In Thursday’s (11/14) East Valley Tribune (Tempe, Arizona) Stephanie Perrault interviews Keith Lockhart, music director of the Boston Pops, which performs on Saturday at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa. “Question: You’ve led the symphony for nearly 20 years. What do you see as your stamp on the orchestra? Answer: When my amazing predecessor, John Williams, came to the orchestra, he had very rarely conducted live (he came from a Hollywood tradition). I come from the live performance tradition. I like to think my stamp is a personal connection so the audience thinks they know me. I deal with and talk to the audience quite a bit. I get to be the intermediary between the orchestra and the audience and the audience and the music.… Q: It’s been a tough year politically with the government shutdown, the struggles with the Affordable Care Act, etc. What role do you think the Boston Pops has as America’s Orchestra in all that? A: I’m as annoyed as anyone with the creeping dysfunction and the inability to come together around anything. Personal political views aside, this shows that there are things that are unifying—great music and the arts and the celebration of the best things about America and the great things we’ve accomplished and achieved, and (that we can) come together around something better.”
Posted November 15, 2013
