Keith Lockhart became the twentieth conductor of the Boston Pops in 1995, adding his artistic vision to the Pops tradition established by his predecessors John Williams and Arthur Fiedler. Mr. Lockhart holds the Julian and Eunice Cohen Boston Pops Conductor chair. He has worked with a wide array of established artists from virtually every corner of the entertainment world, while also promoting programs that focus on talented young musicians from the Tanglewood Music Center, Boston Conservatory, and Berklee College of Music. During his nineteen-year tenure, he has conducted more than 1,500 Boston Pops concerts and introduced the innovative JazzFest and EdgeFest series, featuring prominent jazz and indie artists performing with the Pops. Mr. Lockhart has also introduced concert performances of full-length Broadway shows, including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and the PopSearch and High School Sing-Off competitions. Under his leadership, the Boston Pops has commissioned several new works-including The Dream Lives On, a tribute to the Kennedy brothers, which was premiered in May 2010 during the 125th anniversary season-and dozens of new arrangements.
Audiences worldwide love Keith Lockhart’s 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 to which he feels so passionately committed. He and the Boston Pops have released five self-produced recordings-2013’s A Boston Pops Christmas-Live from Symphony Hall, as well as Sleigh Ride, America, Oscar & Tony, and The Red Sox Album-and 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. Keith Lockhart has made 74 television shows with the Boston Pops, including a 2009 concert featuring jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, and special guests Sting, John Mayer, and Steven Tyler, and the annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, broadcast nationally for many years on on the A&E and CBS television networks. He has also led many Holiday Pops telecasts, as well as 38 new programs for PBS’s Evening at Pops (1970-2004). He has led the Boston Pops on 39 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.
Keith Lockhart currently serves as principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London, which he led in the June 2012 Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II, and as artistic director of the Brevard Music Center summer institute and festival in North Carolina. He has appeared as a guest conductor with virtually every major symphonic ensemble in North America, as well as several in Asia and Europe. He was music director of the Utah Symphony from 1998 to 2009, and led that orchestra in performances at the 2002 Olympic Games, as well as on its first European tour in two decades. 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, NY, 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 keithlockhart.com for further information.