There are jazz bands. There are classical orchestras. Then, there is the Seattle-based Pontiac Bay Symphony.

While they may not play rock and roll, some of their repertoire includes songs more recognizable than the Beatles.

Each Pontiac Bay performance embraces a theme. One concert focused on movie theme songs, including “Jaws,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Jurassic Park,” “Star Wars,” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” with its trademark, heart-stopping timpani.

Another concert celebrated the Western movie and TV show genre. That song list included “Rawhide,” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

On March 14, they will perform “The Pontiac Bay Old-Time Radio Show,” which will attempt to duplicate the old radio shows of the 1930s and 40s with a Cole Porter and Duke Ellington big band sound.

The scores will be interspersed with sketch dramas involving sound effects contraptions like the glass “crash box” that simulates windows and lamps braking, and the door and knob box, which often precedes the line, “This is the police. Open up.”

“Then there is the ‘wood block’ you strike with a mallet – the sound of junior kicking the bill collector in the shins,” said Sheila Espinoza, Pontiac Bay’s director and founder.

Espinoza is an award-winning Seattle composer whose mission was to establish a band with a mentoring theme. All ages participate and the more experienced musicians show the ropes to the newbies.

“We’ve done this (theme) twice before, and it was really popular and sold out,” she said.

Professional actor and base baritone opera vocalist Cliff Watson will be the announcer.

The eclectic roster includes Ballard percussionist Liam Fitzgerald, 18.

"Ed Hartman of the Drum Exchange recommended I audition," said Fitzgerald, who multitasks with a jazz drum set, four timpanis, bells and chimes.

He has been with Pontiac Bay for more than two years.

"I like the ability to come in and really play good, sophisticated and complex music with other players who are very talented," said Fitzgerald, Ballard High class of 09, now at the University of Washington. "Being around other talented players, you can always learn something."

Ballard resident and old-time radio maven Larry Albert will perform three roles as a guest for the symphony. He may be best known as Harry Nile, Dr. Watson and others in the Jim French Productions of Imagination Theater heard nationwide and in Seattle on AM 880 KIXI weekend evenings.

"Because I am one of the only guys in the country making his living as a radio actor and collector, I'm in a unique position," Albert said. "We are bringing back the feeling of the 30s and early 40s. It will be like listening to and old-time variety show. I think the whole concept is amazing."

Pontiac Bay Symphony is a non-profit open to musicians ages 13 and up. It performs three times a year at the Museum of History and Industry, located at 2700 24th Ave. E.