The New York Pops Will Honor Kelli O'Hara and Bartlett Sher at 2017 Gala

On Monday, May 1, 2017, The New York Pops celebrates its 34th birthday with a grand gala evening honoring Tony Award winners Kelli O'Hara and Bartlett Sher, whose collaborations over the last decade have won universal acclaim and whose individual careers represent pinnacles of achievement in the world of theatre.

The event will celebrate the multiyear partnership between the actress and stage director and will bring together artists from the stage and screen in their honor. Adam Guettel, John Lithgow, Matthew Morrison, Nico Muhly, Anna Netrebko, and Ken Watanabe will serve as Honorary Co-Chairs for the event.

"Kelli and Bart are two of the most talented artists working in theatre today," said Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke. "Bart's beautiful direction of The King and I and Kelli's stunning performance in the leading role of Anna Leonowens garnered them both loads of praise last year, and like the rest of New York City, I was swept up into the world they created and brought to life on stage. Their partnerships have led New York audiences from Siam to Madison County to an island in the South Pacific, and always they remain the models of grace and professionalism, poise and perfection. Kelli and Bart are the true personification of stars, and I can't wait to celebrate them with the fantastic musicians of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall next May."

Music Honoree Kelli O'Hara, who also sits on the Board of The New York Pops, said, "The New York Pops is one of my favorite organizations in New York, and I am so excited to share the stage at the 34th Birthday Gala with Steven Reineke and this great orchestra. It's a distinct pleasure to be the Music Honoree alongside my longtime collaborator and friend Bart Sher. We are eager to celebrate the important work they do not only at Carnegie Hall but also in music education programs across New York City."

"I can't think of two artists more talented than Kelli O'Hara and Bart Sher - and they're ridiculously nice people!," said Honorary Co-Chair Matthew Morrison. "Together, they have helped shape the landscape of musical theater in New York City over the past ten years. I'm proud to call them my friends, and I am so excited that The New York Pops will honor them at their Gala in 2017. If I know Steven Reineke at all, this is going to be a blockbuster, star-studded concert that celebrates Kelli and Bart in the way that only The New York Pops can!"

The gala begins at 7:00 PM with a concert at Carnegie Hall, featuring a spectacular lineup of stars from stage and screen under the baton of Music Director Steven Reineke. Performers to be announced. Following the concert, a black tie dinner and dance will be held at the elegant Mandarin Oriental New York.

Tickets for the concert will be available to the public in January 2017. Tickets to the black tie Dinner Dance will be available by calling The New York Pops office at 212-765-7677.

The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States, and the only professional symphonic orchestra in New York City specializing in popular music. Under the leadership of dynamic Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, The New York Pops continues to re-imagine orchestral pops music. The orchestra performs an annual subscription series and birthday gala at Carnegie Hall, as well as a summer concert series at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, NY. The New York Pops is dedicated to lifelong learning, and collaborates with public schools, community organizations, children's hospitals, and senior centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City. PopsEd allows thousands of New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds to participate in fully customizable music programs that blend traditional education with pure fun. Visit www.newyorkpops.org for more information. Follow The New York Pops on Facebook (facebook.com/newyorkpops), Instagram (@thenewyorkpops), and Twitter (@newyorkpops).

Steven Reineke is the Music Director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Principal Pops Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Principal Pops Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Principal Pops Conductor Designate for the Houston Symphony, beginning in the 2017-2018 season. Mr. Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra and has been on the podium with the Boston Pops, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia. His extensive North American conducting appearances include San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, Edmonton and Pittsburgh. As the creator of more than one hundred orchestral arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Mr. Reineke's work has been performed worldwide, and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings on the Telarc label. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands around the world. A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City with his husband, Eric Gabbard.

ABOUT THE HONOREES

Kelli O'Hara has unequivocally established herself as one of Broadway's great leading ladies. Her portrayal of Anna Leonowens in the critically acclaimed revival of The King and I recently garnered her the 2015 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, along with Drama League and Outer Critics nominations. Recently, she starred as Mrs. Darling in NBC's Live Telecast of Peter Pan and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in The Merry Widow with Renée Fleming. Her 2015 performance of Francesca in The Bridges of Madison County earned her nominations for a Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. She also recently joined Showtime's Masters of Sex and just completed shooting the upcoming series The Accidental Wolf. A native of Oklahoma, Kelli received a degree in opera, and after winning the State Metropolitan Opera Competition, moved to New York and enrolled in the Lee Strasberg Institute. She made her Broadway debut in Jekyll & Hyde and followed it with Sondheim's Follies, Sweet Smell of Success opposite John Lithgow, and Dracula. In 2003 Kelli committed to a production of The Light in the Piazza at Seattle's Intiman Theatre, beginning her working relationship with Bartlett Sher. The show landed on Broadway in 2005 and earned Kelli her first Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations. She joined Harry Connick Jr. in the 2006 Tony Award-winning production of The Pajama Game, for which she received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Award nominations. Kelli starred in the Tony Award-winning revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center and garnered Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Award nominations. She later teamed up with Matthew Broderick in Broadway's musical comedy Nice Work if You Can Get It, again earning Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle nominations, as well as the Fred Astaire Nomination for dance. Kelli received critical acclaim for her performances at the New York Philharmonic's productions of Carousel and My Fair Lady. She has sold out her solo show at Carnegie Hall & Town Hall and performed with symphonies and orchestras across the country.

Bartlett Sher is Resident Director of Lincoln Center Theater, where he has directed the Tony Award-winning revivals of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I (Tony Award nomination for Best Director) and South Pacific (Tony Award - Best Director), Clifford Odets' Golden Boy and Awake and Sing! (Tony Award nominations for both productions), Blood and Gifts by J.T. Rogers, the new musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Tony Award nomination), and The Light in the Piazza by Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel (Tony Award nomination). He has directed operas for the Metropolitan Opera (Roméo et Juliette, Otello, Two Boys, L'Elisir d'Amore, Le Comte Ory, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and IL Barbiere di Siviglia), Roméo et Juliette for Salzburg Opera in 2008, and Seattle Opera/New York City Opera (Mourning Becomes Electra, 2003-2004). From 2000-2010, Mr. Sher was Artistic Director of Seattle's Intiman Theatre, where his credits include the world premieres of Prayer for My Enemy and Singing Forest by Craig Lucas and Nickel and Dimed, Joan Holden's adaptation of the nonfiction bestseller by Barbara Ehrenreich, and plays by Chekhov, Shakespeare, Goldoni and Tony Kushner, among other credits. His New York credits include the Theatre for a New Audience productions of Cymbeline, which premiered in England and was the first American Shakespeare production at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and for which he received the 2001 Callaway Award; and the American premiere of Harley Granville-Barker's Waste, winner of the 2000 Best Play Obie. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College and received his graduate training as the only American in a class of international theatre artists at the University of Leeds in England. Mr. Sher currently serves on the Board of Theatre Communications Group and has held positions as Associate Artistic Director at Hartford Stage and Company Director at The Guthrie Theater under his mentor, Garland Wright. His Broadway productions include the musical The Bridges of Madison County and the current revival of Fiddler on the Roof. His critically-acclaimed production of J.T. Rogers Oslo, which premiered at LCT's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater this past summer, will reopen this spring at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.