Biography of Erich Kunzel:

Erich Kunzel's first conducting appearance in Cincinnati, in October 1965, was a sold-out Eight O'Clock Pops concert at Music Hall. It was the beginning of a relationship with concert audiences that the Cincinnati Enquirer described as "a musical love affair that works." Twenty-eight years later, the affair is still going strong. When the CSO board of trustees officially established the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in 1977, Erich Kunzel was named the Orchestra's Conductor, and he has since led the ensemble to unprecedented success with music lovers around the world who have discovered Pops through its tour performances and best-selling Telarc recordings.

Erich Kunzel is a regular guest conductor with orchestras all over the country and appears each year with Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival (where he holds the record for attendance: 22,000), Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Cleveland Orchestra at The Blossom Festival, Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Music Center, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Toronto Symphony, Minnesota and Detroit Symphonies, and the National Symphony both at the Kennedy Center and on the lawn of the Capitol, where he appears annually in the nationally televised Memorial Day and July 4th concerts. Given this level of activity, it is little wonder Erich Kunzel was dubbed "The Prince of Pops" in a 1977 feature article by the Chicago Tribune.

Mr. Kunzel's compact discs with the Cincinnati Pops, on the Telarc label, are especially popular, including "The Sound of Music", "Victory at Sea", and "Chiller," all of which have appeared in the number one position on Billboard's chart of best-selling classical crossover records. The Pops' "American Jubilee" album was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque by the French government in 1989, and that same year the Pops' "A Disney Spectacular" received a Grammy nomination for Best Children's Album and was also named Classical Record of the Year in Japan. The Pops' recording of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man" was nominated for a 1992 Grammy Award in the Best Musical Show category. The Pop's recording "Amen! A Gospel Celebration" with soloists Jennifer Holliday, Maureen McGovern and Lou Rawls was nominated for a 1993 Grammy Award in the Best Gospel Album by a Choir or Chorus category.

Erich Kunzel, Pink Panther, Henry Mancini

Erich Kunzel is the most successful Billboard Classical/Crossover recording artist in history. In 1991, Billboard named Erich Kunzel the Classical Crossover Artist of the Year" for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year. With the release of "Unforgettably Doc" (Telarc CD-80304), there have been forty-nine Telarc/Cincinnati Pops Orchestra releases, thirty-five of which have appeared on the Billboard charts of best-selling recordings. No other orchestra in the world can match that record! Mr. Kunzel was awarded the 1989 Sony Tiffany Walkman Award in recognition of his "visionary recording activities over the past ten years" and was recently named by the Ohio Arts Council as a special recipient of the 1991 Governor's Award for the Arts in Ohio. Mr. Kunzel received his award during a ceremony in the State Capitol Rotunda, honoring his distinguished service and creative accomplishments in the arts.

Educated at Dartmouth, Harvard, and Brown Universities, Mr. Kunzel studied with and was personal assistant to the great French conductor Pierre Montreux. Invited by former Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director Max Rudolph to join the orchestra in 1965 and asked to take over the Eight O'Clock Pops series, Erich Kunzel immediately showed an inspired affinity to the pops repertoire even though he had never previously considered this aspect of an orchestral career. By 1970, when Arthur Fiedler invited him to conduct the Boston Pops, Erich Kunzel's commitment to pops was assured. He has led the Boston Pops annually ever since, in more than eighty-five performances in Boston's Symphony Hall and on tour in the U. S. and England. From 1981 until 1983, Mr. Kunzel was the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Pops Concerts sponsored by the San Francisco Art Commission.

Mr. Kunzel previously served on the faculty of Brown University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He made his professional debut in 1957 conducting the Santa Fe Opera Company.

Between his many conducting engagements, Erich Kunzel and his wife Brunhilde live in a house they call "Camelot" on Swans Island, Maine. When not on the podium, Maestro Kunzel can often be found sailing his yawl "The Blue Swan" throughout the waters of the Atlantic and Caribbean.

(Biography as appears in the insert of The Magical Music of Disney)