Biography of Keith Lockhart
Conductor
Keith Lockhart was named Associate Conductor of
the Boston Pops Orchestra in January 1980, and he was also
founder, Artistic Director, and Conductor of the Boston Symphony
Youth Concerts, as well as a member of the Boston Symphony's
Orchestra's first violin section.
conductor, Julian and
Eunice Cohen Boston Pops Conductor's Chair, fully funded in
perpetuity
Keith Lockhart
became the twentieth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra
in 1995, adding his artistic vision to the Pops tradition
established by his predecessors John Williams and Arthur
Fiedler. During his 15-year tenure, he has conducted the Boston
Pops in more than 1,200 concerts and introduced the innovative
JazzFest and EdgeFest series, which feature the Pops performing
with some of today’s most prominent jazz and indie artists
including Chick Corea, Dianne Reeves, Guster, My Morning Jacket,
and Natalie Merchant. The 2009 New Year’s Eve concert featured
special guest Amanda Palmer. Reflecting a passionate commitment
to music of the Broadway stage, Mr. Lockhart has led the Boston
Pops in collaboration with the Tanglewood Music Center in
concert performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and
Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, as well as musical
reviews of the works of Sondheim and Bernstein, performed both
at Symphony Hall in Boston and at Tanglewood. He has also
spearheaded collaborations with students from the Boston
Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, and visits music
programs in the Boston Public Schools whenever his schedule
allows. Mr. Lockhart has been the driving force behind the
success of PopSearch and the Boston Pops High School Sing-Off,
performing competitions that have offered talented singers
throughout Massachusetts and the United States an opportunity to
perform with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall and the July 4
concert on Boston’s Charles River Esplanade. Under his
leadership, the Boston Pops has commissioned several new works,
including The Neville Feast by Christoper Rouse, Wish You Were
Here by Nico Muhly and The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the
Kennedy Brothers to be premiere during the 125th season, as well
as dozens of new arrangements.
Keith Lockhart has worked with a wide array of artists
from virtually every corner of the entertainment world. From
Hollywood and Broadway stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Nathan Lane,
Martin Short, Mandy Patinkin, and Jason Alexander to popular
singers k.d. lang, Barry Manilow, Celine Dion, Elvis Costello,
and Patti LaBelle, to jazz and American songbook legends Barbara
Cook, Terence Blanchard, Natalie Cole, and Mel Tormé, to
classical favorites Dawn Upshaw and Gil Shaham, Keith Lockhart
has brought many of the great musicians and entertainers of our
day to the Pops stage.
He is loved by audiences far and wide
for his inimitable style, expressed not only through his
consummate music-making, but also by his unique ability to speak
directly to the audience about the music for which he feels so
passionately committed.
Boston Pops Recordings and
Internet Projects
Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops have
released four self-produced recordings – Sleigh Ride, America,
Oscar & Tony, and, most recently, The Red Sox Album. Oscar &
Tony provided the basis for the Pops’s first Internet TV
broadcast, the first such program offered by a symphony
orchestra. In September 2009, the Boston Pops released its first
digital-download only recording of its wildly popular
arrangement of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Keith Lockhart and
the Boston Pops Orchestra have also recorded eight albums with
RCA Victor—Runnin’ Wild: The Boston Pops Play Glenn Miller,
American Visions, the Grammy-nominated The Celtic Album, Holiday
Pops, A Splash of Pops, Encore!, the Latin Grammy-nominated The
Latin Album, and My Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers
Celebration. Boston Pops recordings are available at
bostonpops.org.
Boston Pops Broadcasts
Keith Lockhart
has made 67 television shows with the Boston Pops, including a
recent concert featuring jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, and special
guests Sting, John Mayer, and Steven Tyler, which was nationally
broadcast on PBS in March 2009 and subsequently released on DVD,
Blu-ray, and a Grammy-nominated CD. One of Mr. Lockhart’s
favorite events is the annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular,
broadcast nationally on CBS Television and watched by
approximately 10 million viewers each year. Other telecasts
featuring Mr. Lockhart at the helm of the Boston Pops have
included Holiday Pops telecasts on PBS, A&E, WCVB-TV (Boston),
and WBZ-TV (Boston), as well as Evening at Pops, one of PBS’s
longest-running shows (1970-2004) for which Mr. Lockhart taped
38 new programs. Two PBS specials, “Broadway’s Best at Pops” and
“A Pops Holiday Party,” featuring performance footage culled
from more than 35 years of Evening at Pops programming,
highlighted some of the most popular moments from past programs
with Arthur Fiedler, John Williams, and Keith Lockhart. The
Evening at Pops program, “Fiddlers Three,” under Mr. Lockhart’s
direction, won the 2002 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.
Boston
Pops Touring
Keith Lockhart has led the Boston Pops on 33
national tours, as well as performances at Carnegie Hall and
Radio City Music Hall, and brought the music of “America’s
Orchestra” overseas in four tours of Japan and Korea. Mr.
Lockhart has led the Boston Pops in the national anthem for
numerous major sports events, including game two of the NBA
playoffs in June 2008. In September 2004, he and the Boston Pops
performed with Sir Elton John during the live national telecast
of the NFL Season Kickoff special. In February 2002, he led the
Boston Pops in the pre-game show of Super Bowl XXXVI at the
Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
Keith Lockhart
Background And Other Conducting Projects
Born in
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Keith Lockhart began his musical studies
with piano lessons at the age of seven. He holds degrees from
Furman University in Greenville, S.C., and Carnegie-Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, and has previously served as associate
conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops
orchestras. In addition to guest conducting appearances in the
United States and abroad, Mr. Lockhart also holds the titles of
artistic advisor and principal conductor of the Brevard Music
Center in North Carolina and Music Director Emeritus of the Utah
Symphony. As music director of that orchestra from 1998 to 2009,
Mr. Lockhart led a performance at the 2002 Olympic Games. Visit
keithlockhart.com for further information.
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