CINCINNATI POPS ORCHESTRA

Since 1977, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra has entertained audiences in Cincinnati and around the globe with its trademark “Cincinnati Sound,” presenting a diverse array of musical genres that has garnered national and international acclaim for the ensemble. The alter ego of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops was founded in 1977 by the late Erich Kunzel and is currently led by Conductor John Morris Russell with Damon Gupton serving as Principal Guest Conductor. Notable collaborations with artists have included Dave Brubeck, Kristin Chenoweth, Ella Fitzgerald, Ben Folds, Aretha Franklin, Rhiannon Gidden, Audra McDonald, Smokey Robinson, and Lea Salonga.

Committed to sharing music with the world, the Cincinnati Pops has a long legacy of domestic and international tours and was the first Pops orchestra from the United States to perform in China. Recent tours have included Shanghai and Taiwan in March 2017 and Florida in December 2014. Previously, the Pops traveled to Beijing as part of the Opening Festivities of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and in 2005, the Pops completed a historic tour to China and Singapore, performing in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Cincinnati Pops has also appeared before audiences in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Washington D.C., and Japan.

Digital performances and recordings have long been hallmarks of the Cincinnati Pops. National telecasts of the Cincinnati Pops on PBS have been viewed by an estimated 30 million people, and American Soundscapes, an online video series produced in partnership with CET Public Television, has surpassed one million views on YouTube since its inception in 2016. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Cincinnati Pops performances were livestreamed for free to viewers from around the world; select performances continue to be livestreamed each season for accessibility. The Cincinnati Pops discography is expansive and tens of millions of recordings have been sold worldwide through the decades. In 2012, the Pops released Home for the Holidays, the first recording on the Orchestra’s own Fanfare Cincinnati label, and in 2015, the Pops released American Originals, which received widespread acclaim for its reimagining of the Stephen Foster songbook, followed by the release of American Originals: 1918, which received a Grammy nomination for “Best Classical Compendium.”