The New York Pops

Performers

• The New York Pops
  Steven Reineke, Music Director and Conductor
• Pink Martini

Bios

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  The New York Pops

                                
  The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States, and the only professional symphonic orchestra in New York City specializing in popular music. Led by Music Director Steven Reineke, the orchestra performs an annual subscription series at Carnegie Hall, enjoying one of its highest subscription renewal rates. The New York Pops' annual birthday gala is celebrated each spring, raising funds for the orchestra and its education programs. Now in its 30th season, The New York Pops celebrates the diversity of popular music's evolving songbook. Every concert is a unique experience, with influences ranging from Broadway melodies to film scores, jazz, rock, pop, and everything in between. Under the leadership of Steven Reineke, the orchestra continues to re-imagine orchestral pops music.
  
  The New York Pops is committed to creating access for all members of the community. An annual collaboration with Central Park SummerStage pairs the orchestra with contemporary artists for free outdoor concerts. Thousands of children and their parents have the opportunity to see the orchestra during interactive and educational family concerts in partnership with Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. The New York Pops' extensive education programs allow thousands of New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds to participate in concert and music-making experiences. The orchestra is dedicated to lifelong learning, and collaborates with public schools, community organizations, children's hospitals and senior centers throughout the five boroughs of
  New York City.
  
  A recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York Pops is a non-profit organization supported solely through the generosity of individual donations, institutional grants, corporate sponsorships, and concert income.

  
  Steven Reineke

  
  Steven Reineke's boundless enthusiasm and exceptional artistry have made him one of the nation's most sought-after pops conductors, composers, and arrangers. Mr. Reineke is music director and conductor of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, the newly appointed principal pops conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and principal pops conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
  
  Mr. Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and in the past year he has conducted the Boston Pops, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. His extensive North American conducting engagements include appearances with the orchestras of Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa, Detroit, Fort Worth, Jacksonville, Tampa, Calgary, Memphis, and Oklahoma City.
  
  As the creator of more than 100 orchestral arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Mr. Reineke's work has been performed worldwide, and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings on the Telarc label. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, including performances by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His Sun Valley Festival Fanfare was used to commemorate the Sun Valley Summer Symphony's pavilion, and his Festival Te Deum and Swan's Island Sojourn were debuted by the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops orchestras. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C. L. Barnhouse Company, and are performed by concert bands around the world.
  
  A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City.

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• Pink Martini

                                               
  In 1994, in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working in politics, thinking that one day he would run for mayor. Like other eager politicians-in-training, he went to every political fundraiser under the sun, but was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming, lackluster, loud, and un-neighborly. Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world-crossing genres of classical, jazz, and old-fashioned pop-and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded the "little orchestra" Pink Martini in 1994 to provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks at fundraisers for causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education, and parks.
  
  One year later, Mr. Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. Their first original song, "Sympathique," became an overnight sensation in France, was nominated for Song of the Year at France's Victoires de la Musique Awards, and to this day remains a mantra ("Je ne veux pas travailler" or "I don't want to work") for striking French workers. Says Lauderdale, "We're very much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America-the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world, composed of people of every country, every language, every religion."
  
  Featuring a dozen musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras on every continent. The band made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden. Since then, it has gone on to play with more than 50 orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, and the San Francisco Symphony.
  
  Pink Martini's debut album, Sympathique, was released independently in 1997 on the band's own label, Heinz Records, and quickly became an international phenomenon, garnering the group nominations for Song of the Year and Best New Artist at France's 2000 Victoires de la Musique Awards. Pink Martini released Hang on Little Tomato in 2004, Hey Eugene! in 2007, and Splendor in the Grass in 2009. In November 2010, the band released Joy to the World-a festive, multi-denominational holiday album featuring songs from around the globe. All five albums have gone gold in France, Canada, Greece, and Turkey, and have sold well over 2.5 million copies worldwide. In fall 2011, the band released 1969, an album of collaborations with legendary Japanese singer Saori Yuki. 1969 has been certified platinum in Japan, reaching No. 2 on the Japanese charts.

   

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