Erich Kunzel Jr. (March 21, 1935 – September 1, 2009) was an American orchestra conductor. Called the "Prince of Pops" by the Chicago Tribune, he performed with a number of leading pops and symphony orchestras, and led the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra (CPO) for 32 years.
Early life and career Kunzel was born to German-American immigrant parents in New York City. At Greenwich High School in Connecticut, he arranged music and played the piano, string bass and timpani. Initially a chemistry major, Kunzel graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in music, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta, then studied at Harvard and Brown universities. He conducted the Brown University Glee Club for at least two years. Early in his career, he conducted for the Santa Fe Opera and studied at the Pierre Monteux School. He met his Austrian-born wife, Brunhilde, while conducting Gianni Schicchi for Santa Fe in 1964, and they married a year later. From 1960 to 1965, he conducted the Rhode Island Philharmonic. From 1965 to 1977, Kunzel served as resident conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO).
In 1969, he was initiated as an honorary member of the Eta-Omicron chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He was also a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.Delta Omicron
The Pops In 1965, Kunzel began the country's first winter pops series, the "8 O'Clock Pops". When the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra board of trustees created the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in 1977, Kunzel was named conductor. The Pops became the larger of Cincinnati's two orchestras, as all of Max Rudolf's symphony orchestra also played for the Pops year-round. At the invitation of Arthur Fiedler in 1970, Kunzel guest-conducted over 100 concerts with the Boston Pops Orchestra. He remained active with symphony, leading the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (as Principal Pops Conductor) from 1982 to 2002.
From the beginning, Kunzel strove to expand the Cincinnati Pops' reach worldwide, with nearly 90 recordings on the Telarc label, most of which became bestsellers. His popular recordings of classical music, Broadway musicals, and movie scores topped worldwide crossover charts more than any other conductor or orchestra in the world. Some of Kunzel's mentees at the Cincinnati Pops would later become notable in their own right, including Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops and Steven Reineke of The New York Pops.
The Cincinnati Pops were especially popular in Asia. The group toured Japan several times, starting in 1990. In 1998, Kunzel became the first American pops conductor to perform in China. Ten years later, he and the Cincinnati Pops were invited back to perform at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; they were the only American orchestra to play at the event.
Kunzel made most of his classical music recordings as director of the Cincinnati Pops. However, he also made jazz recordings with Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, and other well-known artists. From the Capitol Building lawn, Kunzel conducted the National Symphony Orchestra every Memorial Day and Fourth of July from 1991 to 2009, in concerts televised nationwide on PBS. In 1987, his Aaron Copland: Lincoln Portrait (CD-80117) album with narration by Katharine Hepburn including Old American Songs sung by Sherrill Milnes received a Grammy nomination. Other Grammy nominations came in 1989 (A Disney Spectacular), 1991 (Meredith Willson's The Music Man), and 1993 (Amen!--A Gospel Celebration). The album American Jubilee won the Grand Prix du Disque in 1989. His albums frequently feature digital sound effects created by Michael Bishop.
The conductor had a large influence on Cincinnati's local music scene. In addition to conducting almost weekly subscription concerts with the Cincinnati Pops, he expanded the Pops program in 1984 to include a summer concert series at the newly built Riverbend Music Center on the banks of the Ohio River. He pushed for a new campus to house the city's public School for Creative and Performing Arts. He invited many local performers, including children's choruses and College-Conservatory students, to share the stage with the Pops.
The recording engineer for Kunzel's recording of music by Copland earned a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical in 1998, for Copland: The Music of America, Kunzel earned the 2006 National Medal of Arts. In 2009, he was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, based in Cincinnati.
On June 20–21, 2008, Kunzel conducted The Toronto Symphony Orchestra's performance of Star Trek: The Music at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.
Last days In April 2009, Kunzel was diagnosed with pancreatic, liver and colon cancer and received chemotherapy treatments in Cincinnati. He conducted a final concert at Riverbend on August 1, 2009, and died a month later in Bar Harbor, Maine, near his home at Swan's Island. That day, the CSO board of trustees posthumously named him "Founder and Conductor Emeritus" of the Pops.
Discography
Decca recordings with the Cincinnati Symphony: Duke Ellington - Orchestral Works (1970)
MCA recordings with the Cincinnati Symphony: Dave Brubeck Trio, Gerry Mulligan - Elementals (1971)
Turnabout recordings with the Cincinnati Pops: American Fantasia (1978) Pomp & Circumstance (1978) A Portrait Of George: Gershwin On Broadway & In Hollywood (1979) Jacques Offenbach - Overtures (1979)
Caedmon recordings with the Cincinnati Pops: Peter And The Wolf and Tubby The Tuba, with Carol Channing (Sergei Prokofiev; George Kleinsinger, Paul Tripp) (1979)
Telarc recordings with the Cincinnati Symphony: Tchaikovsky 1812, with Kiev Symphony Chorus, Children's Choir of Greater Cincinnati (1979) [reissued in 2001 credited to Cincinnati Pops; cover nearly the same otherwise] George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue/An American in Paris (1981) Ludwig van Beethoven: Wellington's Victory/Franz Liszt: Battle of the Huns (1983)
MMG recordings: Peter and the Wolf narrated by Don Harron/The Ugly Duckling sung by June Anderson, Cincinnati Pops (1981) An Evening With Rodgers & Hammerstein, The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Chorus & Soloists featuring Mark Pedrotti (1982)
Vox Prima recordings with the Cincinnati Pops: Dances from the Opera (1983)
Vox Cum Laude recordings with the Cincinnati Pops: Music Of Waldteufel (1983) An International Salute (1984) Jacques Offenbach: Concerto Rondo; Four Orchestral Pieces featuring Ofra Harnoy, Philip Collins (1984) Peaches And Cream - John Philip Sousa Dances And Marches (1984) Jacques Offenbach – Vive La France! [2 disc compilation] (1994)
Fanfare recordings with The Winnipeg Symphony: Kunzel on Broadway (George Gershwin; Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II; Cole Porter; Jerry Herman; Meredith Willson; Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner) (1985)
Telarc recordings with the Cincinnati Pops:
Star Tracks (Frank Proto; John Williams; Alexander Courage) (1984) Time Warp (Don Dorsey; Johann Strauss II; Jerry Goldsmith; Alexander Courage; Stu Phillips; John Williams; Aram Khachaturian) (1984) Ein Straussfest: Waltzes, Polkas & Marches of the Strauss Family, featuring King Keyes (zither) (Johann Strauss II; Johann Strauss I, Josef Strauss; Eduard Strauss) (1985) [recording of On the Beautiful Blue Danube is the same as the one on Time Warp] Orchestral Spectaculars (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Paul Dukas; Jaromir Weinberger; Camille Saint-Saëns; Franz Liszt) (1985) The Stokowski Sound: Transcriptions for Orchestra by Leopold Stokowski (Johann Sebastian Bach; Luigi Boccherini; Claude Debussy; Ludwig van Beethoven; Isaac Albeniz; Sergei Rachmaninoff; Modest Mussorgsky) (1986) [reissued in 1994 with two new tracks, by Johannes Brahms and Modest Mussorgsky, as The Fantastic Stokowski] William Tell and Other Favorite Overtures (Franz von Suppé; Daniel-François Auber; Louis Joseph Hérold; Emil von Reznicek; Jacques Offenbach; Gioacchino Rossini (1986) Round-Up, featuring Frankie Laine, Men of The May Festival Chorus directed by John Leman, Ron McCroby (Gioachino Rossini; Elmer Bernstein; Franz Waxman; Christopher Palmer, Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington, Jerome Moross, Herschel Burke-Gilbert; Alfred Newman; Richard Hayman; Jerome Moross; Bruce Broughton) (1986) Star Tracks II (John Williams; Alan Silvestri; Jerry Goldsmith; James Horner; Leonard Rosenman; Henry Mancini; Don Dorsey; Bill Conti) (1987) Hollywood's Greatest Hits Volume I featuring William Tritt (Alfred Newman; Erich Wolfgang Korngold; Max Steiner; Miklós Rósza; Ernest Gold; Maurice Jarre; Nino Rota; Francis Lai; John Williams; Michel Legrand; Bill Conti; Michael Gore; John Barry; Vangelis, Donald Rose) (1987) Pomp & Pizazz (John Williams; Josef Suk; Edward Elgar; John Ireland; Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Hector Berlioz; Josef Franz Wagner; Julius Fučik; John Philip Sousa, Leopold Stokowski; Richard Hayman, George Gershwin, Meredith Willson, Bob Haggart & Ray Baduc) (1987) Ferde Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite • George Gershwin: Porgy & Bess/Symphonic Suite "Catfish Row" (1987) Aaron Copland: Lincoln Portrait featuring Katharine Hepburn/Old American Songs featuring Sherill Milnes (1987) Symphonic Spectacular (Dmitri Shostakovich; Richard Wagner; Manuel De Falla; Georges Bizet; Armas Järnefelt; Emmanuel Chabrier; Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Johan Halvorsen; Georges Enesco (sic); Aram Khachaturian) (1988) The Big Band Hit Parade, with Ray Brown, Dave Brubeck, Cab Calloway, Eddie Davis, Buddy Morrow, Gerry Mulligan, Doc Severinsen, Ed Shaughnessy (1988) Richard Rodgers: The Sound of Music, with Frederica von Stade, Håkan Hagegård and Eileen Farrell, (1988) George Gershwin: Rhapsody In Blue / Concerto In F, featuring William Tritt, Cincinnati Jazz Orchestra (1988) American Jubilee (John Williams; Richard Hayman; Charles Ives, William Schuman; Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Hershy Kay; George Chadwick; Daniel Emmett (1988) Chiller, featuring Robert Muckenfuss (Michael Bishop; Andrew Lloyd Webber; Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Camille Saint-Saëns; Hector Berlioz; Edvard Grieg; Rosalind Ilett; Marius Constant; Franz Waxman, Steven R. Bernstein; Bernard Hermann; John Addison; Jerry Goldsmith; Henry Mancini; Charles Gounod) (August 10, 1989) Mancini's Greatest Hits (1989) Victory at Sea War and Remembrance Casablanca And Other Favorites (Richard Rodgers, Robert Russell Bennett; Robert Cobert; Max Steiner; Kenneth Alford; Richard Addinsell; Ron Goodwin; George M. Cohan; Paul Anka; Jerry Goldsmith; Richard Hayman, Robert M. Crawford, Jacques Offenbach, Henry C. Davis, Francis Saltus van Boskerck, Edmund L. Gruber, Charles A. Zimmerman, Alfred H. Miles, Royal Lovell) (1989) A Disney Spectacular, featuring His Master’s Voice, Tracy Dahl, Douglas Webster, Indiana University Singing Hoosiers directed by Robert E. Stoll, School for the Creative and Performing Arts Children's Chorus directed by Deborah N. Barry, May Festival Chorus directed by John H. Williams (Ned Washington, Leigh Harline; Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman; Bob Hilliard, Sammy Fain; Mack David, Jay Livingston, Al Hoffman; Terry Gilkyson; Frank Churchill, Ann Ronell; Frank Churchill, Larry Morey; Jimmie Dodd; Gershon Kingsley, Jean Jacques Perrey; Ray Gilbert, Allie Wrubel; Sammy Cahn, Sammy Fain; Oliver Wallace; Peggy Lee, Sonny Burke; Sammy Fain, Jack Lawrence, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) (May 22, 1989) Happy Trails: Round-Up 2, featuring Gene Autry, Sherill Milnes, Roy Rogers (October 9, 1989)