Steven Reineke Principal Pops Conductor
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Conductor
Steven Reineke is one of North America's leading conductors of popular music and is in his second decade as Music Director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. Additionally, he is Principal Pops Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Principal Pops Conductor of the Houston and Toronto Symphony Orchestras.
Reineke is a frequent guest conductor and can be seen on the podium with the Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras.
On stage, Mr. Reineke creates and collaborates with a range of leading artists from the worlds of hip hop, R&B, Broadway, television, and rock including: Killer Mike, Maxwell, Common, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Ne-Yo, Bob Weir, Trey Anastasio, Barry Manilow, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Sutton Foster, Amos Lee, Dispatch, Jason Mraz, and Ben Folds, amongst others. In 2024, he led the NSO on PBS's Next at the Kennedy Center featuring Ben Folds’ DECLASSIFIED® with Jacob Collier, Laufey, and dodie. He was previously seen with the NSO on PBS on Great Performances with hip hop legend Nas performing his seminal album Illmatic.
In 2017, he was featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, leading the National Symphony Orchestra—in a first for the show's history—performing live music excerpts in between news segments.
As the creator of hundreds of orchestral arrangements, Reineke’s work is performed worldwide and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, including performances by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His Sun Valley Festival Fanfare was used to commemorate the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s pavilion, and his Festival Te Deum and Swan’s Island Sojourn were debuted by the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands perennially.
A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio (2020 Alumnus Distinguished Achievement Medal), where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City with his husband, Eric Gabbard.