with an old soul, Ilya brings an infusion of imagination, vision and energy to the many shades of America’s original musical art form. Possessing both chops and charisma, his live performances and recordings have attracted a solid following among jazz fans and seasoned musicians alike.

Ilya’s experiences on the jazz scene have recently led him to expand his creative interests in a significant new direction that blends jazz with elements of soul and R&B. In November 2021 he released his third studio album, Just Friends, which features platinum-selling saxophonist Dave Koz and other award-winning artists: keyboardist Greg Manning, saxophonist Alex Hahn, vocalist Matt Cusson and guitarist Kay-Ta Matsuno. The album features 11 songs, and the first three singles on the album are Serov’s original compositions. “Chillin’,” his first original single, was composed and released in 2020 during the isolation and introspection brought on by the global pandemic. “Heat” (featuring Dave Koz) and “Ironic” were both released in 2021. Both tracks received considerable international airplay, and “Heat” made it on the Billboard Top 30 Smooth Jazz Chart. In November 2021, Ilya was nominated as Breakout Artist of the Year by Smooth Jazz Network.

Ilya Serov is driven today not only by his desire to preserve jazz as an American treasure, but by his mission to engage and educate new generations of listeners. He continues to focus exclusively on contributing his time and talent to the world of jazz - its past, present and future.

The Reading POPS Orchestra is a professional 55-piece orchestra made up of musicians from the Reading and Berks area, and the surrounding counties established in 1969, currently under the direction of Willis M. Rapp, retired Music Department Chair at Kutztown University.

The orchestra performs all around Berks County playing a wide variety of music including recognizable classics and overtures of Von Suppe, Handel, Strauss, Dvorak, Bizet, and Mozart. They cover American contemporary composers such as George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and Morton Gould. Popular tunes from Broadway musicals by composers such as Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin as well as Hollywood soundtracks by the likes of John Williams, and others are programmed. Music of LeRoy Anderson, the “father” of the Pops genre, is often featured as well. The orchestra even swings! The versatility of the musicians is evident in “the group within a group” when the woodwind section doubles on saxophones creating the Pops Big Band. Rousing marches round out the repertoire of this lighter musical style ensemble.

The mission of the Reading Pops Orchestra is to promote the musical arts in Reading and Berks County through the preservation of a professional orchestra for the performance of public concerts, and to provide a variety of historical and educational presentations of the classic pops repertoire, exposing the greater community to different musical art forms.

ARTIST WEBSITES: Aubrey Logan(opens in a new tab) - Ilya Serov(opens in a new tab) - Reading POPS Orchestra(opens in a new tab)(opens in a new tab)(opens in a new tab)(opens in a new tab)