Pride Night with Orville Peck
Lead Season Sponsor
Thursday, June 5, 7:30pm
BOSTON POPS
KEITH LOCKHART conducting
Corporate support for Thursday evening’s concert is generously provided by BSO Business Partner Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
To Lenny! To Lenny! (For New York)
John Williams
Hoe-Down, from Rodeo
Copland
Convergence, Concerto for Pops Orchestra
• II. Reminiscence in Blues —
• III. La Grande Parade du Funk
Christopher Brubeck
Presenting Peter Mac as Judy Garland
The Trolley Song
Blane/Martin—arr. Blank
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Arlen/Harbur—arr. Blank
From Sea to Shining Sea
PAULA PLUM, narrator
TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL CHORUS, JAMES BURTON, conductor
Music by Stephen Flaherty, after Samuel A. Ward—orch. Bill Elliott
Lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates
Text by John de Graaf, adaptation and additional text by Lynn Ahrens
Images adapted from the film From Sea to Shining Sea: Katharine Lee Bates and the Story of America the Beautiful, directed by John de Graaf, edited by Greg Davis; produced by Laurence Cotton and Karen Olcott; illustrated by Lisa Bade; archival images courtesy of Falmouth Historical Society, Wellesley College Archives, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, Colorado College Archives, and Wikimedia Commons.
INTERMISSION
Presenting Orville Peck
Selections to be announced from the stage
This evening’s performance by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is supported by the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Fund for Voice and Chorus.
The Boston Pops welcomes Kimberly Gillies; Harvard Outings & Innings; Arthur D. Little
Guests are expected to drink responsibly. Intoxication will not be tolerated. Intervention with an impaired guest will be handled in a prompt and safe manner, which may include ejection from the premises.
Photos, videos, and audio recordings are prohibited during the performance. You are welcome (and encouraged!) take photos and videos before and after the concert, and at intermission.
-
![]()
Keith Lockhart
Keith Lockhart is the second longest-tenured conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. He took over as conductor in 1995, following John Williams’s thirteen-year tenure from 1980 to 1993; Mr. Williams succeeded the legendary Arthur Fiedler, who was at the helm of the orchestra for nearly fifty years. Keith Lockhart, who occupies the Julian and Eunice Cohen Boston Pops Conductor chair, has conducted more than 2,100 Boston Pops concerts and annual Boston Pops appearances at Tanglewood, as well as 45 national tours and 5 international tours to Japan and Korea. The annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular conducted by Mr. Lockhart draws a live audience of over half a million to the Charles River Esplanade and millions more who view it on television or live webcast. He has led eight albums on RCA Victor/BMG Classics; recent releases on Boston Pops Recordings include A Boston Pops Christmas–Live from Symphony Hall, The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, and Lights, Camera… Music! Six Decades of John Williams. The list of nearly 300 guest artists with whom Keith Lockhart has collaborated represents performers from virtually every corner of the entertainment world. Having recently completed an eight- year tenure as principal conductor, he is now chief guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London; he is also artistic director of the Brevard Music Center summer institute and festival in North Carolina. Prior to his BBC appointment, he spent eleven years as music director of the Utah Symphony. He has appeared as a guest conductor with virtually every major symphonic ensemble in North America and many in Asia and Europe. Before coming to Boston, he was the associate conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops orchestras, as well as music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. For more on Keith Lockhart, visit www.bso.org/keith-lockhart or bostonpops.org.
-
![Orville Peck headshot]()
Orville Peck
Orville Peck is an award winning country music recording artist, songwriter and actor. After leaving his hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa as a teenager, Orville has since worked and lived throughout Canada, the UK and across the United States, where he now calls Los Angeles home.
In 2024, he released his third studio album, Stampede, following his critically acclaimed works of Bronco (2022) and Pony (2019).
Despite never being seen without his signature mask, Orville has made a name for himself in Country music, blazing a trail as one of the genre's few openly gay artists. He has collaborated and worked with a roster of music industry greats such as Elton John, Willie Nelson, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Shania Twain, Beck, Kylie Minogue, Noah Cyrus and many others.
Revered for his live shows, Peck has toured across the US, Europe, Australia and Canada. He has sold out tours and played iconic venues such as Madison Square Garden, The Hollywood Bowl, The Ryman Auditorium, as well as performing at major festivals such as Lollapalooza, Stagecoach, and Coachella.
His work in fashion as a model, creative and performer has brought him collaborations with names like Dior, Michael Kors, Adidas, Ivy Park, Levi’s and Pamela Love, to name a few.
In 2024 Orville was the recipient of GLAAD’s highly honored Vito Russo Award.
-
![James Burton headshot]()
James Burton
James Burton was the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Director of Choral Activities and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus from his appointment in 2017 until stepping down from the position in August 2025. Burton has conducted performances at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood with the BSO and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and he has been a frequent guest conductor with the Boston Pops. Born in London, he has conducted many of the UK’s leading ensembles including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Hallé, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the BBC Singers. He has also led the Ulster Orchestra, the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark, and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society. Burton has conducted at English National Opera, English Touring Opera, and Garsington Opera, and earlier in his career he served as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and Opera national de Paris. Burton’s previous appointments include Choral Director at the Hallé Orchestra, where he won the Gramophone Choral Award in 2009, and Music Director of the Schola Cantorum of Oxford (2002-17). He was the honored guest director of the National Youth Choir of Japan in 2017. Throughout his career, he has been a passionate advocate for young musicians. From 2020 to 2024 he was Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University’s School of Music, leading the orchestral program and teaching conducting. He founded a scholarship for young conductors at Oxford, has given masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music, the Tanglewood Music Center, and Birmingham University, and has been a regular faculty member for the Prague Summer Nights Festival. He founded the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir in 2018. Burton’s composition portfolio includes works performed by the Boston Pops and choirs including The Sixteen, the Choir of New College Oxford and the BBC Singers. The King’s Singers featured a work of his on their 2021 Christmas album, and his carol “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day” was premiered by the Choir of St John’s College Cambridge and recently received its first American recording by the Choir of Trinity Copley Square. His piece The Lost Words was commissioned by the BSO, was performed at Tanglewood and the BBC Proms in 2019, and was featured by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Born in London, Burton was head chorister of the Choir of Westminster Abbey, studied at St John’s College at Cambridge University, and holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Conservatory where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier.
-
![Tanglewood Festival Chorus Performing at Symphony Hall in Boston]()
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Originally formed under the joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC) was established in 1970 by its founding conductor, the late John Oliver, who stepped down from his leadership position with the TFC at the end of the 2015 Tanglewood season. His successor, James Burton, was appointed to the newly created position of BSO Choral Director in 2017 and concluded his tenure with the TFC in August 2025. In the 2025-26 season, the TFC performs with the BSO and Andris Nelsons in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Symphony Hall, Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and in music from John Adams’s opera Nixon in China; under Herbert Blomstedt in Brahms’s Nänie and Schicksalslied, and with Dima Slobodeniouk in John Adams’s Harmonium and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The chorus will also join Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops for the holiday and spring Pops seasons.
First established for performances at the BSO’s summer home, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus plays a major role in the BSO’s subscription season as well as in BSO concerts at Carnegie Hall. Considered one of the world’s leading symphonic choruses, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is made up of volunteer singers who share their time and talents, performing year-round with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. The TFC also records frequently with the BSO and the Boston Pops. Its most recent BSO recordings were Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies 2, 3, and 13 conducted by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, released in October 2023, and the composer’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, included in orchestra’s box set of Shostakovich’s orchestral music released in spring 2025. The chorus has also recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under conductors Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Leonard Bernstein, and Sir Colin Davis and with the Boston Pops under Keith Lockhart and John Williams. The TFC can be heard on several film soundtracks, including Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. The chorus has sung with the Boston Pops for Boston Red Sox and Celtics games and the National Anthem prior to an American League Championship Series game at Fenway Park in October 2021. The TFC has sung the world and American premieres of many BSO-commissioned works for chorus and orchestra, including John Harbison’s Requiem and Koussevitzky Said:, William Bolcom’s Eighth Symphony, Eriks Ešenvalds’ Lakes Awake at Dawn, Elena Langer’s The Dong with a Luminous Nose.
In the 2024-25 season, the chorus appeared in BSO performances including Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Mozart’s Requiem, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and the world premiere of Vrebalov’s Love Canticles, a BSO commission. In summer 2025 at Tanglewood, the chorus performed Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil in its annual Prelude Concert in Seiji Ozawa Hall and with the BSO in Puccini’s Tosca, Poulenc’s Gloria, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the BSO, and the world premiere of Words and Prayers of My Fathers, a BSO-commissioned a cappella work by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon.
Program Note
Boston Pops Major Corporate Sponsors, 2024-25 Season
The Boston Pops and Symphony Hall major corporate sponsorships reflect the increasing importance of alliance between business and the arts. The Boston Pops is honored to be associated with the following companies and gratefully acknowledges their partnership. For information regarding BSO, Boston Pops, and/or Tanglewood sponsorship opportunities, contact Joan Jolley, Director of Corporate Partnerships, at (617) 638-9279 or jjolley@bso.org.
