Erich Kunzel and The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra

to Perform in Beijing as Part of Summer Olympic Festivities

Read the accolades from public officials

CINCINNATI – Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra have received an invitation from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) to perform as part of the festivities of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Cincinnati Pops will be the only American orchestra performing in the opening weekend events.

“It is incredibly humbling to be asked to perform as part of the prestigious Summer Olympic Opening Weekend ceremonies. It is a great honor for the City of Cincinnati, and indeed for the United States of America” said Erich Kunzel. “It is like a dream come true to celebrate athletic talent and musical talent across cultures. This orchestra has toured China before, in 2005, and we were received most enthusiastically and had rave reviews.”

The two performances connected to the Olympic Games include:

• The Gala Olympic Concert at the new concert hall at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday evening, August 9. This performance is for the dignitaries associated with the Olympic Games.
• An outdoor concert on the Olympic Green at the Olympic Grounds on Sunday evening, August 10. Hosted by BOCOG, this performance is open to all the people attending the Olympic Games.

The programming will highlight music that has been written especially for Olympic Games of the past and will include traditional Chinese folk songs. The concert finale will feature Medley for Peace in the World, arranged by Julie Spangler and Steven Reineke.

Broadway Vocalists Steven Morgan and Michael Scott Lowe are the accompanying guest artists for the tour. Both have been popular guests on the Music Hall and Riverbend stages with the Cincinnati Pops. A Children’s choir from Beijing will be joining the Pops and soloists onstage.

The tour will be supported by a generous gift from Edyth and Carl H. Lindner.

“The Cincinnati Pops is so grateful to the generosity of our friends Edyth and Carl Lindner,” said Conductor Erich Kunzel. “Time and again they have demonstrated their commitment to putting the Pops on the world stage to showcase Cincinnati’s wonderful arts community and culture.” 

In 2005, Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra made history by completing a tour to China and Singapore and performing in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Cincinnati Pops was the first U.S. Pops orchestra to perform in China.

The Pops are well received in China because of the caliber of the orchestra and the numerous Telarc recordings.

These Beijing concerts will be the fourth China concert tour for Erich Kunzel. In 1999, he was the first person to present a Symphonic Pops Concert in China when he guest conducted the China National Symphony Orchestra in two concerts in Beijing.

In 2007, he guest conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.

Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Asia 2008 is managed by Amethyst Performing Arts Management Co., Ellin Chu, Chief Executive Officer. APA Management’s website is www.apa-music.com.

Cincinnati Pops Orchestra

The Cincinnati Pops is one of the world's most active classical pops ensembles, maintaining a year-round performing and recording schedule. Erich Kunzel has 83 Cincinnati Pops releases on the Telarc label, 55 of which have appeared on the Billboard charts of best-selling recordings, a record unmatched by any other orchestra in the world. 

It was Maestro Max Rudolf who, in 1965, invited Erich Kunzel to join the orchestra. That October Mr. Kunzel conducted his first sold-out “8 O'Clock” concert. It was the beginning of a modern orchestral legend and, four decades later, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under its first and only conductor is still performing for packed houses in Cincinnati's Music Hall and gaining new fans the world over through tour performances and its recordings on the Telarc label.