Marin Alsop generates the lion's share of attention as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's music director, but she is not the only conductor with a knack for bringing success to the institution. Jack Everly has been doing that since 2003 with the BSO SuperPops, and he's planning to stay on the job at least until 2017.
Everly just signed a five-year extension of his contract as principal pops conductor, a significant vote of confidence on both sides. His current contract was to have expired in 2012. (Alsop's contract takes her to 2015.)
"I signed very happily," Everly said, "because of the pleasure of making music with these musicians and for the audiences in Baltimore and Bethesda. I really do mean that. I know that sounds very somber and serious, but that's the reason, and it's a good reason. Life is too short to fill it with things that don't make you happy."
The 58-year-old conductor's life is filled with pops, and not just at the BSO's bases in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the Music Center at Strathmore. He's concurrently principal pops conductor with orchestras in Indianapolis, Naples (Fla.) and Ottawa.
And he recently added high-profile gigs in Washington, leading the Memorial Day and Fourth of July outdoor concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra, broadcast annually by PBS from the West Lawn of the Capitol.
"That's quite the honor and quite the experience," Everly said.
Symphony orchestras in most places have long maintained a pops series, but that doesn't mean they all do equal justice to the repertoire. The musicians onstage, after all, spent hard years in conservatories honing their Brahms and Mahler, not Berlin and McCartney.
"The chemistry with orchestras in some places works out wonderfully; others, not so much," Everly said with a laugh. "What's very fulfilling here is the fact that this orchestra gets it very quickly. They are able to play many different genres of music. You don't have to rehearse each style. And the styles can change on a dime in pops. It's hard to describe this, but being able to get the style is such a special thing."
BSO audiences may not know why things click between Everly and the players, but they must like what they hear.
At both Meyerhoff and Strathmore, pops sales have increased since Everly joined. The Saturday night and Sunday matinee performances in Baltimore have experienced a 20 percent-28 percent increase in the number of subscribers; more than half the hall is sold on subscription. Thursday night Strathmore pops concerts have seen nearly a doubling in the number of subscribers since the series began there in 2005.
Remaining pops programs this season are nearing sold-out status; early renewals for next season are going strong.
"In both markets, it's safe to say Jack is adored by the patrons," said Eileen Andrews, BSO vice president of marketing and communications. "We regularly get feedback about this. Satisfaction with Jack and with the pops is off the charts."
That love feast was not enough, though, to support an outgrowth of the pops, the Holiday Spectacular that the BSO introduced in 2005. Patterned after the Indianapolis Symphony's annual Yuletide Celebration, a hugely popular extravaganza that Everly conducts there, the BSO's version brightened up Meyerhoff Hall with a fanciful stage (and lobby) and such notable guest hosts as Maureen McGovern.
Everly's touch — vivid orchestrations, a mix of the sentimental and cheeky — was all over the Holiday Spectacular. It looked like it would become an unbroken annual tradition here, but it's not on next season's schedule. A holiday-themed "Cirque de la Symphonie" presentation is planned instead.
"The economy really did a number on the bottom line," the conductor said. "The word is 'spectacular,' as you know, and that has to make fiscal sense. The numbers did not reach the goal. I don't want to be irresponsible. So we're taking a year to step back and put it on hiatus."
Added Andrews: "You would think that the audience would grow every year, but it didn't."
For the regular pops series, the average age of audience members is 58, about the same as that for the BSO's classical concerts, Andrews said.
"The assumption is that pops audiences are older," Everly said. "That is correct in some communities, but in others, pops is younger and classical is older. We're seeing more and more of that. If we weren't seeing younger people show up, we would be a lot more worried about the future than we are."
One reason for the age diversity is the approach to programming. Everly never sticks to routine.
"There are different fan bases for different themes," he said. "That's why we do such a diverse season. Do a sci-fi program, and people come out of the woodwork."
Everly keeps looking for fresh angles to the invariable concerts of Broadway and Hollywood fare. An evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musicals, for example, used technological tweaking to have the stars seen on a screen overhead singing with the live orchestra onstage.
The conductor also tries to keeps things interesting for the musicians with fresh arrangements and the programming of works by substantial composers. In this weekend's Celtic program, for example, "the orchestra gets to show off more than you might think," Everly said, "playing works by Percy Grainger, Malcolm Arnold and Hamilton Harty."
Next season's pops lineup includes a George Gershwin program, an inevitability in the pops world. But Everly will include a focus on George's lyrics-writing brother, Ira, allowing for songs Ira wrote with other composers after George's death.
Music of George and Ira Gershwin, Elton John, the Supremes, and the creators of "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon" also will turn up next season at the pops. And there's no telling what other musical areas Everly will explore as he and the BSO head toward 2017.
"This job demands a lot of curiosity," the conductor said. "I haven't run out of enthusiasm."
tim.smith@ baltsun.com
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If you go
Jack Everly conducts the BSO SuperPops program "A Celtic Celebration" at 3 p.m. Sunday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. $38 to $71. Call 410-783-8000 or go to bsomusic.org.