Trekkies Unite for Cincinnati Pops' Live Accompaniment to STAR TREK, 7/18

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra will perform Michael Giacchino's breathtaking orchestral score of Star Trek in synch with 2009 blockbuster film Star Trek (PG-13) at the Taft Theatre on Saturday, July 18 at 7:30 p.m.

The action-packed film by Hollywood master J.J. Abrams tells the tale of Captain Kirk, Spock, and the USS Enterprise crew. The full-length score by Michael Giacchino will be conducted live by the talented Constantine Kitsopoulos, who most recently conducted Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella as well as The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess on Broadway.

Michael Giacchino has had a busy summer Jurassic World, Tomorrowland and Inside Out, and other film credits include Up (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Score), Ratatouille and Mission Impossible III. His television work includes the scores for the hit series Alias and LOST.

Tickets for this concert start at $25 for adults ($10 for children 17 and under) and are still available and can be purchased via the Pops Box office by calling (513) 381-3300 or visiting www.cincinnatipops.org.

Watch a trailer for the concert below!

Constantine Kitsopoulos, conductor - Constantine Kitsopoulos has made a name for himself as a conductor whose musical experiences comfortably span the worlds of opera and symphony, where he conducts in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Royal Albert Hall, and musical theater, where he can be found leading

orchestras on Broadway. Kitsopoulos is in his eighth year as Music Director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra and continues as General Director of Chatham Opera, which he founded in 2005. He serves as Music Director of the Festival of the Arts BOCA, an extraordinary multi-day cultural arts event for South Florida, and was most recently appointed Artistic Director of the OK Mozart Festival, Oklahoma's premier music festival, where he led his second season this past June.

In addition to his ongoing Music Director commitments, in the 2014/15 season Constantine Kitsopoulos leads the New York Philharmonic in holiday subscription concerts following a notable debut last season. He returns to the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, New Jersey, Houston and North Carolina, and makes debuts with the Florida Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Louisville Orchestra and Toledo Symphony. A frequent guest conductor at Indiana University, he leads Menotti's Last Savage and Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific this season.

Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, as well as the Calgary Philharmonic, National Arts Centre Orchestra and the New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

Summer concerts have included Saratoga Performing Arts Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony, Blossom Festival with the Blossom Festival Orchestra, Sun Valley Festival, Atlanta Symphony and Dallas Symphony.

International appearances have seen him conduct China's Macao Orchestra with Cuban band Tiempo Libre, Tokyo Philharmonic and the Russian National Orchestra.

Above and beyond his symphonic work, Constantine Kitsopoulos maintains a busy opera schedule. In recent seasons, he has led annual productions at the Indiana University Opera Theater of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore (2013/14), Verdi's Falstaff (2012/13), Bolcom's A View from the Bridge (2011/2012) and Strauss' Die Fledermaus (2010/11) and Loesser's The Most Happy Fella. Previous seasons' operatic highlights include the Dicapo Opera Theatre's productions of Leha?r's The Merry Widow, Gounod's Faust and all three versions of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, Chatham Opera's debut production of Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Hong Kong Municipal Opera production of Bizet's Carmen in both Hong Kong and Beijing, and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at Alice Tully Hall. He also served as Music Director and created the orchestrations for the world premiere production of Ed Dixon's Fanny Hill at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.

Kitsopoulos has also continued to show his ability and interest in performing new works and conducting a wide variety of genres. He conducted the Red Bull Artsehcro, an orchestra consisting of students from the top conservatories and university music programs in the country, in a concert at Carnegie Hall featuring a program of world premieres by Raul Yanez and Laura Karpman.

Also much in demand as a theater conductor, both on Broadway and nationwide, Kitsopoulos is currently Music Director and Conductor of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway. He most recently served as Music Director and Conductor of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical revival featuring Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis which ran until September 2012. Prior to that, he was Conductor and Musical Director of the Tony- nominated musical A Catered Affair, the Tony-nominated musical Coram Boy and the American Conservatory Theatre's production of Kurt Weill's Happy End, for which he recorded the cast album at Skywalker Ranch. Other musical theater highlights include serving as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Baz Luhrmann's highly acclaimed production of Puccini's La Bohe?me, conducting the new musical Mambo Kings in San Francisco, serving as Music Director of Frank Wildhorn's Dracula and Les Mise?rables and conducting Matthew Bourne's Broadway production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Kitsopoulos' most recent recording is the Grammy Award-winning original Broadway cast album of the Tony-Award winning Gershwins' "Porgy and Bess", released in May 2012 on P.S. Classics. His first recording, Baz Luhrmann's production of La Bohe?me, is available on Dreamworks. Also available are recordings of Happy End, the only English language recording of the work, and an original Broadway cast recording of A Catered Affair on P.S. Classics.

Constantine Kitsopoulos studied conducting with his principal teacher Vincent La Selva, as well as Gustav Meier, Sergiu Commissiona, and Semyon Bychkov. He studied piano with Marienka Michna, Chandler Gregg, Ed Edson, and Sophia Rosoff.

For more information, visit www.kitsopoulos.com.

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