Under the celebrated baton of Erich Kunzel, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra will perform twice in Beijing as part of the 2008 Summer Olympics festivities. The Cincinnati Pops will be the only American orchestra featured during the opening weekend.
The special program will include music that has been written for previous Olympic Games, including the rousing song Medley for Peace in the World.
Broadway vocalists Steven Morgan and Michael Scott Lowe will lend their talents to the tour. A children's choir from Beijing will also join the orchestra onstage.
"It is incredibly humbling to be asked to perform as part of the prestigious Olympic Opening Weekend ceremonies. It is a great honor for the city of Cincinnati, and indeed for the United States of America," says Kunzel. "It is like a dream come true to celebrate athletic talent and musical talent across cultures."
In 2005, Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra made history by becoming the first US Pops orchestra to perform in the Great Hall of the People. The upcoming Beijing shows are part of his fourth tour in China.
The Cincinnati Pops is one of the world's busiest ensembles, maintaining a year-round performing and recording schedule. Kunzel has recorded 83 Cincinnati Pops releases on the Telarc label, 55 of which have made Billboard's chart of best-selling recordings.
Kunzel joined the orchestra in 1965. More than four decades later, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, under its first and only conductor, is still performing for packed houses in Cincinnati's Music Hall.
The first performance will be given at the new National Center for the Performing Arts on August 9. The second performance will be an outdoor concert on the Olympic Green at the Olympic Grounds the next evening, hosted by the Organizing Committee of Beijing Olympic Games. Admission is free.
By Chen Jie
