BSO SuperPops and Baltimore Choral Arts Society in Harmony with "A Chorus of Hits," May 8-11

BSO SuperPops Principal Conductor Jack Everly leads program featuring beloved Broadway and classical choral works

Baltimore, Md. (April 18, 2008)-Led by BSO Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society team up to present "A Chorus of Hits," May 8 at the Music Center at Strathmore and May 9-11 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The BSO SuperPops program will feature Broadway and classical choral favorites. Program highlights will include the "Halleluiah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah, "Pie Jesu" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and songs by Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser and Richard Rodgers. See below for complete program information.

Jack Everly, BSO Principal Pops Conductor
Known for his innovative programming ideas and his knowledge of and love for the pops genre, Jack Everly is Principal Pops Conductor of the Baltimore, Indianapolis and National Arts Centre (Ottawa) Symphony Orchestras. He is also the Music Director of the Indianapolis Symphony's A Yuletide Celebration and Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony's Holiday Spectacular.

Music Director of American Ballet Theater for 14 years, Mr. Everly conducted thousands of performances and dozens of world premieres for that company. He teamed with Marvin Hamlisch in shows that Mr. Hamlisch composed. Mr. Everly has appeared on "In Performance at the White House" and has been music director on numerous Broadway cast recordings, including Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He conducted the PBS "Dance in America" at New York's City Center as well as the PBS telecast from the Metropolitan Opera House of the Prokofiev-MacMillan Romeo and Juliet.

A frequent guest conductor on the world's concert, opera and ballet stages, Mr. Everly's appearances include the National Symphony of London, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Teatro Colón, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Everly is also the Music Advisor for the Symphony Pops Consortium (SPC), an alliance formed by the Indianapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, National and Seattle symphony orchestras. The SPC is producer of programs that include A Celtic Celebration-The Music of the Emerald Isle, Those Glorious Musicians-A Tribute to MGM and Pops Goes British featuring the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber

Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Tom Hall, Music Director
Now in its 42nd season, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (BCAS) is one of Maryland's premier cultural institutions, with Tom Hall serving as music director since 1982. The Symphonic Chorus, Full Chorus, Chamber Chorus and Orchestra perform throughout the mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Washington, D.C., New York and Europe. BCAS programs feature both choral and orchestral music, stage and theater works, dancers, poets, narrators and other artists from a variety of disciplines.

WMAR-TV, the ABC network affiliate in Maryland, features BCAS in an annual hour-long special, Christmas with Choral Arts, broadcast twice each season and winning an Emmy Award in 2006. On local radio, Mr. Hall is arts and culture contributor for WYPR's Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast and is the host of Choral Arts Classics, a monthly program features BCAS. BCAS concerts are also broadcast on WBJC radio and have four recordings in current release.

BCAS has commissioned and premiered several works by American composers, including Peter Schickele's Blake's Proverbs and Libby Larsen's Billy the Kid, commissioned jointly with the King's Singers and the City of Birmingham (England) Chorus. BCAS have also given world premieres and first local performances of works by Morten Lauridsen, Kirke Mechem, Janika Vanderwelde, Samuel Adler, Daniel Pinkham, Robert Sirota and William Mathias. See www.baltimorechoralarts.org.

COMPLETE PROGRAM INFORMATION
BSO SuperPops: A Chorus of Hits
Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.-The Music Center at Strathmore
Friday, May 9, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.-Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH)
Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.-JMSH
Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.-JMSH

Jack Everly, conductor
Baltimore Choral Arts Society
   Tom Hall, Music Director
   Choir prepared by Leon Wanenchak, Assistant Conductor

Tickets for this program range from $15-$84 and are available through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Ticket Office, 410.783.8000, 877.BSO.1444 or BSOmusic.org.
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