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NPR Holiday Specials 2002: Classical
Holiday Pops with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops
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Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, conductor
Concert of December 14, 2002
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA |
Artist Profiles | Related Links
Program
Mendelssohn-Bass: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
Handel-Mozart: "For Unto Us a Child Is Born," from Messiah
Humperdinck: Prelude to Hansel and Gretel
arr. Hollenbeck: "Tomorrow Is My Dancing Day"
Thompson/Frost: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," from Frostiana
Rutter: "What Sweeter Music"
arr. Bass: Sing We Now of Christmas
O Come All Ye Faithful—Away in a Manger—The First Noël—
Joy to the World—Silent Night—Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
arr. Mishkin: "Happy Holidays"
Simeone/Moore: "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"
Jessel-Gould: "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," from La Chauve-Souris
arr. Nestico: "Kije Takes a Ride" (after Prokofiev)
arr. Chase Winter Weather Medley
I Love the Winter Weather—Baby It's Cold Outside—
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
arr. Sebesky: "Joy!"
ENCORE
Coots-Mason: "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"
arr. Reisman: A Merry Little Sing-Along
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer—Have Yourself a Merry
Little Christmas—Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!—
The Christmas Song—Winter Wonderland—Jingle Bells
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KEITH LOCKHART, conductor
In February 1995, Keith Lockhart was named twentieth conductor of the
Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. With his appointment
to the position of Boston Pops Conductor, Mr. Lockhart succeeded John
Williams, who held that position from 1980 to 1993. Named Boston Pops
conductor at age 35, Mr. Lockhart is only the third conductor to lead
the orchestra since 1930, when Arthur Fiedler began his unprecedented 50
years as conductor of the orchestra.
Now in his eighth season as conductor of the Boston Pops, Keith Lockhart has maintained a busy
schedule. He has conducted more than 500 concerts and made 49 television
shows, including 31 new programs for PBS's Evening at Pops, the annual
Pops Goes The Fourth! produced by WCVB-TV 5 in Boston and shown
nationally on A&E, and Holiday at Pops, also broadcast on A&E. Mr.
Lockhart has also led two Boston Pops performances at Carnegie Hall,
eighteen national tours, and three overseas tours of Japan and Korea.
Under Mr. Lockhart's direction, the orchestra has broadened its touring
activities, performing to enthusiastic audiences in concert halls and
sports arenas across the country. In February 2002, he led the Boston
Pops in the pregame show of Super Bowl XXXVI at the Louisiana Superdome
in New Orleans, marking the first time an orchestra was featured in
performance during a Super Bowl. In July 2002, Mr. Lockhart took the
Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra to Japan for the third time in his
tenure, and followed that trip with a weeklong domestic tour of American
summer music festivals in August.
Since 1996 Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra have recorded exclusively with RCA Victor. Mr.
Lockhart's first six albums with the Boston Pops Orchestra on RCA Victor
– Runnin' Wild: The Boston Pops Play Glenn Miller (1996), American
Visions (1997), The Celtic Album (February 1998), Holiday Pops
(September 1998), A Splash of Pops (1999), and The Latin Album (2000) –
all received critical and popular acclaim. In addition, The Celtic Album
was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Classical Crossover category,
and The Latin Album received a nomination for Best Pop Instrumental
Album at the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards. A compilation album entitled
Encore!, featuring tracks from the previous five recordings, was
released in March 2000. The orchestra's latest recording, My Favorite
Things – A Richard Rodgers Celebration, was released in April 2002, in
conjunction with the worldwide celebration of the centennial of that
great American composer's birth.
Born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in November 1959, 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. Mr. Lockhart came to the
Boston Pops from Cincinnati, where he served as associate conductor of
both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops orchestras.
Since 1998, Mr. Lockhart has also been music director of the Utah Symphony. In
February 2002, he led the Utah Symphony as part of the Opening Exercises
of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
As a guest artist, Mr. Lockhart has conducted the major symphony orchestras of Chicago,
Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia,
Singapore, Toronto, and Vancouver. In September, he opened the 2002-2003
Saint Louis Symphony season with a gala concert featuring cellist Yo-Yo
Ma as soloist. Upcoming engagements include performances with the
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester of Berlin on New Year's Eve 2002, with the
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam in June 2003, and the Toronto and
Baltimore symphonies during the 2003-2004 season. Notable past
engagements include his first major opera production, Douglas Moore's
The Ballad of Baby Doe, with the Washington (DC) Opera and recent debuts
with the New York Chamber Symphony, the Houston Symphony, and the New
Japan Philharmonic.
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, Conductor
The Tanglewood Festival Chorus was organized in the spring of 1970,
when founding conductor John Oliver became director of vocal and choral
activities at the Tanglewood Music Center. Originally formed for
performances at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home, and made up
of members who donate their services, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is
the official chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops,
performing in Boston, New York, and at Tanglewood.
In the summer of 2001, in addition to their performances with the Boston Symphony
Orchestra and their annual Friday-evening Prelude Concert at Tanglewood,
members of the chorus performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Zubin
Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic both at Tanglewood and at the Mann
Music Center in Philadelphia, and sang music of Stravinsky and Ravel
with Bernard Haitink and the Boston Symphony during the orchestra's tour
of European music festivals. Also during that tour -— the TFC's first in
Europe—the chorus performed an a cappella concert in the Dom Cathedral
in Lübeck, Germany. In February 1998, singing from the General Assembly
Hall of the United Nations, the chorus represented the United States
when Seiji Ozawa led the Winter Olympics Orchestra with six choruses on
five continents, all linked by satellite, in the "Ode to Joy" from
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the 1998 Winter Olympics. The group has
collaborated with Seiji Ozawa and the BSO on numerous recordings and can
also be heard on the RCA Victor discs A Splash of Pops and Holiday Pops
with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra, as well as on two
Christmas albums —- Joy to the World, on Sony Classical, and We Wish You a
Merry Christmas, on Philips—with John Williams and the Boston Pops
Orchestra.
In addition to his work with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
John Oliver was for many years conductor of the MIT Chamber Chorus and
MIT Concert Choir, and a senior lecturer in music at MIT. Mr. Oliver
founded the John Oliver Chorale in 1977. He made his Boston Symphony
conducting debut in August 1985 and led the orchestra most recently in
July 1998. He has appeared as guest conductor with the New Japan
Philharmonic and Berkshire Choral Institute, and has prepared the
choruses for performances led by André Previn of Benjamin Britten's
Spring Symphony with the NHK Symphony of Japan and of Brahms's Ein
deutsches Requiem at Carnegie Hall.
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Related Links
Boston Pops Orchestra Web site
History of the Boston Pops
WGBH Boston -- our co-producers of the show
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