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) and Instagram (@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.

Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and SAG Award nominee Norm Lewis recently starred in the national tour of the Tony Award–winning production of A Soldier’s Play, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End concert of Love Never Dies, Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, and the FX series Pose, and can also be seen in the feature The Good Mother, Amazon Prime’s Swarm, and Hulu’s Up Here. In addition, he was seen as Caiaphas in the NBC television special Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, and in fall 2021 starred in Chicken & Biscuits at the Circle in the Square Theatre. He previously appeared in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island and as Sweeney Todd in the Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In 2014, he made history as The Phantom of the Opera’s first African American Phantom on Broadway.

Mr. Lewis has been seen on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center in productions of Show Boat with Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis: Who Am I?, and New Year’s Eve: A Gershwin Celebration with Dianne Reeves, as well as in American Voices with Renée Fleming and the PBS specials First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb and Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas. Television credits include the VH1 series Daytime Divas, Women of the Movement, Law & Order, Dr. Death, Mrs. America, Better Things, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Bull, Chicago Med, Gotham, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, and Scandal.

Mr. Lewis received Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle award nominations for his performance as Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Other Broadway credits include Sondheim on Sondheim, The Little Mermaid, Les Misérables, Chicago, Amour, The Wild Party, Side Show, Miss Saigon, and The Who’s Tommy. His albums The Norm Lewis Christmas Album and This Is the Life! can be found on Amazon.com as well as cdbaby.com. Mr. Lewis is a founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization that helps protect Black people, talent, and lives of all shapes and orientations in theater and communities across the country.

Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is one of New York’s preeminent choral ensembles. EVUSA boasts a talented roster of seasoned professionals and auditioned volunteers, dynamically fitted to the unique needs of each project. EVUSA has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, and the Washington National Cathedral, as well as on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and in collaborative programs with New York City public schools. In addition, it celebrated newly commissioned American music with The Composer Speaks series at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music. During the 2023–2024 season, EVUSA releases a recording titled Christmas Joy (Albany), returns to Carnegie Hall, and performs its Community Project concerts in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Its recording Cherished Moments: Songs of the Jewish Spirit will be heard as part of the Winter Lights program at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. Conductor Judith Clurman has worked with many of the world’s finest symphonies at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and has commissioned and conducted new works by more than 70 composers. She has received two Emmy nominations, and conducted Tania León’s music on the Grammy- and Latin Grammy–nominated CD In Motion. Ms. Clurman teaches voice at the Manhattan School of Music. She was director of choral activities at The Juilliard School and the vocal specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts and Columbia University’s Institute in Classical Music and Opera. Her own music and arrangements have been performed by major symphony orchestras and choruses.

Pastor Bobby Lewis is the inaugural senior pastor of New Light Baptist Church in Harlem, New York. His powerful, soulful voice undoubtedly transforms all audiences to a place of joy, hope, and purpose. His skilled musicianship and appreciation for all genres of music have afforded him the opportunity to travel the world, training and inspiring diverse choirs to expand their full potential. For the past 26 years, he has led the Bobby Lewis Ensemble on tour, singing, performing, and providing resources to those in need throughout the US, Japan, Spain, Haiti, and Africa. The ensemble has appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly and The Today Show, and was featured in The Odyssey at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and on PBS with Norm Lewis at Lincoln Center. Pastor Bobby is not only a skilled vocalist, but also a prolific songwriter, playwright, director, and producer. In 2024, he will workshop an adaptation of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Party. He is overjoyed to make his Carnegie Hall debut tonight with Norm Lewis, and encourages us all to “Keep Looking Up”!