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Keith Lockhart Talks John Williams and the Boston Pops

Photos by Winslow Townson

Hit play below to listen to our Arts Alive interview with the Boston Pop’s Keith Lockhart.

Keith Lockhart Talks John Williams and the Boston Pops
    When Keith Lockhart took over the conductor’s podium with the Boston Pops in 1995, he had the very unenviable task of succeeding John Williams. The veteran film composer reigned in Boston for almost 14 years during the 1980s, while he was simultaneously writing some of the most famous, most beloved movie music of all time, which he frequently worked into Pops concerts.

But Lockhart, the “kid from Poughkeepsie,” seems to have made it work. He’s been the Pops conductor for 23 years—the second-longest term they’ve ever had. During that time they’ve played Super Bowls, recorded Grammy-nominated albums, and toured around the world. Now he and the orchestra are coming to John Williams country—with a program full of Williams music. There’s something very right about hearing the Pops playing music by John Williams, who still holds the title of “conductor laureate” with them… and of seeing Williams’ successful successor giving a musical toast to the master.


More information for Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops’ upcoming West Coast tour can be found at the Pops website. Click the following links for tickets to performances in Thousand Oaks, Palm Desert, and Costa Mesa.

You can purchase the album Lights, Camera… Music! Six Decades of John Williams on Arkiv Music, Amazon, and iTunes now.

Written by:
Tim Greiving
Tim Greiving
Published on 10.01.2018

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