Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Renews Five Year Contract with Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly Through 2017

Baltimore, Md. (March 11, 2011) - The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced today that it has renewed the contract of Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly through 2017. Maestro Everly's tenure as BSO Principal Pops Conductor began in 2003. That initial contract was renewed in 2008 and is set to expire at the end of the 2011-2012 season. This most recent contract renewal extends Maestro Everly's tenure for five further seasons, through the end of the 2016-2017 season. This parallels the length of BSO Music Director Marin Alsop's current 5-year contract that expires in 2015.

Under Jack Everly's dynamic leadership, the BSO has seen a marked increase in BSO SuperPops series subscribers at the BSO's two venues: the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.) and at The Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, Md.). The two best selling Pops series--the Saturday evening and Sunday matinee series in Baltimore-have seen a 20-28% increase in the number of subscribers. In the current 2010-2011 season, the remaining nine Pops programs are projected to sell out. Further, Maestro Everly has earned critical acclaim, "Everly is
a seasoned Broadway veteran who knows all about timing and sending an audience out of a theater with a flourish." (The Baltimore Sun)

During Jack Everly's tenure as Principal Pops Conductor, he has led the BSO in dynamic presentations of musical tributes to legends like Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hammerstein and Judy Garland and concerts that feature musical styles ranging from Big Band to Broadway to music for Cinema. He served as the music director for six seasons for the BSO's popular Holiday Spectacular, a Broadway-style musical production with lavish sets and costumes and headliners that included Sandi Patty, Maureen McGovern and Ann Hampton Callaway. Additionally, the BSO has benefitted from Maestro Everly's role as music director for the Symphonic Pops Consortium, an organization he created in 1998. The Consortium produces a new theatrical pops program each season. Shows produced by the Consortium in which Maestro Everly has led the BSO include Leading Men of Broadway, Big Band Hit Parade, Disco Days and Boogie Nights and Mysterioso: Music, Magic, Mayhem & Mirth.

Commenting on the contract extension, BSO President and CEO Paul Meecham said, "This is great news for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the long-term stability of our current artistic leadership. Baltimore and Strathmore audiences have embraced Jack and BSO musicians truly enjoy working with him."

"Whether it be Basie, Brahms, Bacharach or Big Band, the BSO understands how to play the different styles with aplomb," says Maestro Everly. "Making music with musicians of this caliber is a constant joy to me and for those lucky enough to attend. 'Live' is where it's at and the BSO is the best live music in Maryland."

Jack Everly, Conductor
Jack Everly is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Baltimore and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), and the newly named Music Director of the National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth on PBS. This season he makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut at the Hollywood Bowl, returns to The Cleveland Orchestra and appears as guest conductor in Pittsburgh, Edmonton, Ft. Worth and Phoenix.

Mr. Everly is the Music Director of Yuletide Celebration, now celebrating its 25th anniversary. These theatrical symphonic holiday concerts are presented annually in December in Indianapolis and are seen by more than 40,000 concert-goers. Mr. Everly led the ISO in its first Pops recording, Yuletide Celebration, Volume One, which included three of his own arrangements.

Originally appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mr. Everly was conductor of the American Ballet Theatre for 14 years, where he served as Music Director. In addition to his ABT tenure, he has teamed with Marvin Hamlisch in Broadway shows that Mr. Hamlisch scored including, The Goodbye Girl, They're Playing Our Song, and A Chorus Line. He conducted Carol Channing hundreds of times in Hello, Dolly! in two separate Broadway productions.

Mr. Everly has conducted the songs for Disney's animated classic, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and led the Czech Philharmonic on the CD In the Presence, featuring tenor Daniel Rodriguez. He also conducted the critically praised Everything's Coming Up Roses: The Complete Overtures of Broadway's Jule Styne, and was music director for numerous Broadway cast recordings.

In 1998, Jack Everly created the Symphonic Pops Consortium serving as Music Director. The Consortium, based in Indianapolis, produces a new theatrical pops program each season. In the past twelve years, more than 225 performances of SPC programs have taken place across the U.S. and Canada, including this season's Mysterioso: Music, Magic & Mayhem.

Maestro Everly holds an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Franklin College in his home state of Indiana. When not on the podium or arranging, Maestro Everly indulges in his love for films, Häagen-Dazs, and a pooch named Max.