Sponsored by Mastercard, the Official Card of Carnegie Hall
This concert is made possible, in part, by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
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. Under
the leadership of dynamic Music Director Steven Reineke, The New York Pops continues to
re-imagine orchestral pops music. The orchestra performs an annual subscription series and
birthday gala at Carnegie Hall and a summer series at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New
York. The New York Pops 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. PopsEd allows thousands of New Yorkers of all ages and
backgrounds to participate in fully customizable music programs that blend traditional
education with pure fun.
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 the
music director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, principal pops conductor of the
National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
principal pops conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and principal pops conductor
designate of the Houston Symphony. He previously held the posts of principal pops conductor
of the Long Beach Symphony and Modesto Symphony Orchestra, and associate conductor of the
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.
Mr. Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra and has been on
the podium with the Boston Pops, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra at Ravinia. His extensive North American conducting appearances include
performances with the orchestras of San Francisco, Seattle, Edmonton, Pittsburgh,
Vancouver, Ottawa (National Arts Centre), Detroit, Milwaukee, and Calgary.
On stage, Mr. Reineke has created programs and collaborated with a range of leading
artists from the worlds of hip-hop, Broadway, television, and rock, including Kendrick
Lamar, Nas, Sutton Foster, Megan Hilty, Cheyenne Jackson, Wayne Brady, Peter Frampton, and
Ben Folds, among others.
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 and Los Angeles
philharmonics. 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 worldwide.
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 with his husband, Eric Gabbard. Mr. Reineke is
represented by Peter Throm Management, LLC.
Colin Donnell currently stars in NBC's drama Chicago Med as Dr. Connor Rhodes, a
trauma surgery fellow who is brilliant, buttoned-down, and trained to handle anything that
might come through the hospital doors. Mr. Donnell was recently seen in the role of Scotty
Lockhart on Showtime's hit series The Affair, and is also familiar to television
audiences as Tommy Merlyn in CW's Arrow. Other appearances include Pan
Am, Person of Interest, and The Mysteries of Laura. He made his
big-screen debut in 2014 with Every Secret Thing, which also starred Diane Lane
and Elizabeth Banks.
Mr. Donnell is well known for his work on stage, with Broadway credits that include
Violet, Anything Goes (for which he received Drama Desk, Outer Critics,
and Astaire award nominations), and Jersey Boys. Among his other notable stage
appearances are Follies, Merrily We Roll Along, and Lady, Be
Good! at New York City Center; the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production
of Love's Labour's Lost; and Meet Me in St. Louis. Additionally, he
toured with productions of Wicked and Mamma Mia!
Born in St. Louis, Mr. Donnell is a current resident of New York City when not
shooting Chicago Med on location in Chicago.
Baritone Nathan Gunn has made a reputation as one of the most exciting and versatile
baritones performing today. He has sung leading lyric baritone roles and appeared in
several world premieres in many of the most renowned opera houses of the world, including
the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra de Paris,
Bavarian State Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Also a distinguished
concert performer, Mr. Gunn appears regularly with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston
and Chicago symphony orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the London Symphony
Orchestra, and has been presented in recitals in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco,
Philadelphia, Toronto, London, and Brussels.
Mr. Gunn's growing discography includes Billy Budd (Virgin Classics), which won a
2010 Grammy Award; Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro (Sony Masterworks Broadway);
Il barbiere di Siviglia (SONY Classics); and his solo albums Just Before
Sunrise (Sony/BMG Masterworks) and American Anthem (EMI). He also starred in
the Metropolitan Opera's HD broadcasts of Die Zauberflöte and The Merry
Widow. Mr. Gunn recently ventured outside the standard opera repertoire with
performances of the title role in Sweeney Todd at Houston Grand Opera,
Camelot and Carousel with the New York Philharmonic (both broadcast on
PBS's Great Performances), and Show Boat at Carnegie Hall and Lyric Opera
of Chicago. He is also a professor of voice at the University of Illinois at
Champaign-Urbana and general director of the Lyric Theater @ Illinois.
Laura Osnes was last seen on Broadway as the title role in Rodgers and
Hammerstein's Cinderella (Drama Desk Award; Tony, Outer Critics Circle,
Drama League, and Astaire award nominations). She also starred in Bonnie and Clyde
(Tony Award nomination) at Asolo Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego
Theatre Critics Circle Award). She has appeared as Hope Harcourt in the Tony Award-winning
revival of Anything Goes (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire award
nominations) and Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center Theater's production of South
Pacific, and made her Broadway debut as Sandy in the most recent revival of
Grease.
Other New York and regional credits include the Broadway-bound musical The
Bandstand at Paper Mill Playhouse; The Threepenny Opera (Drama Desk Award
nomination) at the Atlantic Theater Company; City Center Encores! productions of The
Band Wagon, Randy Newman's Faust, and Pipe Dream; The Sound of Music
in concert at Carnegie Hall; and Carousel opposite Steven Pasquale at Lyric Opera
of Chicago. On television, she has been seen in the CBS series Elementary, the HBO
pilot The Miraculous Year, Sondheim: The Birthday Concert at Avery Fisher
Hall, HBO's documentary Six by Sondheim, and the Kennedy Center Honors salutes to
Barbara Cook (2011) and Dustin Hoffman (2012). Her many concert and cabaret appearances
include performances with Michael Feinstein, the New York Philharmonic, The New York Pops,
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Boston and Pasadena pops, as well as appearances at
such venues as Carnegie Hall, Café Carlyle, Feinstein's / 54 Below, Lincoln Center, New
Jersey Performing Arts Center, Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, and
Minnesota's Orchestra Hall. In addition to being heard on several cast recordings, Ms.
Osnes has recorded two solo albums, Dream a Little Dream: Live at the Café Carlyle
and If I Tell You: The Songs of Maury Yeston.
Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is one of New York's preeminent choral
ensembles. It performs at many of the city's iconic venues and events, records and
premieres works by America's finest composers and lyricists, and regularly appears with The
New York Pops on its Carnegie Hall subscription series. It performed on NBC's televised
broadcast of the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular in 2014, and at the
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting in 2011 and 2012. The ensemble comprises a
talented roster of seasoned professionals and auditioned volunteers, dynamically fitted to
the unique needs of each project. Among other national highlights, EVUSA participated in
the 2013 Presidential Inaugural activities, and held a monthlong residency at National
Public Radio. The impressive cohort of musicians who have worked with EVUSA run the gamut
from young opera sensation Jamie Barton, to Broadway star Idina Menzel, to musical theater
luminaries Stephen Schwartz and Sheldon Harnick, to composers Milton Babbitt and Jennifer
Higdon. EVUSA currently produces The Composer Speaks, a series of musical
performances complemented by panel discussions with composers and lyricists at The DiMenna
Center for Classical Music. EVUSA Youth Workshop provides selected high school students
with the opportunity to participate with the main ensemble in the heart of New York City's
music scene. It has recorded works by Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Shore. EVUSA has recorded
several CDs for Sono Luminus, and its latest release, Season of Light: Songs of
Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, New Year, will be released in November 2016.