Cincinnati Pops Orchestra

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra traces its origins to orchestral societies of the 1870s, yet it remained formally indistinguishable from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra until the CSO board established it as a distinct subsidiary in 1977. Popular-music programming had long been a feature of those early ensembles and persisted within the CSO, gaining particular momentum once Max Rudolf assumed the music directorship in 1958. Rudolf appointed Erich Kunzel assistant conductor in 1965 and assigned him the debut “8 O’Clock Pops” program; that regular-season series, together with the orchestra’s summer “Concerts in the Park,” quickly broadened the CSO’s reach. By 1977 the concerts’ success prompted the creation of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, with Kunzel named its founding director.

Under Kunzel the ensemble attained a national profile comparable to that of the Boston Pops during the eras of Arthur Fiedler and John Williams. Sold-out performances at home, appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Grand Ole Opry, multiple international tours—including a 2008 trip to Beijing for the Summer Olympics—and numerous PBS specials further elevated its visibility. Between 1978 and 2009 the orchestra recorded eighty-five albums for Telarc; the first, Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, initially credited the Cincinnati Symphony, while the final release, From the Top at the Pops, appeared in the year of Kunzel’s death. Numerous titles reached the upper reaches of the Billboard charts, among them Star Tracks (1984), Ein Straussfest (1985), Round-Up (1986), Chiller (1989), Christmas with the Pops and Fiesta! (both 1990), Ein Straussfest II (1993), and Masters and Commanders (2005).

John Morris Russell assumed leadership of the Cincinnati Pops in September 2011. Since then the orchestra has sustained its customary concert series while maintaining an active schedule of recordings and tours; a 2017 itinerary included engagements in Shanghai and Taiwan. In 2019 the ensemble earned a Grammy nomination for the Fanfare Cincinnati release American Originals: 1918 and appeared on the label’s album Voyage.