There is an old Chinese proverb, "An army of a thousand is easy to find, but ah, how difficult to find a general." Keith Lockhart has proven himself an influential leader in his 16 years as conductor of the Boston Pops, one of America's most treasured musical institutions. In a city rooted deeply in history, Lockhart has led effectively by not only cultivating tradition, but also encouraging continued creativity to expand the Pops genre into the 21st century.
Lockhart and the Boston Pops
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. During his sixteen-year tenure, he has conducted the Boston Pops in more than 1,300 concerts and introduced the innovative JazzFest and EdgeFest series, featuring prominent jazz and indie artists performing with the Pops. 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 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 vocal competitions open to the general public. 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.
Keith Lockhart has worked with a wide array of artists from virtually every corner of the entertainment world. Audiences worldwide love 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. He and the Boston Pops have released four self-produced recordings—Sleigh Ride, America, Oscar & Tony, and The Red Sox Album. Oscar & Tony provided the basis for the Pops’ first Internet TV broadcast, the first such program offered by a symphony orchestra. 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.
Recipient of the Bob Hope Patriot Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Keith Lockhart has made 70 television shows with the Boston Pops, including a 2009 concert featuring jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, and special guests Sting, John Mayer, and Steven Tyler, which was nationally broadcast on PBS 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 PBS’s Evening at Pops (1970-2004), for which Mr. Lockhart taped 38 new programs, among them “Fiddlers Three,” which won the 2002 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Two PBS specials, “Broadway’s Best at Pops” and “A Pops Holiday Party,” feature performance footage culled from more than 35 years of Evening at Pops programming.
Keith Lockhart has led the Boston Pops on 34 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.
VISIT: www.bostonpops.org
Lockhart and the Utah Symphony
Lockhart was appointed music director of the Utah Symphony in January 1998, a position that he added while maintaining his role with the Boston Pops. His leadership of the Utah Symphony allowed him to stand at the front of that organization’s historic merger with the Utah Opera to create the first-ever joint administrative arts entity of the Utah Symphony and Opera. Since the merger, arts institutions nationally and internationally have looked to Maestro Lockhart as an example of an innovative thinker on and off the podium. Moreover, Keith Lockhart revived the orchestra’s Mahler tradition, presenting the entire cycle of the composer’s major symphonic works.
With the Utah Symphony, he has conducted three "Salute to the Symphony" television specials broadcast regionally on 4Utah/ABC, one of which received an Emmy Award, and in December 2001, Lockhart conducted the Symphony and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in a national PBS broadcast featuring the Vaughan Williams Christmas oratorio, "Hodie."
Lockhart also had the privilege of leading the Symphony in performances during the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, and in two additional programs for the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival, one featuring British stage star Elaine Paige and the other an American music concert with soprano Audra McDonald. In April, 2005 the Symphony conducted its first European tour in 19 years. That was followed by the release of the Symphony's first recording in over 20 years, Symphonic Dances, in April 2006.
Lockhart concluded his tenure as music director in Utah with the 2008-2009 season, his eleventh, and is spending the next two seasons as music director emeritus, conducting several programs a year.
VISIT: www.utahsymphony.org
Lockhart and the Brevard Music Center
In October 2007, Lockhart succeeded David Effron to become artistic director of the Brevard Music Center summer institute and festival. The Brevard Music Center (BMC) has established itself as one of this nation's leading summer festivals and institutes for young musicians. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, BMC welcomes to its 140-acre campus each year 400 students from around the United States and the globe. Sixty-five distinguished faculty artists drawn from the most prestigious conservatories, universities and orchestras in America join these talented young people. In addition, the festival invites an array of celebrated guest artists who perform and present seminars and master classes. In 2011, the festival celebrates its 75th anniversary and concludes the season with Lockhart conducting a gala performance with Yo-Yo Ma and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra.
Lockhart's appointment solidifies an already special relationship with the Brevard Music Center. Having attended as a teenager for two summers (1974, 1975), first as a pianist and then as a student of bass clarinet on a teacher's aide scholarship, he has remained connected and committed to the organization throughout the rise of an impressive career. Lockhart was first featured as guest conductor in 1996 and has since returned numerous times. He was appointed chair of a national board of advisors in 1997 and received the Music Center's distinguished alumni award the following year. In 2000, Lockhart joined the board of trustees. Prior to his appointment, he appeared frequently at the Center as a guest conductor, chamber musician and teacher.
VISIT: www.brevardmusic.org
Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra
In August 2010, Keith Lockhart was appointed seventh Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra and will lead the BBC CO through to its 60th year in 2012 and beyond. The BBC Concert Orchestra plays a diverse mix of music from classical to rock and roll, and is heard regularly on BBC television shows, film, radio (including BBC2’s Friday Night is Music Night, the longest running music program in the world,) as well as in the concert hall. During the 2010-2011 season, Keith Lockhart led the BBC Concert Orchestra during its 15-city tour across America, and conducted his first Proms concert with the orchestra.
VISIT: www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/concertorchestra
Lockhart's Additional Work
Prior to his arrival in Boston in 1995, Lockhart served as music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra for seven years, completing his tenure in 1999. He also served as associate conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras from 1990 to 1995.
As a guest conductor, Lockhart has worked with the major symphony orchestras of Symphony Orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, Montreal, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore, Atlanta, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Singapore, Toronto and Vancouver as well as the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada), and the Philharmonics of New York and Los Angeles. Moreover, he has conducted the New York Chamber Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In the 2009-2010 season, Maestro Lockhart returned to the Boston Lyric Opera for performances of Bizet’s Carmen and traveled to Japan for performances with the NHK Symphony.
Personal
Born on November 7, 1959, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Lockhart began his musical studies at age seven when he took piano lessons. He earned two degrees from Furman University in Greenville, SC in 1981, B.Mus. in Piano Performance (Summa Cum Laude) and B.A. in German (Summa Cum Laude). He holds an M.F.A. in Orchestral Conducting from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA which he completed in 1983. He also holds honorary doctorates from Carnegie Mellon University, Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Centre College in Danville, KY, Furman University, Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, and Northeastern University.