Thibaudet & Feinstein

Keith Lockhart has served as conductor of the Boston Pops since 1995, a tenure that includes nearly 2,000 performances, 45 national tours to more than 150 cities, and four international tours. He and the Pops have made 80 television shows and participated in Super Bowl XXXVI, the 2008 NBA finals, the 2013 Boston Red Sox Ring Ceremony, and the 2018 World Series. The annual July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular draws a live audience of more than half a million people, with millions more who watch on television or live webcast.

Lockhart is also artistic director of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina and was principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra from 2010–18, where he led annual performances at the Proms and conducted during Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Concert. He was previously music director of the Utah Symphony for 11 seasons, where he led the complete symphonic works of Gustav Mahler and took the orchestra on its first European tour in two decades. He led the Utah Symphony during opening ceremonies of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and conducted two programs for the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival.

Lockhart has conducted nearly every major orchestra in North America, as well as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Vienna Radio Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NHK Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Melbourne Symphony. In October 2012, he made his London Philharmonic debut at Royal Albert Hall. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in July 1999.

Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Lockhart began his musical studies on piano at the age of seven and holds degrees from Furman University and Carnegie Mellon University, as well as honorary doctorates from Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Northeastern University, Furman University, and Carnegie Mellon University. He was the 2006 recipient of the Bob Hope Patriot Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and was a recipient of the 2017 Commonwealth Award, Massachusetts’s highest cultural honor.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet has earned a reputation as one of the world’s finest pianists. He is especially known for his diverse interests beyond the classical world—in addition to his many forays into jazz and opera, he has collaborated with film, fashion, and visual art. He is a devoted educator and the first-ever artist in residence at the Colburn School, which awards several scholarships in his name.

This season, Thibaudet performs with the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Seatle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestra Zurich, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Munich Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, National Symphony of Taiwan, and Macao Orchestra.

Thibaudet has appeared on more than 70 albums and six film scores; his extensive catalogue has received two Grammy nominations, two Echo Awards, the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Diapason d’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Edison Prize, and Gramophone awards. Recent recordings include Gershwin Rhapsody with Michael Feinstein; Night After Night, a celebration of James Newton Howard’s scores for the films of M. Night Shyamalan; and Carte Blanche, a collection of deeply personal solo piano pieces.

He was soloist on Aaron Zigman’s score for Wakefield, Dario Marianelli’s scores for the films Atonement (which won an Oscar for Best Original Score) and Pride and Prejudice, as well as Alexandre Desplat’s soundtracks for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch. He had a cameo in Bruce Beresford’s film on Alma Mahler, Bride of the Wind, and his playing is showcased throughout.

Thibaudet was born in Lyon, where he began his piano studies at age five, and entered the Paris Conservatory at 12. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1994, and last year soloed in a multisensory performance of Scriabin’s Prometheus in collaboration with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Cartier. Among his awards are the Victoire d’Honneur, induction into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame, and being named an Officier by the French Ministry of Culture.

In addition to being one of the leading musical entertainers and piano virtuosos of recent decades, Michael Feinstein’s work as an educator, archivist, interpreter, and ambassador of the Great American Songbook has established him as a preeminent force in contemporary music. He has received five Grammy Award nominations, a special Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre, two Emmy nominations of his television specials, and acclaim for his NPR series.

In 2007, Feinstein founded the Great American Songbook Foundation and for over a decade served as a founding member on the Library of Congress’s National Recording Preservation Board. He was named principal pops conductor for the Pasadena Symphony in 2012 and made his conducting debut in June 2013. He serves as artistic director of the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana, a home to diverse live programming and a museum for memorabilia and manuscripts. Since 1999, he has served as artistic director for Carnegie Hall’s “Standard Time with Michael Feinstein” in conjunction with ASCAP, and in 2010 became the director of the Jazz and Popular Song Series at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Feinstein’s at the Nikko, his nightclub at San Francisco’s Nikko Hotel, has presented top talents of pop and jazz since 2013. His first venue in New York, Feinstein’s at the Regency, featured Rosemary Clooney, Barbara Cook, Diahann Carroll, and Alan Cumming, from 1999 to 2012. Feinstein opened a Los Angeles location, Feinstein’s at Vitello’s in June 2019; launched Feinstein’s at the Hotel Carmichael in Carmel, Indiana, in 2021; and debuted Feinstein’s at The Taper in Los Angeles in 2023.

Feinstein was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, where he started playing piano at age five. At 20, he moved to Los Angeles where he met the widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant who then introduced him to Ira Gershwin. Feinstein became Gershwin’s assistant, which earned him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs. Gershwin’s influence provided a solid base upon which Feinstein evolved into a captivating performer, composer, and arranger of his own original music. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in July 1987.