In February 1995 Keith Lockhart was named 20th conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. With the opening of the Pops 115th season in May, Lockhart marked his sixth season as Pops conductor. Already he's conducted 300 plus concerts with the orchestra in Boston and on tour, recorded four chart-topping CDs, and made more than a dozen successful television programs.

As a young conductor, Lockhart has given many interviews and has been asked many interesting if not unusual questions. Here's an excerpt taken from a recent interview done by Jonathan Soroff of The Improper Bostonian. Think of it as a "Pop-up" on Lockhart's personality and sense of humor.

JS: How would you respond to music snobs who say Pops play Classical Lite?

KL: First off, as you can imagine, I have to respond to people like that all the time, or people who are committed to making this art form as inaccessible and elitist and exclusionary as possible, and I think that’s to the great detriment of the art form. It’s also not what people like Mozart, Beethoven or Mahler ever would have thought the proper place of musical performers were. Y’know, Beethoven had a really important imperative. His big goal in life was to eat. So the concept of being an entertainer was not at all onerous to him. A lot of people have forgotten that our primary job is to entertain, so I don’t think the Pops is a dumbing down of classical music. It’s an opening up. As a musician, I have greater challenges that I take on outside a Pops concert, but as a performer I like to have audiences enraptured by what we do.

JS: Do you sing in the shower?

KL: Actually, I do. The worst thing is when I go to a Broadway show. Lucy (my wife) belts me. I tend to kind of lose myself and not realize I'm doing it. And by the way, I have a lousy voice.

JS: What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you while conducting?

KL: I lost a button on my pants, and I made a heroic and incredibly coordinated grab to prevent them from falling down. I spent the rest of the piece being completely right handed because the left hand was otherwise occupied.

JS: Okay, finish this sentence. The size of a conductor's baton is directly proportional to?

KL: The orchestra's endowment?

JS: What is a conductor's baton made of?

KL: A really light hardwood turned on a lathe, with a cork handle carved to fit your hand. They're balanced in a way that you can hold them and they don't weigh anything on the tip. Most conductors have someone who makes them for them. Y'know, we're not talking about a Stradivarius, here. We're talking about a stick, but you conduct 15, 16 hours a week, and you hold the wrong baton, it wears on you. Let's not be too pretentious about it, though. You can conduct with a pencil.

JS: Arthur Fiedler always wanted to be a fireman. What would you do if you weren't a conductor?

KL: Baseball player. The funny thing is, I always used to play shortstop or second base, but there's a Keith Lockhart on the Atlanta Braves who already fills that position.

JS: Do you prefer being called Keith or Maestro?

KL: I hate being called maestro. It sounds really old. It's also the name people use when they can't remember your name, and Mr. Lockhart's my Dad, so I'll go with Keith.

Get more on the Pops' visit to FAC and more on the Pops themselves!