“Any good music is good music,” Byron Stripling says. He learned that growing up in the ’60s – his father was a classical singer who also played lots of jazz, R&B and funk records at home. Stripling himself studied classical trumpet before dropping out to play with jazz greats like Lionel Hampton. In the years since, Stripling has emerged as the country’s premier classical pops conductor. He sees the role as a way to invite new people into the classical world.
When the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra asked him to become their first Principal Pops conductor since 2012, he had one condition: “Put me out in the community.” So, ahead of leading his first MSO concert in September, Stripling played jazz gospel on his trumpet at the St. Ann Center’s Indaba Band Shell. When performing, he encourages the crowd to participate. “When you begin to sing together, you get this epiphany that we are more alike than we are unalike, and music can help us bring together that likeness.”
See “Let’s Groove Tonight: Motown & The Philly Sound” at the Bradley Symphony Center May 23-25.
