Noteworthy

By Kyle MacMillan

Pops concerts a few decades ago typically featured light classical fare, jazz, big-band classics, and even appearances by stars of yore like Debbie Reynolds chatting about their long careers and performing signature songs.

But as audience tastes have changed, so has pops programming. As a prime example, look no further than the 2024/25 TSO Pops Series, which opened in October with a Tina Turner tribute and includes 21st-Century Broadway in March, Pops Goes to the Movies: The Music of Hans Zimmer in April, and La Vida Loca in May, and ends in June with a Bee Gees extravaganza.

“It’s been quite an evolution of what we know of as pops,” said Steven Reineke, who has served as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Pops Conductor since 2012. “What’s different now is that we’re working with a lot of young, up-and-coming artists that are famous through TikTok or YouTube—people like [singer-songwriter] Cody Fry. We’ve turned it into a pretty hip thing to do.”

Following in the footsteps of famous past leaders like Arthur Fiedler, Skitch Henderson, and Erich Kunzel, Reineke is arguably the reigning pops king of North America. Besides heading the TSO Pops, he is in his second decade as Music Director of The New York Pops and Principal Pops Conductor of the Houston Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC.

What has not changed about the Pops Series is its long-standing mission to broaden the reach of symphony orchestras and provide unpretentious concerts that are light, fun, and accessible. “It’s just another arm of what the symphony orchestra does,” Reineke said. “The programming of the orchestra, no matter what city you’re in, has to cater to all the segments of the population that it can, and that’s where popular programming plays a big part. There’s a huge segment of any city that’s not going to come and hear a Mahler symphony, but if you booked Diana Ross, they would be there in a heartbeat.”

While a pops conductor has to be a consummate musician like a classical conductor, they also have to be a showperson, with a stage presence and conversational ease. “Being able to turn around [on the podium] and engage with the audience, to set up stories and anecdotes, is hugely important,” he said, “because on the popular side, a big part of what we do is purely entertaining.” 

But light and entertaining doesn’t mean easy. As Reineke points out, pops conductors often get less rehearsal time than classical conductors, and they have to coordinate an abundance of what he calls “moving parts,” including the lighting, sound, and other production elements. 

“You have to be able to manage a lot of different types of personalities,” he said, “a lot of different types of egos and different styles of music. We’re merging things like hip hop, rap, jazz, and bluegrass with a symphony orchestra, so you have to have the ability to go back and forth between these different genres of music.”

Reineke did not set out to be a pops conductor. The Ohio native’s first instrument was the trumpet, but he began playing the piano by ear in middle school, tapping out movie scores and songs that he heard on the radio. Then he started to write down what he heard, and by the time he got to high school, he was doing arrangements for the pep and marching bands in addition to composing his own music. 

After earning a bachelor’s degree in music composition and trumpet performance at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, he pursued writing film music in Los Angeles for two years. In 1995, he was hired as a staff arranger and composer for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, one of the top pops ensembles in the US.

He worked with Kunzel, who headed the orchestra for 32 years until his death in 2009 and also founded the TSO Pops Series and served as its regular conductor starting in 1975. Early in their collaboration, the two were in a car together for a trip from Cincinnati to Cleveland, listening to Cincinnati Pops CDs as they went. Reineke began to conduct along with the music for fun, and Kunzel looked over and said, “So, you want my job now, too?”

That moment led to conducting lessons with Kunzel, and later the senior conductor gave Reineke a chance to lead portions of Cincinnati Pops rehearsals, using the excuse of wanting to listen to sound balances in the hall. “He was seeing what I could do up there, and that was the beginning of it,” Reineke said.

He made his podium début in 1997, with the TSO, after Kunzel fell ill with pneumonia in Florida. Reineke had to fly at the last minute to Toronto to take his mentor’s place for the rehearsals and performances of a Duke Ellington program. “That was my happenstance first professional conducting job,” he said. “I guess I wasn’t too horrible, because they have been having me back ever since.”

The TSO Pops Series comprises six programs in 2024/25, including the annual TSO Holiday Pops concert, which happened in December. Reineke often leads these yuletide programs, but, this year, guest conductor Jeff Tyzik stepped in for him. “The holiday pops concert is sometimes the only one [program] that certain people come to,” he said. “It’s almost like only going to church on Christmas. It’s the only time they come see us, because it’s so good, so fun, and so heartwarming.” 

Reineke oversaw his Turner tribute and will lead 21st-Century Broadway. The latter is exactly what its title implies—all the songs are from original musicals written since 2000 like Hamilton, In the Heights, The Producers, Waitress, and Wicked.

“There are nights when I do whole tributes to Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Loewe, the golden age of Broadway,” he said. “But there is so much great material written for Broadway now. It’s a whole different time, and so it brings a different audience.”

Ending the Pops Series is Disco! Bee Gees & Beyond, featuring a vocal group well known to Toronto audiences—Rajaton from Helsinki. Though principally an a cappella group, the vocal sextet has also done tributes to groups like ABBA, and Reineke helped Rajaton put together this Bee Gees homage. “It’s going to be great fun, because there is so much good music,” he said. “Not only is there the disco music of ‘Stayin’ Alive’ and all that, but there are so many other great Bee Gees songs that people will forget they even know.”

In addition to his Pops programs, Reineke is also leading two TSO concerts in which a film is screened alongside a live performance of its score. He will conduct Disney’s Encanto in Concert on March 8 and 9, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Concert on May 22 to 25. 

Given Reineke’s ample duties as part of his permanent posts, he doesn’t have much time left over for guest conducting—usually no more than a few sets of concerts each year. This season, he will visit the orchestras in Dallas, Chicago, and Seattle and conduct the Bee Gees show in Helsinki.

“I travel about 32 weeks out of the year,” he said. “So it’s a lot.” 

Whether you’re a long-time fan or a first-time attendee, the TSO Pops Series offers something for everyone. Plan your Pops experience today—visit TSO.CA/Pops for tickets and details.