Carnegie Hall

The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States and the only professional symphonic orchestra in New York City that specializes in popular music. Led by Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, the orchestra performs an annual subscription series at Carnegie Hall, and is among the venue’s most presented ensembles. Now in its 41st season, The New York Pops’ annual birthday gala is celebrated each spring, raising funds for the orchestra and its education programs. The New York Pops performs annually in Queens, New York, at Forest Hills Stadium, a 14,000-seat historic concert venue.

The New York Pops celebrates the diversity of popular music’s evolving songbook. Every concert is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, with influences that range from Broadway melodies to film scores, jazz, rock, pop, and everything in between. Under Mr. Reineke’s dynamic leadership, The New York Pops continues to reimagine orchestral pops music.

Through its PopsEd music education programs, The New York Pops fulfills its dedication to lifelong learning by collaborating with public schools, community organizations, 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. The New York Pops is committed to serving all members of the community. Through its Kids in the Balcony and Kids in the Stadium programs, thousands of children and their parents have had an opportunity to see The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and Forest Hills Stadium free of charge.

The New York Pops was founded by Ruth and Skitch Henderson in 1983 with a mission to create greater public awareness and appreciation of America’s rich musical heritage through the presentation of concerts and education programs of the highest quality. The New York Pops is a nonprofit organization supported solely through the generosity of individual donations, institutional grants, corporate sponsorships, and concert income. Follow The New York Pops on Facebook (facebook.com/thenewyorkpops), Instagram (@thenewyorkpops), and X (@thenewyorkpops).

Steven Reineke is one of North America’s leading conductors of popular music and is in his second decade as music director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. Additionally, he is principal pops conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and principal pops conductor of the Houston Symphony and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He is a frequent guest conductor and can be seen on the podium with the Chicago, Dallas, and Detroit symphony orchestras; the San Francisco Symphony; and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

On stage, Mr. Reineke has created programs and collaborated with a range of artists from the worlds of hip-hop, R&B, Broadway, television, and rock, including Maxwell, Common, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Ne-Yo, Barry Manilow, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Sutton Foster, Kelli O’Hara, Amos Lee, Dispatch, Jason Mraz, and Ben Folds, among others. In 2017, he was featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a performance of live music excerpts between news segments—a first in the show’s 45-year history. In 2018, Mr. Reineke led the National Symphony Orchestra with hip-hop legend Nas, performing his seminal album Illmatic on PBS’s Great Performances.

As the creator of hundreds of orchestral arrangements, Mr. Reineke’s work has been performed worldwide and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, including 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 (2020 Alumnus Distinguished Achievement Medal), 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.

Sutton Foster is a two-time Tony Award–winning actress and singer who was most recently seen on stage in her highly anticipated Broadway run as Marian Paroo in the acclaimed revival of The Music Man at the Winter Garden Theatre. Her performance earned her a seventh Tony nomination as well as the coveted 2022 Drama League Distinguished Performance Award.

Ms. Foster will next be seen leading the forthcoming City Center Encores! adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress as Princess Winnifred in January, followed by a swift return to the Broadway stage as Mrs. Lovett in the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd. In summer 2021, she reprised one of her most notable roles as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, for which she earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, at the Barbican Theatre in London. Her original performance in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre earned her a 2011 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical. On television, Ms. Foster led the acclaimed Darren Star and TV Land series Younger for seven seasons, making it the longest-running original series in TV Land history.

Previously, Ms. Foster has appeared on Broadway in Violet, Anything Goes (Tony Award), Shrek, Young Frankenstein, The Drowsy Chaperone, Little Women, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony Award), Les Misérables, Annie, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Grease. Off-Broadway, she has been seen in Sweet Charity (Pershing Square Signature Center), The Wild Party (City Center Encores!), Trust (Second Stage Theater), and Anyone Can Whistle (City Center Encores!). She has toured the country with her solo albums, which include Take Me to the World, Wish, and An Evening with Sutton Foster: Live at the Café Carlyle. In addition, she has appeared on television in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, A Million Little Things, Instinct, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Mad Dogs, Elementary, Psych, Bunheads, Royal Pains, Law & Order: SVU, Flight of the Conchords, and Sesame Street. She holds an honorary doctorate from Ball State University, where she also teaches.

A star of the stage and screen, Kelli O’Hara has established herself as one of Broadway’s greatest leading ladies. A Tony Award winner and an Emmy- and Grammy-nominated actress, she has appeared in 11 Broadway shows, for which she has garnered seven Tony nominations. She won the 2015 Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, along with Grammy, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle nominations, for her portrayal of Anna Leonowens in The King and I. She then reprised the role while making her West End debut, garnering a prestigious Olivier Award nomination.

Ms. O’Hara received an Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Katie Bonner in Topic’s hit web series The Accidental Wolf, and can also be seen as Aurora Fane on HBO’s critically acclaimed series The Gilded Age. She has had several recurring television roles, including on Showtime’s Masters of Sex, 13 Reasons Why, and Blue Bloods. Additional film and television credits include All the Bright Places, Peter Pan Live!, Sex and the City 2, Martin Scorsese’s The Key to Reserva, The Good Fight, Numb3rs, and the animated series Car Talk.

Ms. O’Hara’s other Broadway credits include Kiss Me, Kate; The Bridges of Madison County; Nice Work If You Can Get It; South Pacific; The Pajama Game; The Light in the Piazza; Sweet Smell of Success; Follies; Dracula; and Jekyll & Hyde. She was awarded the Drama League’s Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award in 2019. In 2015, she made history as the first artist to make the crossover from Broadway to opera when she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Lehár’s The Merry Widow. Additional operas include Così fan tutte and The Hours.

In 2024, Ms. O’Hara returns to Broadway in the new musical Days of Wine and Roses. This production, which received rave reviews during its Off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company last summer, has been a labor of love for Ms. O’Hara and composer Adam Guettel, who dedicated the last 21 years to its development.