Keith Lockhart is Conductor of the Boston Pops and Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina. 2025 marks his 30th anniversary as Conductor of the Boston Pops, a tenure that includes over 2,250 performances, 45 national tours to more than 150 cities, and five international tours. He and the Pops have made 80 television shows and participated in such high-profile sporting events as Super Bowl XXXVI, the 2008 NBA Finals, the 2013 Boston Red Sox Ring Ceremony, and Game 2 of the 2018 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. The annual July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular draws a live audience of more than half a million, with millions more who watch on television or a live webcast.

From 2010-2018, Keith was Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and he spent a two-year term as Chief Guest Conductor following his initial appointment. Highlights of his tenure include critically acclaimed North American tours, conducting annual performances at the BBC Proms, and celebrating the orchestra’s 60th year in 2012. In June of that same year, Keith conducted the orchestra during Queen Elizabeth II’s gala Diamond Jubilee Concert, which was broadcast around the world.

In October 2007, Keith succeeded David Effron as Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival. The Brevard Music Center (BMC) has established itself as one of the nation’s leading summer institutes for gifted young musicians, preparing them to perform great musical works at a high artistic level. His appointment solidifies an already special relationship with BMC, which he attended as a teenager for two summers in 1974 and 1975.

Keith concluded 11 seasons as Music Director of the Utah Symphony in 2009. He led that orchestra through the complete symphonic works of Gustav Mahler and brought them to Europe on tour for the first time in two decades. He stood at the front of their historic merger with the Utah Opera to create the first-ever joint administrative arts entity, the Utah Symphony and Opera. Since the merger, arts institutions nationally and internationally have looked to Keith as an example of an innovative thinker on and off the podium. Keith also conducted three “Salute to the Symphony” television specials broadcast regionally, one of which received an Emmy award, and, in December 2001, he conducted the orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in a national PBS broadcast of Vaughan Williams’ oratorio, Hodie. He led the Utah Symphony during Opening Ceremonies of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and conducted two programs for the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival. Under Keith’s baton, the Utah Symphony released its first recording in two decades, Symphonic Dances, in April 2006.

Keith Lockhart has conducted nearly every major orchestra in North America, as well as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Vienna Radio Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NHK Symphony in Tokyo, the New Japan Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Symphony. In October 2012, he made his London Philharmonic debut in Royal Albert Hall. In the opera pit, Keith has conducted productions with the Atlanta Opera, Washington Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Utah Opera.

Keith served as Music Director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra for seven years, completing his tenure in 1999. Under his leadership, the orchestra doubled its number of performances, released recordings, and developed a reputation for innovative and accessible programming. Keith also served as Associate Conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony and the Cincinnati Pops from 1990 to 1995.

Born in Poughkeepsie, NY, he began his musical studies on piano at the age of 7. He holds degrees from Furman University and Carnegie Mellon University, and honorary doctorates from the Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Northeastern University, Furman University, and Carnegie Mellon University, among others. He was the 2006 recipient of the Bob Hope Patriot Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and was a recipient of the 2017 Commonwealth Award, Massachusetts’ highest cultural honor.

American pianist Clayton Stephenson’s love for music is immediately apparent in his joyous charisma onstage, expressive power, and natural ease at the instrument. Hailed for “extraordinary narrative and poetic gifts” and interpretations that are “fresh, incisive and characterfully alive” (Gramophone), he is committed to making an impact on the world through his music-making.

Growing up in New York City, Clayton started piano lessons at age 7 and was accepted into the Juilliard Outreach Music Advancement Program for underprivileged children the next year, where he attended numerous student recitals and fell in love with music. At the age of 10 he advanced to Juilliard’s elite Pre-College program with the help of his teacher, Beth Nam. At Juilliard he studied with Matti Raekallio, Hung-Kuang Chen, and Ernest Barretta. Clayton practiced on a synthesizer at home until he found an old upright piano on the street that an elementary school had thrown away, which became his practice piano for the next six years until the Lang Lang Foundation donated a new piano to him when he was 17.

He credits the generous support of community programs with providing him musical inspiration and resources along the way. As he describes it, the “Third Street Music School jump-started my music education; the Young People’s Choir taught me phrasing and voicing; the Juilliard Outreach Music Advancement Program introduced me to formal and rigorous piano training, which enabled me to get into Juilliard Pre-College; the Morningside Music Bridge validated my talent and elevated my self-confidence; the Boy’s Club of New York exposed me to jazz; and the Lang Lang Foundation brought me to stages worldwide and transformed me from a piano student to a young artist.”

Recent and upcoming highlights of Clayton’s burgeoning career include appearances with the Calgary Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta, and the Fort Worth, Louisville, Lansing, and North Carolina symphony orchestras; as well as recitals at the Phillips Collection Concert Series in Washington, D.C., Fondation Louis Vuitton Auditorium in Paris, Bad Kissinger Sommer Festival and BeethovenFest in Germany, Colour of Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has been featured on NPR, WUOL, and WQXR, and appeared in the “GRAMMY Salute to Classical Music” Concert at Carnegie’s Stern Auditorium.

He now studies in the Harvard-NEC Dual Degree Program, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in economics at Harvard and a master’s degree in piano performance at the New England Conservatory under Wha Kyung Byun. His accolades along the way have been numerous: in addition to being the first Black finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, he was named a 2022 Gilmore Young Artist, as well as a 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation. He also received a Jury Discretionary Award at the 2015 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival.