The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra

The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra Keith Lockhart, Conductor Lights, Camera…Music! Six Decades of John Williams WHEN: VENUE: Friday, BiNG april 20, 2018 CONCErT Hall 8:00 pM photo: Marco Borggrevve Program Artists Main Title and Overture from Heidi The Boston pops Esplanade Orchestra Theme from Jaws Keith lockhart, Conductor Main Title from The Towering Inferno John Williams, Laureate Conductor Around the World with John Williams “Sayuri’s Theme” from Memoirs of a Geisha ronald lowry, cello The Boston pops Orchestra may be Suite from Far and Away heard on Boston pops recordings, County Galway, June 1892—The Fighting donellys— rCa Victor, Sony Classical, Joseph and Shannon—Blowin’ Off Steam (The Fight)—Finale and philips records. The Magic of John Williams Tonight’s program will be performed “Hedwig’s Theme” from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone without intermission. “Stargazers” from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ina Zdorovetchi, harp The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra’s “Flying Theme” from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial appearance is generously supported by Marcia and John Goldman. “raiders March” from Raiders of the Lost Ark John Williams: Facing History and Ourselves Theme from JFK Theme from Schindler’s List Katherine Winterstein, violin “devil’s dance” from The Witches of Eastwick May the Force Be With You "The imperial March" from The Empire Strikes Back “The rebellion is reborn” from Star Wars: The Last Jedi Main Title from Star Wars PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. please be considerate of others and turn off all phones, pagers, and watch alarms. photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you. 2 Biographies Keith Lockhart the legendary arthur Fiedler, who was 146 cities in 37 states, and four Having celebrated his twentieth at the helm of the orchestra for nearly international tours to Japan and anniversary as Boston pops Conductor fifty years. Keith lockhart has Korea. The annual July 4 Boston pops in 2015, Keith lockhart is the second conducted more than 1,900 Boston concert draws a live audience of over longest-tenured conductor of the pops concerts, most of which have half a million people to the Charles Boston pops Orchestra since its taken place during the orchestra’s river Esplanade and millions more founding in 1885. He took over as spring and holiday seasons in Boston’s who view it on television or live conductor in 1995, following John historic Symphony Hall. He has also webcast. in 2017 the pops organization Williams’s thirteen-year tenure from led annual Boston pops appearances presented its first self-produced Boston 1980 to 1993; Mr. Williams succeeded at Tanglewood, 42 national tours to pops Fireworks Spectacular. The list of 3 more than 250 guest artists with whom artists performing with the pops. in The Boston Pops Mr. lockhart has collaborated is a addition to occupying the Julian and in 2018 the Boston pops enters its virtual “who’s who” of performers and Eunice Cohen Boston pops Conductor 133rd season of entertaining pop culture icons. He has led eight chair, Keith lockhart is chief guest audiences in Boston and beyond. albums on the rCa Victor/BMG conductor of the BBC Concert Boston pops Conductor Keith Classics label, including two—The Orchestra in london, which he led in lockhart marks his 24th year at the Celtic Album and The Latin Album—that the June 2012 diamond Jubilee helm of the orchestra. in 1881 Civil earned Grammy nominations. recent Concert for Queen Elizabeth ii, and War veteran Henry lee Higginson releases on Boston pops recordings artistic director of the Brevard Music founded the Boston Symphony include A Boston Pops Christmas–Live Center summer institute and festival in Orchestra, calling its establishment from Symphony Hall and The Dream North Carolina. prior to his BBC “the dream of my life.” From the start Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy appointment, he spent eleven years as he intended to present, in the warmer Brothers. released at the beginning of music director of the Utah Symphony, months, concerts of light classics and the 2017 pops season, Lights, Camera… which he led at the 2002 Olympic the popular music of the day. From a Music! Six Decades of John Williams Winter Games in Salt lake City. He practical perspective, Higginson features Keith lockhart leading the has appeared as a guest conductor realized that these “lighter” Boston pops in a collection of with virtually every major symphonic performances would provide year- Williams’s compositions from the 1960s ensemble in North america, as well as round employment for his musicians. onward, some of which can be several in asia and Europe. prior to in May 1885—a little more than a considered rarities. Keith lockhart’s coming to Boston, he was the month before the inaugural increased focus on musical theater has associate conductor of both the “promenade Concert”—German-born attracted leading Broadway artists to Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati conductor adolf Neuendorff, under the the pops stage. He has worked closely pops orchestras, as well as music aegis of the BSO, conducted a series with hundreds of talented young director of the Cincinnati Chamber of “popular Concerts” in the Boston musicians, including Fellows of the Orchestra. Born in poughkeepsie, Ny, Music Hall, where the audience sat in Tanglewood Music Center, college Keith lockhart began his musical typical concert seating and no students from the Boston Conservatory studies with piano lessons at the age refreshments were served. On July 11, and Berklee College of Music, and of seven. He holds degrees from 1885, Neuendorff—who became the area high school students. He Furman University and Carnegie first conductor of the pops, before introduced the popSearch talent Mellon University, and honorary that name was officially adopted—led competition and the innovative doctorates from several american the first official “promenade Concert,” JazzFest and EdgeFest series, universities. Visit keithlockhart.com for distinguished from “popular Concerts” featuring prominent jazz and indie further information. by virtue of seating (tables and chairs 4 instead of auditorium-style rows), as “popular,” which eventually became legendary Arthur Fiedler (1930-1979). program format (three parts divided shortened to “pops,” the name The first american-born musician to by two intermissions, during which officially adopted in 1900. The lead the orchestra, he established the patrons could promenade around the following year the orchestra Boston pops as a national icon. When concert hall), and the availability of performed for the first time in its new John Williams (1980-1993) succeeded food and beverages. For the rest of home, Symphony Hall. There were Fiedler in 1980, he was the most highly the 19th century, although formally seventeen pops conductors— acclaimed composer in Hollywood, called “promenade Concerts,” they beginning with the aforementioned and today, with 51 academy award continued to be referred to informally adolf Neuendorff—who preceded the nominations, he is the most- 5 John Williams’s Gift to Film When one of the Star Wars films is shown, a cheer often goes up from the audience the moment John Williams’s Main Title begins playing. What moviegoers around the world instantly recognize is not the famous march theme but the three bars of preliminary splendor that precede it: a brief, brilliant chord in the horns and trumpets, followed by rapid-firing fanfares in the brass. The law of the lowest common denominator would suggest that the most popular music would the simplest, yet these few bars are far from simple. Having affirmed a bright major key, Williams’s orchestra nominated living person in academy four overseas tours, led the pops at detours into a different harmonic history. With the pops, Mr. Williams several high-profile sports events, and realm, one defined by the interval of made a series of best-selling recorded fourteen albums. Mr. the fourth. Furthermore, the rhythms recordings, broadened and updated lockhart’s tenure has been marked by of the fanfares are tricky, setting the pops repertoire, and entertained a dramatic increase in touring, the patterns of four against three. There’s audiences with live orchestral orchestra’s first Grammy nominations, a hint of chaos in this tangy sound, as accompaniment to film clips of the first major network national if free-spirited individuals were memorable movie scenes, many of broadcast of the July Fourth concert scrambling to coalesce into a whole. which featured iconic music from his on the Charles river Esplanade, and Even when the march theme kicks in, own scores. Keith Lockhart (1995- the release of the Boston pops’ first it retains an uneven, lopsided present) has led concerts spotlighting self-produced and self-distributed feeling—the perfect image of the artists from virtually every corner of recordings. in 2017 the July Fourth rag-tag rebel army that is defying the entertainment world, all the while concert opened a new page in its darth Vader. maintaining the pops’ appeal to its history, as the pops organization core audience. He has made 79 presented its first self-produced Williams is the most successful television shows, led 42 national and Boston pops Fireworks Spectacular. composer in Hollywood history—he 6 has received fifty-one academy award nominations, and the hundred-odd movies on which he has worked have grossed in excess of twenty billion dollars—not because he peddles the simplest possible material but because he presents easily grasped ideas with sophistication, skill, and unflagging invention. When you look at one of his scores, you see everywhere signs of immaculate craft. Orchestras like the Boston pops, which Williams led from 1980 to 1993, find this music a pleasure to play, although it is not unchallenging: if you were to give Star Wars to an unrehearsed student ensemble, you’d probably hear a mess.

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