BUTLER TWP — If music is for everyone, everyone could certainly find a style of his or her liking at the Butler County Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday evening at the Butler Intermediate High School.

The program paid tribute to the maestro of pops orchestras, Arthur Fiedler, whose baton led an orchestral revolution for 50 years.

As the longest tenured conductor of the Boston Symphony and its Pops persona, Fiedler believed that classical music should reach a wider audience, and to do that he included lighter and shorter pieces in a concert style very familiar to audiences today.

Matthew Kraemer, music director, led the symphony through a history of the Pops tradition beginning with the “Light Cavalry Overture” by Franz von Suppe, a piece popular in concerts in 19th century Europe. While few know about the operetta this overture introduced, most recognized the martial brass fanfare and familiar march theme that followed. This piece gave a rousing start to the evening,

Johann Strauss, the waltz king, also composed polkas, and the spirited “Thunder and Lightning Polka” delighted the near-capacity audience, with the strings sparking the lightning and the timpani providing the thunder.

Movie music became a standard in American 20th century pops concerts. Western Pennsylvania's Henry Mancini composed many film score favorites such as “Peter Gunn” and “Pink Panther” but few are as loved as “Moon River.” Mancini's lush theme from the iconic “Breakfast at Tiffany's” wooed the crowd, which was encouraged to sing along by Kraemer.

Fiedler's collaborations with Leroy Anderson may be the most enduring in the Pops' repertoire. Anderson not only arranged for the Pops, but also composed many gimmicky “musical miniatures.”

Kraemer selected three pieces to showcase Anderson's style. “The Waltzing Cat” allowed the strings to “meow” with musical precision. Principal percussionist Juliette Trudeau performed on a 1930 Royal model for “The Typewriter.” Keeping with the musical shtick of the piece, she “tuned” the typewriter bell to the oboe's A, then demonstrated her rapid-fire keyboarding skills. The audience loved it. The orchestra did a splendid job on the sensuous “Blue Tango,” a composition that landed Anderson on the top of the Billboard charts in 1951.

Closing out the first half was “Danzon No. 2” by Arturo Marquez. An example of current Pops programming composed in 1990, the work of South American styles and tempos blended tender solos by the clarinet, oboe, piano and violin with sultry themes by full orchestra. It was the highlight of the first half.

The symphony initiated a new partnership of educational outreach at this concert collaborating with the Butler Senior High School Orchestra and Band. Having worked with symphony principals and rehearsing with Kraemer, 24 talented young musicians joined the orchestra for an arrangement of rousing selections from George Bizet's “Carmen.”

The program continued with medleys to showcase the music of Broadway, rock music and film in the pops concert world. “Curtain Up!” arranged by Bob Krogstad featured seven musicals such as “The Phantom of the Opera” and “One” from “A Chorus Line,” but perhaps a medley from Rogers and Hammerstein would have paid better tribute to the establishment of American musicals as a concert mainstay. Likewise, Bruce Healey's “Love is All You Need” combined an unusual selection of six of the more than 250 Beatles hits in a baroque-like then rock style. “Here Comes the Sun” was the best of the numbers featured.

John Williams wrote the “Tribute to Film Composers” for an Academy Awards telecast. Williams, a premiere film composer and Fiedler's successor at the Boston Pops, packed snippets of at least 20 films into this short piece. By including themes from such films as “Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Magnificent 7” and “Gone With the Wind” Williams showed the power that film scores have and why those composers deserve to be part of symphonic concerts.

Of Fiedler's many contributions for popularizing classical music, none may be as impactful as his use of Tchaikovsky's “1812 Overture.”

The cellos began with the beautiful hymn-like section of the overture. Joined by viola and bass, it was a powerful lead in to the fanfare answer by the French horns. Once the piece progressed to the familiar descending scale passages and slowing tempo, the audience anticipated the finale. The resounding chimes and majestic return to the opening hymn showed Kraemer and the orchestra at their best. There may have been no cannons or fireworks, but the audience could imagine them and were immediately on their feet. Thanks to Arthur Fielder and his decades with the Boston Pops, music is for everyone, and, happily, the pops tradition shows no signs of going away.