The New York Pops

Musical fare

The evolving popular songbook, including the works of Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, Stephen Flaherty, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim, among many others

Guest artists

Performers include Tony Bennett, Barbara Cook, Carol Channing, Fantasia, Michael Feinstein, Marvin Hamlisch, Marilyn Horne, Cheyenne Jackson, The King’s Singers, Reba McEntire, Idina Menzel, Liza Minnelli, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara, Pink Martini, Doc Severinsen, Elaine Stritch and Paulo Szot.

Education

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. PopsEd makes music open to all, and uses tools like composition, lyric writing, performance and mentor-ship to foster learning and unbridled creativity. In doing so, these programs excite students and give them skills they can apply to all areas of their lives. PopsEd programs serve thousands of children every year. Since the inception of the first education programs in 1990, more than 60,000 children have been touched by the magic of music through PopsEd. One of the goals of PopsEd is to provide children with the opportunities to be inspired by music and to ultimately foster a life-long passion for the arts. The New York Pops provides children with free music lessons, free admission to rehearsals and concerts, and free classroom programs designed to spark the creative potential within every child. You never know exactly what moment or which experience will spark that creative flame, but it can happen — and through PopsEd, it does!

Kids in the Balcony
Kids in the Balcony is a concert-going experience that provides tickets to 100 students for each New York Pops subscription concert at Carnegie Hall. PopsEd Teaching Artists conduct pre-concert and post-concert visits to teach students about the orchestra and connect content of the particular performance to general elements of musical knowledge. Each subscription concert is dedicated to one of the five Borough-Wide Band and Orchestra programs, a series of ensembles for middle school students offered through the NYC Department of Education. At The New York Pops annual Birthday Gala, over 830 tickets are provided to students in grades 3-12 from both partner and additional schools across the five boroughs.

Kids On Stage
Kids on Stage allows New York City middle school students (grades 6, 7 or 8) the opportunity to experience the professional performance process from the first audition to the final note. There is no fee to apply.

Lesson-Based Residencies
Lesson-Based Residencies allow professional musicians to work directly with a school's existing band, orchestra, or choir through small group sectionals and/or large group rehearsals by focusing on instrument technique as well as theoretical and stylistic elements of music. PopsEd also helps build in-school or after-school music programs such as a chorus or guitar ensemble

Creativity/Composition-Based Residencies
Using contemporary "street percussion" or traditional musical instruments, Creativity/Composition-Based Residencies provide students with an immediate means to express themselves through the composition and performance of their own original music. A variety of literary and core curriculum concepts – such as rhyming, mathematics, history, and creative writing – are taught and used in conjunction with basic musical and lyrical techniques.

Concert-Based Residencies
The Concert-Based Residencies are produced in public schools, community centers, hospitals, and senior centers. The series uses a variety of genres and styles of music to create interactive and entertaining experiences outside of the concert hall. It is customizable in size of ensemble, theme, and number of concerts.

Performance Highlights

Carnegie Hall
Performed a total of 261 concerts in Carnegie Hall from April 8, 1983 through the 2012- 2013 Season.

Television
Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, NBC nationwide – 2005-2010

Tours
• Southeast United States: Virginia – 2005; Florida and South Carolina – 1997, 1995, 1993, 1989 • Midwest United States: Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa – March 1993 • Asia: Osaka and Tokyo, Japan – 1999, 1997, 1995, 1993, 1991; Seoul, Korea – 1995

Outdoor Concerts
• Central Park SummerStage – 2009-2012, 2004, 2002 • Bryant Park – 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004 • Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center – 2003, 1995-2001 • Historic Battery Park, Downtown River to River Festival – July 5, 2002 • World Trade Center – 2001, OpSail 2000 • Celebrate Brooklyn!, Prospect Park – 1998-2001 • Snug Harbor, Staten Island – 1999-2001 • Eisenhower Park, Long Island – July 3, 2004 • PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ – August 3, 2004 • Caramoor International Music Festival – June 30, 2002 • Charles Ives Center, Danbury, CT – 2002, 2001, 1996, 1995 • Brookhaven Amphitheater, Long Island – 2000, 1999 • New York City 100 Centennial Concert on Central Park’s Great Lawn – July 10, 1998 • OpSail '92/Columbus Quincentennial, South Street Seaport – July 4, 1992 • Columbus Avenue Festival, New York City – September 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988 • "Welcome Home the Troops" Celebration, South Street Seaport – June 10, 1991 • New York Daily News Blimp Race, Jones Beach State Park, NY – July 5, 1986

Single Engagements
Cantor Fitzgerald Memorial Service, Central Park SummerStage – September 11, 2011 • Coca-Cola on Liberty Island, Liberty Island, NY – May 7, 2011 • The New York Pops and Mark Nadler, The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA – September 22, 2010 • Barry Manilow and The New York Pops, Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ – August 14, 2010 • Life – Discovery Channel Premiere, Alice Tully Hall – March 4, 2010 • Yankee Stadium, National Anthem performed by The New York Pops Brass – 2008- 2010, 2004 • Ken Lavigne in Concert, Carnegie Hall – January 22, 2009 • Skitch Henderson: A Man and His Music, Carnegie Hall – February 6, 2006 • Ferguson Center for the Arts Grand Opening, Newport News, VA – September 12, 2005 • New York City Republican National Convention Host Committee Concert – September 1, 2004 • Russell Watson -The Voice with Lea Salonga and Hayley Westenra, Carnegie Hall – June 1, 2002 • U.S. Military Academy, Eisenhower Hall, West Point, NY – December 2001, May 1990 • Inaugural Reception for The Centennial of Greater New York, Gracie Mansion – September 8, 1999 • Unilever United States Dinner, Natural History Museum, New York City – March 18, 1999 • Walter Cronkite Tribute, Waldorf-Astoria – February 17, 1999 • 150th Anniversary of New York Life, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center – July 2, 1995 • Newport Centre Christmas Celebration, Jersey City, NJ – December 1987-1989 • World Financial Center Dedication Ceremony, New York City – October 1988 • "I Love New York," Apollo Theatre – October 1987 • "Harlem Week" with Cab Calloway, Apollo Theatre – August 1986

Benefit Concerts
Ronald McDonald House and The New York Pops Joint Benefit Concerts, 54 Below, 2013; Feinstein’s at Loews Regency – 2010-2012 • Free to Dream: The Songs of Katsaros and Schermerhorn, Joe’s Pub – August 2, 2010 • Young People’s Chorus of New York City Gala Concerts, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center – 2007, 2009-2012 • Lauri Strauss Leukemia Foundation Benefit Concerts, Carnegie Hall – 1992-2008 • Seeds of Peace to benefit camp for teenagers from war-torn countries, Carnegie Hall – May 22, 2000 • Tilles Center Gala XI to benefit Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Brookville, NY – October 1991