The audience for the Marin Symphony’s sixth concert gave it a standing ovation last night for the first of two performances. This was a clear signal that the Marin audience likes the pops, especially this concert which only featured works of American composers - Copland, Bernstein, Ellington and Ives. The same concert is repeated today at 7:30 p.m.

In every way, the Marin Symphony is reaching out to an eager audience. A lecture by Ron Johnson, given one hour before the concert, explained some of the fine details of the music to be heard.

Maestro Gary Sheldon introduced the program and gave a short commentary before each work in his extremely articulate and witty manner.

Sedge Thomson, host of KQED’s “West Coast Live” radio show, was the narrator for one of the pieces and members of the San Rafael High School Jazz Band filled in for some of the pieces. To top it off, a fine jazz piano soloist, Joseph Joubert, played two works.

This was a real gift to the community and the community, in turn, loved this concert.

Three of Aaron Copland’s most famous pieces were the backbone of the concert, starting with his thrilling “Fanfare for the Common Man”. This stirring music provided the chance for the symphony to show off its fine brass section.

In introducing Charles Ives’ “Variations on ‘America’”, Sheldon joked that when one critic called Ives’ music “outrageous, outlandish and offensive,” Ives’ answered, “Finally someone understands my work”.

Ives, whose day job was selling insurance, is considered the “grandfather of American music,” according to Sheldon.

Ives is always fun to listen to as he parodies the standard and often serious forms of music. Here the maverick composer played with the well-known tune for “America” and made it into a fugue, march, rumba, and so on, all the time borrowing from other familiar tunes.

Having a sense of humor and creating collages seems to be ingrained in the music of America. Maybe only a relatively new country could produce such exuberant music as Copland’s “Four Dance Episodes from ‘Rodeo,’” another Copland work that concluded the evening’s program.

Right before the last work was Copland’s most serious side, “Lincoln Portrait,” narrated by Thomson.

There were many in the audience with tears in their eyes when they heard the works of Abraham Lincoln gathered from his most famous speeches recited along with Copland’s nostalgic and heartfelt music.

Joubert played two works, Duke Ellington’s “A New World A Comin’” and George Gershwin’s Variations on ‘I Got Rhythm.’” Joubert is a well-known soloist who enlivened the concert all the more with his exciting playing.

And where would we be without Leonard Bernstein on an all-America program? “Three Dance Episodes from ‘On the Town’” were played with gusto.

The Copland pieces were so successful that it is good to know that all of next season’s second program, Nov. 19 and 21 will be devoted to his work and include “Symphony No. 3.”

Copland, the pops, American music and Marin all seem to fit well together.