Cincinnati Pops 2010-2011 Season Remembers Erich Kunzel

John Williams

The Pops’ 2010-2011 season, announced today, will commemorate the popsmeister’s 44-year legacy in Cincinnati, beginning with a special concert August 7 at Riverbend, to be led former Boston Pops conductor John Williams.  The one-night-only, non-subscription concert, dubbed “A Movie Music Spectacular, will include selections from Williams’ own legacy of music for films, including “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T.” “Jaws,” “Schindler’s List” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

 Kunzel, who died September 1, was an early champion of movie music and performed and recorded Williams’ music frequently during his career.  The two were good friends.  “I’m particularly grateful to Erich for introducing my music to thousands of listeners over the years,” said Williams, who be making his first-ever appearance at Riverbend.  “He always did this with bristling energy, fun and superb musicianship.”

The Pops Music Hall season itself comprises nine concerts at Music Hall.  New York Pops conductor/Cincinnati Pops associate conductor Steve Reineke will conduct three concerts.  Former Cincinnati Symphony and Pops associate conductor John Morris Russell and Bruce Hangen, former principal guest conductor of the Boston Pops, will conduct one each.  Conductors for the remaining four will be announced at a later date.

• Broadway superstar Bernadette Peters (“Annie Get Your Gun,” Song and Dance”) will open the season September 24-26 at Music Hall (conductor to be announced).   Kunzel introduced Peters to Cincinnati audiences over two decades ago.

• Hangen will lead the Pops in a Halloween “spooktacular” Oct. 29 and 30.  WGUC-FM personality Mark Perzel will “ghost host” the concert, which recalls Kunzel’s popular “Chiller” concerts and the Pops’ Halloween-themed TV special for PBS in 1996.  Halloween was one of Kunzel’s favorite holidays and he appeared in costume at these concerts, once rising out of the orchestra pit as the devil, complete with pitchfork.   (The Pops players will perform in costume and the audience is invited to do so, too).

• Reineke will lead the first of the season’s “Remix” concerts Nov. 14.  This one-night-only concert will feature singer John Curry in music of John Denver.   Pops “Remix” concerts, created for Reineke by Kunzel and inaugurated  this season, differ from regular Pops concerts by featuring different stage, lighting and sound configurations.

• The Pops’ annual holiday concert, Dec. 10-12, will be led by Russell and will star Debby Boone.  The choice is apt, since Boone is one degree of separation (daughter-in-law) from Rosemary Clooney, star of the film classic “White Christmas” and a close friend and frequent collaborator of Kunzel.

• The Pops’ “Remix” series will continue Jan. 15 and 16 with Mary Wilson of the Supremes performing hits from Motown and “Dreamgirls,” the Broadway show fashioned on the Supremes (conductor tba).

• The Pops Valentine show Feb. 11-13 will feature vocalist MonIca Mancini, daughter of Henry Mancini, another close friend of Kunzel, whose Pops recordings include the best-seller, “Mancini’s Greatest Hits.”   Monica Mancini will share memories of her father, including video and firsthand accounts.

• Reineke will return for the “Pops Goes Celtic” March 5 and 6, 2011.  The show will feature Leahy, a family of eight instrumentalists, singers and dancers, who write, arrange and produce original Celtic music.   Another top-selling Pops recording and a favorite of Kunzel is “A Celtic Spectacular” (2002).

• Reineke will be on board also for the Pops Remix concert “Oh What a Night” April 3, 2011 which will feature vocalists Tituss Burgess, Bradley Dean and Ron Bohmer.   Bohmer is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts.  Kunzel benefitted the SCPA throughout his career, ultimately by spearheading the construction of the new SCPA at Elm Street and Central Parkway.  The threesome will perform orchestral arrangement of hits by The Four Seasons, Elvis Presley, Steve Wonder, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, the Beach Boys, Bobby Darin, Otis Redding and others.

• The Pops season will close April 29, 30 and May 1, 2011 with guest star Neil Sedaka (conductor tba).  The concert is billed as “a trip down memory lane,” quite fitting for a season tribute to Kunzel.

Pops season subscriptions go on sale beginning March 8, single tickets August 11.  Information at www.cincinnatipops.org or call (513) 381-3300.

Subscribers to all nine season concerts will receive a free ticket to the special Aug. 7 John Williams concert at Riverbend and a free DVD of “Erich Kunzel: A Cincinnati Legacy,” a retrospective to be produced by CET.