Tuesday’s (3/20) Connecticut Post (Bridgeport) includes an interview with Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra, whose upcoming tour of Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland includes a stop at The Bushnell in Hartford on April 4. Q: Does this tour help to tap into your roots after 23 years as Pops conductor? Does classical music have more connections to average Americans than many realize? A: I grew up in Poughkeepsie, and my father was born and raised in Stratford, Connecticut, so … this tour begins right in my backyard! But it’s also the backyard of the birth of American classical music. Gershwin and Copland were from Brooklyn, Bernstein was from Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Duke Ellington was from Washington, D.C., a stone’s throw from where we’ll end the tour in Maryland. Q: What are the continuing challenges in conducting such an iconic orchestra? A: … At the Pops … the unique challenge … has to do with our repertory and mission. Although we play music from across the full 300-year range of orchestral music, a pops orchestra must always reflect its own time and place, and be able to respond to popular trends in what people are listening to and respond to.”
Posted March 22, 2018
