The New York Pops will celebrate its 26th birthday with an April 27 concert at Carnegie Hall by honoring Feinstein’s at the Regency, a Manhattan nightclub. Gossip columnist Liz Smith will host the evening, which also includes a salute to “New Amsterdam Rediscovered,” a joint Dutch-American initiative celebrating the 400th anniversary of the exploration of New York Harbor and the Hudson River. New York Pops Music Director-Designate Steven Reineke will lead the orchestra and a roster of singers including Cheyenne Jackson, Brian d’Arcy James, Ashford & Simpson, and Michael Feinstein; Idina Menzel and Anika Noni Rose will perform in the world premiere of Stephen Flaherty’s American River Suite, which is dedicated to Henry Hudson’s historic voyage and was commissioned for the Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks to be telecast on NBC this summer. At the concert, a benefit for education programs of the New York Pops, 20 middle-school students from the New York Pops’ Salute to Music education program will perform side-by-side onstage in two numbers with Schoolhouse Rock composer Bob Dorough. 800 schoolchildren will also attend the concert free as part of the orchestra’s Kids in the Balcony music education program.
Posted April 14, 2009
