Carnegie Hall

Delighting lovers of popular music, jazz standards, film, and show tunes since its founding in 1983, The New York Pops enters its fifth decade with its founding mission still intact: to raise awareness and appreciation of America’s rich musical heritage by giving popular music the luxurious symphonic treatment it deserves.

Today, the orchestra comprises 78 musicians—including nine who date back to its founding—making it the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States. It also remains the only professional symphony orchestra of its kind in New York City, headlining an annual subscription series and spring birthday gala at Carnegie Hall. For a better sense of what makes “the Pops” so fundamental, here is some useful trivia about the orchestra.

But First, What Is a Pops Orchestra?

Distinct from their more traditional philharmonic cousins, pops orchestras are typically assembled in large cities with the aim of presenting lighter fare to the public. These smaller orchestras exist all over the world, but in the US alone, there are now more than two dozen across the nation, from Austin to Atlanta and Cincinnati to Orlando.

The country’s first pops ensemble was founded in Boston in 1885 when Civil War veteran-turned-businessman Henry Lee Higginson decided to follow up his crowning venture from four years earlier, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), with an initiative that would provide BSO players with year-round employment. Inspired by the summer evenings he’d spent listening to music in the Viennese concert gardens, Higginson’s “Promenade Concerts” in the Massachusetts capital soon became known as “Popular Concerts.” Thus, the Boston Pops was born and the name stuck, inspiring leading symphony orchestras everywhere to replicate the business model.

A Start Starring Skitch

The New York Pops traces its origins to a different source. Bandleader Lyle “Skitch” Henderson had enjoyed a fruitful career as an accompanist for MGM stars in the 1930s, even joining Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney on a promotional tour for the film studio. 

After the war, he took a musical directorship at NBC Radio Network, where he worked alongside Frank Sinatra and, eventually, Bing Crosby—who gave him his nickname, “Skitch,” due to Henderson’s lightning-fast ability to transpose (“re-sketch”) songs in any key. In the 1960s, he famously teamed up with Steve Allen and later Johnny Carson as music director of The Tonight Show, lending his signature laugh to the beloved host’s one-liners.

Together with his wife, Ruth, Skitch founded The New York Pops in 1983, serving as its music director and conductor for perennial concerts at Carnegie Hall until his death in 2005. “There’s a difference between pop music and popular music,” he once observed to The New York Times. “Pop is music that comes and goes. Popular music stays.”

Home at the Hall

Dating back to its debut on April 8, 1983, The New York Pops has played more than 320 concerts at Carnegie Hall. Since then, the ensemble performs an annual subscription series at the Hall, as well as an annual birthday gala each spring that raises funds for the orchestra and its education programs.

Its first program featured works by American composers from Tin Pan Alley and classic Broadway (Victor Herbert, Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin) to a sold-out auditorium. “Mr. Henderson eschewed overt, European Classical music in favor of various bits of 20th-century symphonic Americana,” noted The New York Times. “Textures were clean, tempos alert, ensemble generally crisp.”

Since then, the Pops has brought its alert tempos and clean textures to scores of star-studded concerts, sharing the marquee with the likes of Kristen Bell, Jodi Benson, Patina Miller, Queen Latifah, Alan Cumming, and even the New York Mets.

Passing the Baton

Three years after Henderson led his last Pops concert at Carnegie Hall, Steven Reineke—a gifted and accomplished conductor from Cincinnati—took the podium to lead the Pops through its 25th Birthday Gala Concert, which included eclectic works by Cole Porter, Bruce Springsteen, and Freddie Mercury. He was appointed music director later that year. Since that fabled performance, Reineke—who also holds similar posts as principal pops conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra—has presided over more than 80 New York Pops concerts at Carnegie Hall.

A master orchestrator with famously varied tastes, Reineke now champions and collaborates with artists ranging from rappers Common, Kendrick Lamar, and Nas; to Broadway headliners like Sutton Foster, Megan Hilty, and Norm Lewis; to rockers like Roger Daltrey and Ben Folds. “I really do my best to break down the barrier between the audience and the orchestra,” he once told the Toronto Guardian. The concert hall is “not some stuffy place where everyone has to get decked out in their finest duds, pretending they’re not enjoying themselves.”

Spring Celebrants

Now a New York tradition each spring, the annual Pops Birthday Gala started in 1984 with a program that featured works by George Gershwin, Isham Jones, and Jule Styne, along with special guests who included Louise Russell and Robert Merrill. The gala celebration returned in 1985, featuring works by Harold Arlen and an onstage guest list that included Gloria Steinem, Barbara Walters, Dick Cavett, Liza Minnelli, and Liberace. Snagging the biggest names is now part of the ritual. Attendees relish the many surprise guests who’ve rolled up to Carnegie Hall for the occasion—Patti LuPone, Reba McEntire, and Carly Rae Jepsen among them—but also revel in the colorful themes.

The gala in 1996 was titled “Invitation to the Dance” and featured dance styles across disciplines, including members of the Broadway community, Maurice Hines, and Irish dancers. The 35th annual event in 2018—dedicated to the songs of Disney composer Alan Menken—featured princess voices Judy Kuhn (original Pocahontas), Susan Egan (original Belle), and Harvey Fierstein (not an original, but he subbed in for Ursula).

An Innovative Archetype

Throughout the last 40 years, the Pops has become an indispensable addition to the cityscape. With each season bringing an unexpected new series of programs to Carnegie Hall and a serendipitous list of performers, the ensemble appeals especially to those who relish the element of surprise in the concert hall. Whether it’s by performing in costume or featuring surprise artist cameos, Reineke’s disposition for spontaneity and fun is a pivotal part of what makes The New York Pops, well … The New York Pops.

Photography: Minnelli, “Invitation to the Dance” by Steve J. Sherman ; Skitch’s New York Daily News Blimphony courtesy of The New York Pops Archives; all other images at Carnegie Hall by Richard Termine.