For Immediate Release:
Contact Jessica Lloyd (703) 589-8960 or jessica@allenmediastrategies.com
Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. to Perform Twice This Summer with the Legendary Boston Pops!
America’s Got Talent winner and Columbia Records artist Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. will perform on June 8th and September 3rd with the legendary Boston Pops.
“I can’t tell you what an honor this is for a guy from Logan, West Virginia who was washing cars and singing in the wash bay just a few years ago, to be singing with the Boston Pops!” said Landau. “And it’s extra special that my Music Director and pianist Duane Flesher will get to join me on stage for this. We’re like two little kids who can’t believe this is happening to us!”
Flesher has had the honor of working with The Boston Pops on composing Landau’s arrangements for both performances.
“As a young man, 19 years of age, not really knowing what I wanted to do with my life, I did a six-week evaluation course at Berklee College of Music in Boston,” says Flesher. “But my schooling was delayed by a four-year stint with the 661st Air Force Logistics Command Band. After finally arriving at Berklee, I lived just two blocks from Symphony Hall in Boston, passing by it quite frequently, even getting to attend a few concerts there by the Pops. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that someday I would play there, much less play there WITH the Pops. It is an incredible honor to get to perform with them and have this great orchestra play arrangements that I have written. I am truly humbled by this opportunity, and so thankful to Landau for making this dream come true,” said Flesher.
On June 8th, his friend and former Temptations lead vocalist Glenn Leonard will join Landau on stage for a special Tribute to Motown at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 35th annual “Presidents at Pops,” widely acclaimed as one of the largest and most successful corporate benefits for the arts in the United States. The performance will be hosted by show business legend Mandy Patinkin. Patinkin is known for his
Tony Award-winning roles in Evita and Sunday in the Park with George, and as an Emmy and Golden Globe winner for his work in Chicago Hope and Homeland. The star of dozens of movies, Patinkin is perhaps best for his portrayal of Inigo Montoya in the timeless classic The Princess Bride. The New Yorker says: “Mandy Patinkin is in the business of show stopping… He is a musical force of nature!”
On Saturday, September 3rd,
Landau will return to Boston to join the Pops in presenting “Dancing Under the Stars” at the Koussevitzky Music Shed in Tanglewood. Conductor Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Swing Orchestra will perform with Landau for “Dancing Under the Stars,” a festive, toe-tapping performance to close out the 2016 season in style. A dance floor will be set up on the lawn for this crowd-pleasing evening of memorable melodies and big band standards, with Landau up front vocalizing the timeless crooner classics. This show will mark the Boston Pops Swing Orchestra’s first-ever performance at Tanglewood and will be one of the hottest tickets of the summer.
Tickets for both performances are currently available online at: www.BSO.org or by calling the Boston Symphony Orchestra at (888) 266-1200. For information about corporate gala ticket packages or single tables, please contact Mary Thomson with the BSO at mthomson@bso.org or (617) 638-9278.
About Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr.
Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. has performed around the world since winning America’s hearts and season six of NBC TV’s America’s Got Talent by the biggest margin in the show’s history. Landau’s debut CD “That’s Life” for Columbia Records was a chart topper, the book about his amazing life story “From Washing Cars to Hollywood Star” spent several weeks at #1 on the Amazon.com Jazz Books chart, and his “Christmas Made for Two” CD was a hugely successful fundraising vehicle for the Children’s Home Society in his home state of West Virginia, where to date he’s helped raise over a million dollars for Mountain State charities. Landau’s third CD is due for release in late 2016, and his tour stops will once again take him around the world. Landau’s dozens of media appearances include The Today Show, the Tom Joyner Show, Wendy Williams, CNN, Fox and Friends, and ESPN.
About the Pops
Affectionately known as “America’s Orchestra,” the Boston Pops is the most recorded and arguably the most beloved orchestra in the country, beginning with the establishment of the modern-era Pops by Arthur Fiedler and continuing through the innovations introduced by John Williams and the new-millennium Pops spearheaded by Keith Lockhart. In 2010, with the 125th anniversary season, the Boston Pops reached a landmark moment in a remarkable history that began with its founding in 1885. Fours years earlier, in 1881, Civil War veteran Henry Lee Higginson founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra, calling its establishment “the dream of my life.” From the start he intended to present, in the warmer months, concerts of light classics and the popular music of the day. From a practical perspective, Higginson realized that these “lighter” performances would provide year-round employment for his musicians.