The Rachmaninoff is just one of the most glorious, over-the-top, beautiful, Romantic statements ever.

What matters is what you do when you’re here. My commitment to this place is real.

The goal of the Pops … is still to keep the music somehow reflective of the popular culture of the day, but also reach out. Really, you know, the Pops is the best cultural outreach...

Science has come an awful long way in the last 250 years.

She’s just an amazing, compelling performer. She has a wonderful vocal presence and really knows what to do with a song. She’ll be fun. I guarantee it.

A Puccini opera … something that takes peoples’ breath away. I’m proud of everything we do, but some music is intended to take you out on a limb, and some music is a little more...

When he shows up at rehearsal, I’ll actually believe he’s here.

You don’t step in and say, ‘I want to change A, B and C. It’s become an American institution. After 115 years of it, one treads lightly.

It’s great to be home.

but I was doing too much pops, and that was not what I really wanted.

[So lucrative a proposition is this link with the Pops for RCA Victor that the label has just renewed its contract, originally for six albums, with Lockhart. That’s an] unusual commitment, … particularly in the...

It really plays right into Faith’s strengths,

[It caught on and has stuck, to musicians’ amusement and American audiences’ unfazed pleasure.] I’d like to say it’s used because of its air of solemn ceremony, … But honestly, I think it’s the cannon...

One of the lasting ironies in classical music, … we use this piece written by a Russian to celebrate victory over the French in the 19th century.

[Country-pop recording artist Trisha Yearwood is Lockhart’s guest soloist for the show.] The Fourth concert can be an unparalleled opportunity for a soloist … but it can also be a little nerve-wracking for them. This...

The majority of them are operating under deficits, so our situation is not unique. . . . But our situation is exacerbated here because we’re a small community. And what will differentiate us is how...