Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular 2024

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. 

Kelli O'Hara has established herself as one of Broadway's greatest leading ladies. The Tony Award-winner, Emmy- and Grammy-nominated actress has appeared in 11 Broadway shows for which she has garnered seven Tony Award nominations.

She won the 2015 Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical, along with Grammy, Drama League and Outer Critics nominations for her portrayal of Anna Leonowens in The King and I. O’Hara’s other Broadway credits include Kiss Me Kate, The Bridges of Madison County, Nice Work if You Can Get It, South Pacific, The Pajama Game, The Light in the Piazza, Sweet Smell of Success, Follies, Dracula, and Jekyll & Hyde.

O’Hara received an Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Katie Bonner in Topic's hit web series "The Accidental Wolf" and can currently be seen on HBO’s "The Gilded Age." Additional film and television credits include Showtime's "Master of Sex," "13 Reasons Why," "Blue Bloods," "All My Children," "All the Bright Places," "Peter Pan Live!," "Sex and the City 2," Martin Scorsese's "The Key to Reserva", "The Good Fight," "N3mbers," and "Car Talk."

In 2015, she made history as the first artist to make the crossover from Broadway to opera when she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Lehar's The Merry Widow opposite Renee Fleming. In 2018 she returned as Despina in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte. She was last seen at the Metropolitan Opera in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Hours as Laura Brown.

O’Hara is a frequent performer on PBS's live telecasts, The Kennedy Center Honors, and performs often alongside the New York Philharmonic and the New York Pops. Along with her two Grammy nominations, her solo albums "Always" and "Wonder in the World" are available on Ghostlight.

O’Hara recently completed a critically-appraised limited Broadway engagement of the new musical Days of Wine and Roses which also garnered rave reviews during its off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theatre Company last summer and has been a labor of love for O'Hara and composer Adam Guettel, who dedicated the last 21 years to its development. She will next be seen in The Hours at the Metropolitan Opera and season three of "The Gilded Age."

Throughout the years, Darlene Love has continued to captivate audiences worldwide with her warm, gracious stage presence and superb performances. Her film "Twenty Feet from Stardom" was not only awarded with an Oscar, but also a Grammy Award for the soundtrack. Her Billboard hits include He's a Rebel, The Boy I'm Gonna Marry, Wait 'Til My Bobby Gets Home, He's Sure the Boy I Love, and the legendary No. 1 holiday classic, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). Love received her industry's highest award when Bette Midler, a great fan of her work, inducted her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During the celebration, the two ladies enjoyed performing He's a Rebel together. As part of the festivities, Love also sang He's a Fine, Fine Boy backed by another distinguished fan, Bruce Springsteen. Rolling Stone has proclaimed Love to be "one of the greatest singers of all time," and that certainly rings true, but perhaps Paul Shaffer says it even more concisely: "Darlene Love is rock n' roll!"

The Mavericks have always been explorers.

For decades, they've created the kind of multicultural Americana that reaches far beyond America itself, blending their favorite stateside sounds — including rock-and-roll, country, and R&B — with Tex-Mex twang, Cuban rhythms, Jamaican ska, and other Latin influences. The exploration continues on "Moon & Stars," a progressive album that finds Raul Malo and company continuing to push the envelope, exploring the outer orbits of an organic, otherworldly sound that remains entirely their own.

The sound of a band refuses to be limited by its own legacy. Three days after receiving the Trailblazer Award at the 2021 Americana Music Honors & Awards, the Mavericks hit the highway once again, resuming the busy touring schedule that's kept the band in sharp shape. Joined by longtime co-producer Niko Bolas, they recorded portions of "Moon & Stars" while on the road, setting up camp at studios in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Maurice, Louisiana, before finishing the record at home in Nashville. Tracking sessions were fast and inspired, built around the chemistry of four musical brothers — Malo, guitarist Eddie Perez, keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden, and drummer Paul Deakin — who've logged thousands of hours onstage together, racking up multiple Grammy, ACM, and CMA Awards along the way.

On the 11 tracks on "Moon & Stars," the Mavericks are larger than life, not only musically, but literally, too, thanks to an expanded roster that features a three-part horn section, an accordionist, and a guest list stocked with powerhouse singers like Nicole Atkins, Maggie Rose, and Sierra Ferrell. Songs like the album's tropical title track prove there's strength in numbers, with Ferrell and Malo piling their voices into thickly-stacked harmonies over a Cuban charanga groove. Rose appears on Look Around You, an album highlight that splits the difference between timeless country-soul and classic R&B. Saxophonist Max Abrams takes centerstage on Here You Come Again to channel the steamy 1980s textures of George Michael's Careless Whisper, while Atkins adds sauce and swagger to Live Close By (Visit Often), a roadhouse roots-rocker whose horn arrangement nods to the influence of Stax Records and Muscle Shoals.

Malo co-wrote Live Close By (Visit Often) with K.T. Oslin, and it's not the only high-powered songwriting collaboration to fuel "Moon & Stars." None other than Bernie Taupin, the iconic lyricist behind countless Elton John hits, contributed to the record's opening track, The Years Will Not Be Kind. A brooding song that evokes western trail rides one minute and Quentin Tarantino film scores the next, The Years Will Not Be Kind dates back to the early 2000s, when the Mavericks were still riding high on the success of songs like All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down (their genre-bending hit with Flaco Jiménez) and the Grammy-winning Here Comes the Rain. It's a song about exhaustion and rough-and-tumble durability, and Malo — a road warrior who's seen plenty of both — delivers each line with a low register that channels Johnny Cash.

"Moon & Stars" doesn't spend much time looking backward, though. Look Around You is a modern-day rallying cry for brotherhood, aimed at a society threatened by violence and partisan bickering. "Our differences are what will make the world go on," Malo sings, his velvety voice backed by Maggie Rose and Kaitlyn Connor's harmonies. He goes even deeper with And We Dance. The song's operatic vocals and tremolo guitars may channel Roy Orbison, but its message — inspired by a poignant, emotionally-charged news segment about Russia's invasion of Ukraine — is a contemporary call for strength, resistance, and resilience.

Everything comes full circle with the album's final track, Turn Yourself Around. Heavily inspired by the Beatles, the song was recorded on Ringo Starr's birthday at Nashville's Blackbird Studios. For Malo, it represents a blending of past and present — as a commitment to whatever the future may hold.

To the moon and back, the Mavericks are still exploring.

Stationed at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., the Singing Sergeants is one of six musical ensembles from the United States Air Force Band. The Singing Sergeant's 24 active-duty musicians support ceremonial and diplomatic functions, education outreach events, and perform concerts throughout Washington, D.C., and the United States.

Formed initially as a men's chorus in 1945, the Singing Sergeants became the first premier military chorus to enlist women in 1973, increasing their musical versatility. Today, the group's members use music to bridge language and cultural differences and to help advance positive diplomatic relations through song. The chorus is regularly featured at national music education conferences, including the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and Chorus America.

Through the U.S. Air Force Band’s mission, the Singing Sergeants honor those who have served, inspire American citizens to heightened patriotism and service, and connect with the global community on behalf of the U.S. Air Force and the United States. The excellence demonstrated by the Singing Sergeants represents all Airmen stationed worldwide, whose sacrifices and selfless service ensure the freedom enjoyed by citizens of the United States of America.

Romaine Bostick is an award-winning journalist and multimedia presenter who has interviewed the biggest names in the worlds of business, politics, entertainment, and sports. He is currently the host of the daily television program "Bloomberg Markets: The Close."

Carol Massar is an award-winning business and financial journalist who has anchored and reported around the globe interviewing leaders who are impacting business, financial markets, politics, society, and culture. Massar joined Bloomberg in 1999, and currently co-hosts the daily broadcast and podcast "Bloomberg Businessweek." She began her broadcast career delivering business news over Columbia University’s radio waves.