\n<\/p>\n
But Lockhart remains a crucial, beloved figure for the Boston Symphony, most of whose players he conducts far more often than their music director. And he has the experience and skills of a proper musician: He led the Utah Symphony for 11 years and has been artistic director of the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival since 2007. \u201cHe comes in knowing what he\u2019s going to do, and we just follow him,\u201d said Suzanne Nelsen, a Pops bassoonist.<\/p>\n
His collaborators are similarly effusive. \u201cKeith and the musicians, they know where the beat is,\u201d said Branford Marsalis, the jazz saxophonist, \u201cso it never feels like it falls into affectation or stereotype, which are the worst experiences ever.\u201d Ben Folds, the singer-songwriter, applauded the Pops for keeping the dignified environment of a symphony orchestra intact. \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing with Keith,\u201d he said, \u201che\u2019s taking the inside of your music seriously.\u201d Bernadette Peters, Broadway royalty, confided that on her phone, she keeps a secret recording of the Pops performing a lullaby she wrote about a dog. \u201cHe gets all these players to play as a whole, and make music with me,\u201d she said of Lockhart. \u201cIt\u2019s basically a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lockhart is also one of the few conductors today who is deeply rooted in his community, so much so that even its baseball team speaks highly of him. Alex Cora, the manager of the Boston Red Sox, appeared<\/a> at the Holiday Pops in 2018, and last year invited Lockhart to talk to his players at spring training.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was good for our guys, especially seeing it from a different perspective,\u201d Cora said. \u201cProbably for them, it was like: \u2018Oh, he\u2019s a conductor, what is it, what\u2019s the big thing? He\u2019s just, you know, moving his hands and whatever.\u2019 No, no, no, no, he\u2019s doing a lot from that platform. It was good to have him around.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n