Boston Pops at Home: Musicians | Trumpeter's Lullaby

Thomas Rolfs, Principal Trumpet, Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner chair, endowed in perpetuity
Keith Lockhart, piano
The Boston Pops premiered Trumpeter’s Lullaby at Spring Pops in 1950. Composer Leroy Anderson described its origins backstage at Symphony Hall, where he was talking after a concert with conductor Arthur Fiedler and principal trumpet Roger Voisin. Voisin suggested Anderson write him a solo different from most brash trumpet pieces, and Anderson said, “it occurred to me that I had never heard a lullaby for trumpet, so I set out to write one.”
Best known for the holiday classic, Sleigh Ride, written during a heatwave in July of 1946, Leroy Anderson became the mid-century master of delightful miniature compositions, which are still beloved today for their intelligent, entertaining musicality. As John Williams has said, “When we think of the Pops we think of Leroy Anderson. We think of his light music, which fit the orchestra and fit the mood of Fiedler’s concerts and was done with such skill.”
A Massachusetts native, Anderson first came to the attention of Arthur Fiedler in the mid 1930s while director of the Harvard Band, and with Fiedler’s encouragement, many of his early compositions were premiered by the Boston Pops. Anderson went on to a successful composing and conducting career, recording his own compositions on Decca for over a decade, while maintaining a special relationship with his hometown orchestra.
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