Keith A. Lockhart (A 1983, H 2009)

2004 Alumni Achievement (Merit) Award

Bio

In college at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., Keith A. Lockhart (A 1983, H 2009) majored in piano and German and befriended other musicians. "He came home a different person," his brother, Paul, recalls. "I guess he found himself." Not just socially. He found out that there were plenty of good pianists out there. His piano teacher, who noted Lockhart's analytical approach to music, suggested he consider becoming a conductor.

Lockhart followed the advice, heading to Carnegie Mellon to study under conductor Istvan Jaray. After earning his master's degree in orchestral conducting in 1983 from the College of Fine Arts, he became interim director of orchestral studies and stayed for eight more years. He also became conductor of the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, a community orchestra. Because he made the repertoire more contemporary, the orchestra members dubbed him the "Prince of Jazz" (because a conductor in his twenties was too young to be the King of Jazz, the musicians kidded him). They gave him a crown, and he took the practical joke one step further, wearing it onstage after one concert. "He was a good sport," recalls Janet Scandrol, principal second violinist.

Conducting jobs are not exactly commonplace and even less so for conductors in their twenties. But in 1988, at the age of 29, and with enough rejection letters to stuff a desk drawer, he became assistant director of the Akron Symphony. The general manager, Robert Neu, left a year later to join the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops and advocated for Lockhart there. In March 1990, he was invited to audition as associate conductor in Cincinnati. He landed the job, studying under conductor Erich Kunzel, who taught him how to talk to audience members as though they were in his living room. "He is a good ham, but a discreet gentleman ham," Kunzel says, "not a Las Vegas ham."