Broadway
Destiny
was his
by Martha Thomas
Jack Everly fell in love with musicals the minute he heard Kismet.
ack Everly has been the principal pops conductor for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2004, when he took over the post previously held by Marvin Hamlisch. Maestro Everly, who is also principal pops conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Naples Philharmonic and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, was conductor for the American Ballet Theatre for 14 years, appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Did you listen to a lot of music growing up? As a kid, I was crazy about classical music. My parents loved musicals and popular music of the time. Their idea of popular music came from the 1940s and’ 50s. My sister loved the Beatles, but by then, I was a snob. My mother taught me to play the piano. We’ d inherited her mother’ s grand piano. I’ d sit next to my mom when she played. I had genres of music coming at me from both ends. I loved classical and I came to love musical theater because of my parents.
Do you remember a turning point when you fell for show tunes? The first Broadway show recording I ever heard was on an LP at my neighbor’ s house when I was a little kid. We were running around, playing, screaming, and suddenly I heard a recording that their mom was playing. I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at the speaker. The mother said,‘ What’ s wrong?’ I said,‘ What’ s that?’ It was Kismet. Here was this wonderful hodgepodge based on the music of Alexander Borodin, a Russian composer, reimaged as a Broadway show for Alfred Drake. Everything about it, the singing, the orchestrations— I found it riveting. A few years later, that show was revived in New York City with Alfred, and it went on tour and came to Indianapolis. So there in the early 1960s, I saw a complete reproduction of the original 1953 production, live on stage, and my life changed.
Were you into music in high school? I had the most wonderful orchestra teacher. We had great music programs back then. In fact, my orchestra teacher came to the gala when we opened this season in Indiana. One of the pieces was Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. I told the audience,‘ We all revere great teachers, and this piece has always meant a lot to me because I first played it in high school.’ He was in the fourth row, and I said,‘ Ralph, thanks for being a great teacher.’ It was wonderful to be able to say this in public. Ralph encouraged me to arrange and to write. We went to Washington, D. C., and actually played something I’ d
10 Overture | bsomusic. org