For 40 years, László Veres has been presenting classical music to Tucsonans, as a musician with the TSO, as a music teacher in public schools and as the leader of three different ensembles at once: the Tucson Pops, the Arizona Symphonic Winds and the Foothills Phil. In between, he also resurrected the Philharmonia Youth Orchestra.

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László Veres has a theory about when he should put down his baton: When it's no longer fun and he's no longer enthusiastic. • "I tell my wife, 'Keep an eye on me. Soon as you see me losing my energy and my love for music, yank me out,' " said the veteran Tucson conductor, who turned 71 last month. "When that happens, that happens." • So far, there are no signs that will happen any time soon.

"I'm getting younger, I'm getting younger," he joked during a cell-phone call last week while vacationing in San Diego with his wife, longtime Tucson Symphony Orchestra violinist Frances Veres. "I feel great. I'm full of life."

Among Tucson's music-makers, Veres has quietly made his mark as a musician, conductor and educator. His name does not ring bells of recognition like those of the TSO's George Hanson or Arizona Opera's Joel Revzen. But he is unmistakable at the podium, from his thick and playful Hungarian accent to his trademark white tuxedo and bow tie. When the music is buoyant, which it often is when he is leading the Tucson Pops Orchestra, he bounces on his toes and you can't help but tap your toes along with him.

For 40 years, the Hungararian-born Veres has been an integral part of Tucson's classical-music scene.

● He taught generations of Tucson youngsters in a distinguished 30-year public-school career.

● He has encouraged retired surgeons and busy housewives to find their inner musician with the Arizona Symphonic Winds, a concert band he started in 1986 and still leads.

● He has given an outlet to amateur musicians with the Foothills Phil, a band he started in 1993 as part of the Catalina Foothills High School music program that became an intergenerational community band. The oldest member is 86; the youngest is 13.

● He has nurtured prodigies to new heights, leading the effort to resurrect the Philharmonia Youth Orchestra and then leading it for seven years in the mid-1970s. The Philharmonia today is recognized as one of the country's leading youth orchestra programs.

● And for the past 11 years, he has helmed the venerable Tucson Pops Orchestra, which has been around since the mid-1950s and has had only three conductors, including Veres.

"I'm very pleased with the way things worked out, and I'm very happy with what I'm doing," Veres said of his career, which started soon after he returned from military duty to his adopted hometown of Tucson and enrolled in the University of Arizona.

Veres came to Arizona in 1957, a freshly drafted soldier stationed at Fort Huachuca. He took his citizenship pledge in Bisbee in 1962, then served during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

At the UA, which awarded him a scholarship, he earned his bachelor's degree in clarinet performance, then went to the University of Oregon to earn his master's.

He returned to Tucson once again and took a teaching job in city high schools. In 1967, he landed the job of principal clarinet with the TSO, where he stayed until 1983. His conducting career developed from a yearlong stint in 1975 leading the Tucson Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Veres says his music career, from playing with the orchestra to leading his community ensembles, has earned him "vacation money" over the years. It also has cemented his reputation as a personable, enthusiastic music-maker.

"He is a wonderful conductor. He really brings the audience into the concerts," said Tucson Pops manager Dottie Spence, who has worked with the orchestra nearly 30 years.

"László has a lot of energy. . . . We have fun, especially during performances," said Tucson Pops concertmaster Michael Fan, who has been part of the 56-member professional orchestra for 15 years. "He has a whole lot of energy, and people really pick up on that."

"László's in the joy business," added Dave Sitton, who chairs the Pops Orchestra board of directors. "He will stand there, and people will come up to him . . . and it's some nuance in the music or his introduction of each piece that will remind them of some joyous moment in their life and they are compelled to come up and let him know."

Veres also is a silent torchbearer for classical music. Each spring and fall, he leads the Pops and Symphonic Winds in free parks series. He programs light-classical alongside Broadway hits and Great American Songbook standards, exposing his audiences — which regularly number in the thousands — to the music near and dear to his heart.

"People tell me thanks for playing such and such a piece. And they go on and on about how it reminded them of this time in their lives," said Veres, the father of three musically proficient sons. "I hope I made people feel good and I provided entertainment for them. I also gave them good memories.

"If I put a smile on my audience's faces, I know I did a good job and it gives me an extreme high," he added. "If they learn something on that day, it makes me feel good."

When the day comes that Veres' wife tells him it is time to let go, he will be ready, he said.

"I would look back and say, 'All right, it was fun. It was a fun ride, a good gig,' " he said. "I know I made lots of people happy."