Awards

Honorary Degree - 2021

D.Mus.

Doctor of Music

IU East Commencement Ceremony

Richmond, Indiana

Presenter: Kathryn Girten

About Jack Everly

Jack Everly is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore, Maryland; Naples Philharmonic Orchestra in Naples, Florida; and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada. He has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, the San Francisco Symphony, and made numerous appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Everly annually conducts more than 90 performances in cities across North America.

Celebrating his 11th anniversary as Music Director of the National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth on PBS television, Everly leads the National Symphony Orchestra in these patriotic celebrations on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building. These concerts attract hundreds of thousands of attendees, and the broadcasts reach millions of viewers as some of the highest-rated programming on PBS. “Few people in the nation have the broad range of musical experience, including symphonic, Broadway, pops, ballet, and television, that lends itself to these national traditions,” says Michael Colbert, executive producer of the National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth. “Jack is able to bring all of these skills and talents to the table, and to collaborate effectively with the community of colleagues and organizations that come together to produce them.”

Everly is the also Music Director of the Indianapolis Power and Light Yuletide Celebration, which will celebrate its 35th anniversary this coming holiday season. He led the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in its first pops recording, Yuletide Celebration, Volume One, which included three of his own orchestrations. Joe Hogsett, mayor of Indianapolis, says, “Jack has melded his Broadway skills with his classical musicality to reimagine the Yuletide Celebration each year, keeping this stunning production fresh for new and returning audiences alike.”

His other recordings include In the Presence, featuring the Czech Philharmonic and operatic tenor Daniel Rodriguez; Sandi Patty’s Broadway Stories; the soundtrack to Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame; and Everything’s Coming Up Roses: The Complete Overtures of Jule Styne.

Appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Everly was conductor of the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) for 14 years, where he also served as Music Director. In addition to his ABT tenure, he teamed with Marvin Hamlisch on Broadway shows that Hamlisch scored. He conducted Carol Channing hundreds of times in Hello, Dolly! in two separate Broadway productions.

World-renowned American composer John Williams says, “Maestro Everly is, without question, one of today’s preeminent conductors of popular symphonic music. Throughout his esteemed career, he has been both a champion and a highly regarded interpreter of film music on the concert stage, something for which I and my composer colleagues are particularly grateful.”

Everly was born and raised in Richmond, Indiana, and graduated from Richmond High School. “It is with great pride that I recognize that Jack Everly is from Richmond,” says international recording artist Pavel Polanco-Safadit, who teaches music at Earlham College in Richmond. “Richmond has a wonderful history of music and jazz, and Jack comes from a tradition that has valued and supported music over a long period of time.”

A graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington, Everly is a recipient of the 2015 Indiana Historical Society Living Legends Award, and he holds an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Franklin College in central Indiana. He is a proud resident of the Indianapolis community, and when not on the podium, Everly can be found at home with his family.