{"id":73,"date":"2012-06-29T00:27:57","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T04:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/?p=73"},"modified":"2012-07-10T00:20:20","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T04:20:20","slug":"the-sound-of-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/the-sound-of-music\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sound of Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bethany Bourgault<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lights of Symphony Hall dim as the crowd hushes, anticipating the sound of 75 of the most talented artists in the world. Their dynamic conductor takes the stage, immediately capturing the attention of both his musicians and his audience.<\/p>\n

This has been the scene of over 1,400 concerts since Keith Lockhart, 53, became the 20th<\/sup> conductor of the Boston Pops in 1995. Under Lockhart\u2019s direction, the Pops has produced 71 television shows, 35 national tours, and multiple full-length Broadway soundtracks, making it one of the most revered orchestras in the world.<\/p>\n

Lockhart is following in the footsteps of his predecessor, John Williams, who possessed an exceedingly impressive vita. As the recipient of 47 Oscar nominations, 21 Grammys, seven British Academy Awards, five Emmys, and four Golden Globes, Williams left quite a legacy as both a composer and conductor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both wonderful musicians,\u201d said Dennis Alves, Boston Pops director of artistic planning, who has worked with both Lockhart and Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery conductor is different,\u201d said Alves, \u201cIf you put a different conductor in front of an orchestra, it\u2019ll sound different. John Williams approaches the music more like a composer. Keith Lockhart approaches the music more like a performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pops is not the only artistic institution to have seen a change of hands throughout the past 25 years. World-renowned classical ballet company The Boston Ballet has seen three artistic directors throughout this interval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe artists represent the idea of the artistic head,\u201d said Rachel Yurman, director of foundation and government relations at the Boston Ballet. \u201cEach of them had that interesting dimension.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yurman describes each artistic director as bringing a bit of his or her own background to the scene in Boston.<\/p>\n

Bruce Marks, who was the first American to be principal dancer in the Royal Danish Ballet, brought an increased sense of prestige to the already reputable company. Anna Marie Holmes, who trained in Russia, was tremendously knowledgeable about classical ballet of the 19th<\/sup> century. Mikko Nissinen, the current Artistic Director, trained in Finland and has set a goal for himself to \u201chave a company that can take on an entire repertoire,\u201d according to Yurman.<\/p>\n

The past 25 years have brought on a change in audience demographics as well. Each institution has noticed a younger interest in their arts.<\/p>\n

The \u201cvery energetic, very vibrant\u201d Lockhart \u201cbrought a sense of youth to the Pops,\u201d said Alves. Yurman notes that, as a company, \u201cwe perform, we teach, and we want to share our work with as broad an audience as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The programs within each establishment have extended their boundaries to reach out to the community around them. The Pops have expanded their Holiday and Family Concerts in order to reach a wider range of listeners, while the Boston Ballet has grown to include three locations, 51 company dancers, and a multitude of community dance programs.<\/p>\n

As for ballet, \u201cIt has never been stuck in the past,’\u2019 said Yurman. \u201cThere is something in it for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Correction: <\/strong>The last paragraph of this story was corrected to reflect a quote by Rachel Yurman, director of foundation and government relations at the Boston Ballet. Yurman was initially quoted as speaking about the Boston performing arts scene. She was speaking only about ballet.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bethany Bourgault The lights of Symphony Hall dim as the crowd hushes, anticipating the sound of 75 of the most talented artists in the world. Their dynamic conductor takes the stage, immediately capturing the attention of both his musicians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boston","category-featured","category-full"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/DSCN0527.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}