The Boston Pops, affectionately known as “America’s Orchestra,” will be in Rudder Auditorium to perform “Lights…Camera…Music! Six Decades of John Williams” on Friday, March 22, at 7:30pm. Led by conductor Keith Lockhart, the orchestra will perform a concert of film scores dedicated to the works of multi-Oscar winner and Boston Pops Laureate Conductor John Williams. Williams’ iconic film scores include E.T., Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, among others.
To purchase tickets, call the MSC Box Office at (979) 845-1234 or visit www.MSCOPAS.org. The concert is sponsored by Tom and Mary Kirk of McGregor.
Keith Lockhart Having celebrated his 20th anniversary as Boston Pops Conductor in 2015, Keith Lockhart is the second longest-tenured conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. He took over as conductor in 1995, following John Williams’s thirteen-year tenure from 1980 to 1993; Mr. Williams succeeded the legendary Arthur Fiedler, who was at the helm of the orchestra for nearly fifty years. Keith Lockhart, who occupies the Julian and Eunice Cohen Boston Pops Conductor chair, has conducted more than 2,000 Boston Pops concerts, most of which have taken place during the orchestra’s spring and holiday seasons in Boston’s historic Symphony Hall. He has also led annual Boston Pops appearances at Tanglewood, as well as 43 national tours to more than 150 cities in 38 states, and four international tours to Japan and Korea. He and the Pops have made 80 television shows and participated in many high-profile sporting events, most recently game two of the 2018 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. With Eaton Vance as presenting sponsor and Bloomberg as sponsor and media partner, the annual July Fourth Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular draws a live audience of hundreds of thousands to the Charles River Esplanade and millions more who view it on television or via digital media. The list of more than 250 guest artists with whom Mr. Lockhart has collaborated is a virtual “who’s who” of performers and pop culture icons. He has led eight albums on the RCA Victor/BMG Classics label, including two — The Celtic Album and The Latin Album — that earned Grammy nominations. Recent releases on Boston Pops Recordings include A Boston Pops Christmas – Live from Symphony Hall, The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, and Lights, Camera…Music! Six Decades of John Williams. Keith Lockhart’s increased focus on musical theater has attracted leading Broadway artists to the Pops stage. He has worked closely with hundreds of talented young musicians, including Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, college students from the Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, and area high school students. He introduced the PopSearch talent competition and the innovative JazzFest and EdgeFest series, featuring prominent jazz and indie artists performing with the Pops. Having recently completed an eight-year tenure as principal conductor, he is now chief guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London; he is also artistic director of the Brevard Music Center summer institute and festival in North Carolina. Prior to his BBC appointment, he spent 11 years as music director of the Utah Symphony, which he led at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. He has appeared as a guest conductor with virtually every major symphonic ensemble in North America and many in Asia and Europe. Prior to coming to Boston, he was the associate conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops orchestras, as well as music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Keith Lockhart began his musical studies with piano lessons at the age of seven. He holds degrees from Furman University and Carnegie Mellon University, and honorary doctorates from several American universities. Visit www.keithlockhart.com for further information.
About the Boston Pops This year the Boston Pops enters its 134th season of entertaining audiences in Boston and beyond. Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart marks his 25th year at the helm of the orchestra. In 1881, Civil War veteran Henry Lee Higginson founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra, calling its establishment “the dream of my life.” From the start he intended to present, in the warmer months, concerts of light classics and the popular music of the day. From a practical perspective, Higginson realized that these “lighter” performances would provide year-round employment for his musicians. In May 1885 — a little more than a month before the inaugural Promenade Concert — German-born conductor Adolf Neuendorff, under the aegis of the BSO, conducted a series of “Popular Concerts” in the Boston Music Hall, where the audience sat in typical concert seating and no refreshments were served. On July 11, 1885, Neuendorff — who became the first conductor of the Pops, before that name was officially adopted — led the first official Promenade Concert, distinguished from popular concerts by virtue of seating (tables and chairs instead of auditorium-style rows), program format (three parts divided by two intermissions, during which patrons could promenade around the concert hall), and the availability of food and beverages. For the rest of the 19th century, although formally called Promenade Concerts, they continued to be referred to informally as “Popular,” which eventually became shortened to “Pops,” the name officially adopted in 1900. The following year the orchestra performed for the first time in its new home, Symphony Hall. There were seventeen Pops conductors — beginning with the aforementioned Adolf Neuendorff — who preceded the legendary Arthur Fiedler (1930-1979). The first American-born musician to lead the orchestra, he established the Boston Pops as a national icon. When John Williams (1980-1993) succeeded Fiedler in 1980, he was the most highly acclaimed composer in Hollywood, and today, with 51 Academy Award nominations, he is the most-nominated living person in Academy history. With the Pops, Mr. Williams made a series of best-selling recordings, broadened and updated the Pops repertoire, and entertained audiences with live orchestral accompaniment to film clips of memorable movie scenes, many of which featured iconic music from his own scores. Keith Lockhart (1995-present) has led concerts spotlighting artists from virtually every corner of the entertainment world, all the while maintaining the Pops’ appeal to its core audience. He has made 80 television shows, led 43 national and four overseas tours, led the Pops at several high-profile sports events, and recorded fourteen albums. Mr. Lockhart’s tenure has been marked by a dramatic increase in touring, the orchestra’s first Grammy nominations, the first major network national broadcast of the July Fourth concert on the Charles River Esplanade, and the release of the Boston Pops’ first self-produced and self-distributed recordings. In 2017 the July Fourth concert opened a new page in its history, as the Pops organization presented its first self-produced Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular.
