FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                  CONTACT:
NFL                       12/19/01                                   NFL
                                                                            Brian McCarthy, NFL, (212) 450-2069
                                                                            Steve Brener/Dan Clavadetscher
                                                                            Brener Zwikel & Assoc., Inc.
                                                                            (818) 344-6195, x103/106
                                                                            BOSTON POPS
                                                                            Bernadette Horgan, (617) 638-9285

 

BOSTON POPS TO PERFORM
IN SUPER BOWL XXXVI PREGAME SHOW

 

Hailed nationwide as “America’s Orchestra,” the Boston Pops, led by Conductor Keith Lockhart, will perform a selection of American classics in Super Bowl XXXVI’s pregame show on Sunday, Feb. 3, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, the NFL announced today.  Additional pregame performers will be announced in the next few weeks.

Boston Pops will team with singer Mariah Carey during her rendition of the National Anthem.  In addition, the orchestra will perform with two artists to be announced on “America the Beautiful.” The Boston Pops’ pregame show program also will feature two works by legendary American composer Aaron Copland – his “Fanfare for the Common Man” and excerpts from “A Lincoln Portrait.”

Bob Best will produce and direct his 18^th pregame show.  Super Bowl XXXVI marks a record ninth time the event has been held in New Orleans.

Super Bowl XXXVI will be televised by FOX to an expected 130 million viewers in the United States and 800 million viewers worldwide.  The Super Bowl is annually the nation’s highest-rated TV program and the most-watched single-day sporting event.

The NFL previously announced that U2 will perform live during the E*TRADE SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOW. 

In February 1995, Lockhart was named 20^th Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.  With this appointment, Lockhart succeeded John Williams, Hollywood’s premier film composer, who held the position from 1980 to 1993.  Named Boston Pops Conductor at age 35, Lockhart is only the third conductor to lead the orchestra since 1929, when Arthur Fiedler began his unprecedented 50 years as conductor of the orchestra.

Since its first concerts in 1885, the Boston Pops has become an American institution.  Through its pioneering concerts at Boston’s Symphony Hall, extensive touring, and standard-bearing recording and broadcast history, the Boston Pops has brought great music to audiences around the world, and, in many ways, has redefined how classical music could reach a mass audience. 

Originally modeled after lighter summer concerts in Europe, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s “Pops” concerts soon took on their own personality.

The Pops introduced Americans to the now widespread tradition of café-style concerts, with audience members sitting at tables, able to enjoy light refreshments and beverages during the performance.

 The Pops’ program structure also became quickly imitated, as its three-part format allowed the orchestra to bookend light classics and Broadway, Big Band, and patriotic favorites around a classical or popular soloist. 

One of the great Boston traditions begun by Fiedler is the annual Fourth of July concert on the Charles River Esplanade – an event that broke the Guinness Book of World Records mark for the largest orchestral audience in 1976 and now draws crowds in excess of one-half of a million people.  Fiedler also initiated the orchestra’s recording activities, making the Boston Pops the world’s most-recorded orchestra.

The Boston Pops has performed throughout the United States and Canada, and also has appeared in Japan and Korea.  The orchestra performed in concerts at the White House and the Lincoln Memorial as part of the Pops’ centennial celebration in 1985, as well as at the Statue of Liberty on the occasion of the monument’s rededication in 1986. 

Guest soloists who have appeared with the Boston Pops span the full range of musical styles, from Ray Charles to the Chieftains, from Yo-Yo Ma to Reba McEntire, and from Jessye Norman to James Taylor. 

Since his appointment seven years ago, Lockhart has led more than 500 Pops concerts in Symphony Hall and throughout the world on 18 tours.  Under Lockhart, the orchestra received its first Grammy nomination when The Celtic Album was nominated for best classical crossover recording in 1999.  In early 2001, The Latin Album received a Latin Grammy nod for best pop instrumental album. 

Today, more than ever, the Boston Pops provides music lovers in Boston and throughout the country the chance to hear good music in all its varied flavors.  The orchestra offers nearly 100 concerts in Symphony Hall each year, including a 10-week spring season from May to mid-July, and a month of holiday concerts before and after Christmas.  Additionally, the Emmy Award-winning Evening at Pops, now in its 33^rd year,airs nationally on PBS throughout the summer, and the annual Pop Goes the Fourth! special is seen on A&E.  With its concerts at home and on tour, and its presence in millions of homes through Evening at Pops and its many recordings, the Boston Pops is truly America’s orchestra. 

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