Tufts Night at Pops
Lead Season Sponsor
Friday, May 15, 2026, 8:00pm
BOSTON POPS
KEITH LOCKHART conducting
Festival Overture on The Star-Spangled Banner
Buck
Buckaroo Holiday, from Rodeo
Copland
Duo for Flute and Chamber Orchestra
Copland—orch. Ochoa
EMMA KRAUSE, flute
El Salón México
Copland
Presenting Amalgamates, Beelzebubs, Enchanted, Full Sound Vocal Group, Jackson Jills, Ladies of Essence, Low-Keys, Shir Appeal, and sQ!
INTERMISSION
It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)
Ellington—arr. Sebesky
All Blues Reimagined (for Miles)
Davis—arr./orch. Colón
Three Preludes
Gershwin—arr. Sebesky
An Elephant Never Forgets: Through the Years with Tufts Alumni
When can I take photos and videos? You are welcome (and encouraged!) to take photos and videos before and after the concert, and at intermission. Symphony Hall makes for a beautiful backdrop! Photos, videos, and audio recordings are strictly prohibited during the performance. At that time, be a great neighbor to your fellow concertgoers, put your phone or camera away, and enjoy the moment!
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.
Steve Colby, Sound Designer | Pamela Smith, Lighting Designer
The Boston Pops Orchestra may be heard on Boston Pops Recordings, RCA Victor, Sony Classical, and Philips Records.
Steinway & Sons Pianos, selected exclusively for Symphony Hall.
Special thanks to Fidelity Investments, Lead Season Sponsor, and Fairmont Copley Plaza, Official Hotel of the Boston Pops.
New arrangements and works for the Boston Pops are generously supported by the Cecile Higginson Murphy Pops Programming Fund.
Broadcasts of the Boston Pops are heard on 99.5 WCRB.
Programs and artists subject to change.
The BSO’s 2025-26 season is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Board of Trustees | Board of Advisors | Staff and Administration
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Boston Pops
Led by conductor Keith Lockhart, the Boston Pops, known affectionately as “America’s Orchestra,” performs an exciting and eclectic mix of orchestral arrangements from a wide range of traditions including Broadway and the great American songbook, film music, classical, jazz, pop, country, folk, and, of course, holiday classics. The Pops was created in 1885 as the “light classical” summer season venture of the Boston Symphony. The Boston Pops Orchestra reached its current iconic status during the 50-year tenure of the legendary Arthur Fiedler, who was succeeded in 1980 by the equally renowned film composer John Williams. Keith Lockhart took the helm in 1995. It was Fiedler who started the tradition of Pops performances on the Charles River Esplanade, including the annual Fourth of July celebration, brought the Pops to television with Evening at Pops (1970-2004), and initiated Holiday Pops, which marked its 50th anniversary in 2023. Fiedler welcomed to our stages dynamic, world-class guest artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Julia Child, and Bob Hope. That tradition continues today with Keith Lockhart working with such stars as Brian Stokes Mitchell, The B-52s, Chaka Khan, Nick Jonas, and Rhiannon Giddens. With the Pops, Keith has made 81 television shows, led 45 national and 5 overseas tours, led the Pops at several high-profile sporting events including the Super Bowl, and recorded fourteen albums. Through it all the orchestra has remained of the most recorded, familiar, and beloved ensembles in the world today.
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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.
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Emma Krause
Emma Krause is a flute and piccolo player from Downers Grove, IL. She received her Master of Music from New England Conservatory under the instruction of Cindy Meyers in May 2026. At NEC, Emma also earned a teaching artistry concentration where she studied the implementation of instrumental music in early childhood classrooms. She earned her Bachelor of Music, cum laude, from Northwestern University in June of 2024 where her principal teachers were John Thorne, Jennifer Gunn, and Alyce Johnson. In 2025, Emma was the U.S. finalist in the Kujala International Piccolo Competition and placed fourth internationally. Orchestrally, she has performed with the New World Symphony and Atlantic Symphony. In May 2026, along with the Boston Pops, Emma gives the Symphony Hall premiere of Copland’s Duo for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (an orchestration of the composer’s Duo for Flute and Piano) under Maestro Keith Lockhart. This arrangement by D. Wilson Ochoa, librarian of the Boston Symphony, premiered in October 2025.
In addition to performing, Emma is a passionate educator. She teaches private flute lessons and early childhood music classes, and she has directed elementary, middle, and high school band. In the 2024-2025 academic year, Emma was a teaching fellow for NEC and taught woodwind classes at Otis Elementary in East Boston.
Emma has spent summers at Orford Music and joins the National Repertory Orchestra for their summer festival in 2026.
Duo for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (Copland—orch. Ochoa)
The Duo for Flute and Piano was composed on commission from a group of pupils and friends of the late William Kincaid, for many years solo flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and is dedicated to his memory. Completed in 1971, it was first performed by Elaine Shaffer and Hephzibah Menuhin on October 3rd of that year at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, PA. It is dedicated to the memory of William Kincaid.
This Duo for Flute and Chamber Orchestra orchestration was completed in 2020 by D. Wilson Ochoa, principal librarian of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and is dedicated to his sister, United States astronaut (and flutist) Ellen Ochoa, who introduced him to the piece when she played it in recital in the 1980s.
Boston Pops Major Corporate Sponsors, 2025-26 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.