CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

By Janelle Gelfand

Steven Reineke can hardly believe it, but it seems that he has become America's pops conductor.

"That's what they tell me," Reineke says, shaking his head.

Reineke, 39, a protégé of Cincinnati Pops founder Erich Kunzel, who died in September, was pinching himself recently, as he ate lunch across the street from his new home base, Carnegie Hall.

In his first season as conductor of the New York Pops, Reineke's visibility in the pops arena has skyrocketed. He had just posed for a photo shoot on Carnegie Hall's stage for Vanity Fair's May issue, due out this month.

A November "Playbill" devoted a story to Reineke's memories of the first time he played in Carnegie Hall, as a 17-year-old principal trumpet in the Dayton Youth Symphony.

He receives warm reviews in the New York Times. And not long ago, he opened Delta's Sky magazine on a shuttle from Cincinnati and was surprised to see his picture in it.

"It is still a dream come true," Reineke says. "I've now lived in the city for six months, and I still just pinch myself to have my office, my concert hall and my condo all right in the middle of everything. And to walk on the stage of Carnegie Hall - it never gets old. Every time I'm there, it's just a great feeling."

Reineke is back in Cincinnati to lead the Cincinnati Pops in a tribute to John Lennon and George Harrison, tonight and next Sunday in Music Hall.

In fact, finding time to eat lunch has become more and more rare in Reineke's very busy calendar. On this day, he was fresh from conducting a concert the previous night in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center - love songs of Broadway and Hollywood.

"It was a crazy night, though, very stressful," says Reineke, explaining that his soloist had been delayed by a train that had caught fire. His alert juggling of the program until the baritone arrived averted what could have been a disastrous evening.

He is juggling a lot these days. Reineke holds conducting posts at four orchestras. In October, he succeeded legendary Skitch Henderson at the New York Pops - the nation's largest independent pops orchestra - after a three-year search. He's also associate conductor of the Cincinnati Pops, where he has had a long relationship as Pops arranger, and stepped in this year to conduct many concerts for Kunzel. Reineke is also the principal pops maestro of two California orchestras, Long Beach and Modesto.

"I'm pretty much used to jet lag. Thankfully, I can sleep on airplanes," he says, ticking off his conducting engagements for the next three weeks: Detroit, Long Beach, Houston, Jacksonville and New York.

Could he fit in another major job as the Cincinnati Pops conductor if it were offered?

"Yes, I could," he says, without hesitation. "Being the associate conductor, I helped to do most of the planning for this season, and I'm the one that's conducting most of the concerts. I'm doing as much there as I do with my other orchestras."

If there is a short list in the search for Kunzel's successor, Reineke is likely on it. Although he has had conversations with symphony management, the Pops search committee has not contacted him.

"I said, 'Where do I fill out my application?' And (orchestra president Trey Devey) said, 'I don't think you have to.' So, it's nice. I just know there's a short list, and I know I'm on the list. I would be very honored to have that job. I know it was something Erich always wanted, and something I always wanted, too. We talked about it many times."

Reineke, a Tipp City, Ohio, native and Miami University grad, has got it all: charm, boy-next-door good looks and not least, bona-fide talent as a pops arranger, composer and conductor. The New Yorkers have even warmed to his slightly hokey Ohio accent.

"I've got one of those strange little Midwestern twangs. I love being here. I thought people would think I'm a hillbilly. But New Yorkers actually find it a little endearing," he says. "You know how crowded the sidewalks are in New York. People run into you, and I'm the one who says 'I'm sorry.' It's my nature. I'm sorry even though it's not my fault."

New York, it turns out, was a natural fit, partly because of his many showbiz contacts. His old friend Michael Feinstein, whom he met in the early '90s while studying film music in Los Angeles, wrote the Vanity Fair piece about him and the New York Pops show.

"It's a plug for our closing concert in Carnegie Hall, a Lerner and Loewe night with Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot, the two Tony winners from 'South Pacific,' " he says.

During the past year, he has been getting to know his audience.

"They love Broadway and the American songbook - those are kind of our calling cards. But I've been bringing them some new things, and people here weren't sure it was going to work. And it has worked. We're opening next season with an all-ABBA night at Carnegie Hall," he says. "This year, we did a tribute to Sammy Davis Jr. and Sam Cooke. We got people up on the stage dancing, and the encore was 'Twisting the Night Away.' "

He enjoys talking to the audience, something he learned from his late mentor.

"I adopted Erich's very casual style about that. It's comforting to the audience. It makes them feel a part of it, and it's not stuffy," he says. "I call them shows - I don't call them concerts. And I try to always make a good production out of it."

And like Kunzel, he is learning how to engage the city on his stage.

Last month, he presented a Celtic concert, featuring not only a founding member of Celtic Woman, Méav, but the NYPD pipe and drum corps, a result of meeting Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly at a party in a high-rise condo on Park Ave. He has led the National Anthem at Yankee Stadium, and conducted from the flight deck of the the USS Intrepid. Now he's reaching out to the Mayor of New York.

That's because, high on his agenda is getting the New York Pops to play on the Great Lawn of Central Park during the summer, with a band like Coldplay, or the recently rehitched Simon and Garfunkel.

"There are new audiences we can bring in based on different guest artists," says Reineke, who was pitching the idea to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office.

He'd also like to record with his new orchestra. Earlier that week, he and his players had bused to Purchase, N.Y., to record the soundtrack that will be used this July for the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular on NBC.

It's heady stuff, but he hasn't forgotten what he learned in Cincinnati or at his alma mater in Oxford.

"I owe (Cincinnati Ballet maestro) Carmon DeLeone an awful lot. He was my orchestra conductor at Miami University, and I learned so much from him, just as a trumpet player playing under him. He was kind enough to play jazz drums on my senior trumpet recital," he recalls.

Although Reineke traveled to Carnegie Hall many times with the Cincinnati Pops, he never fails to be awestruck every time he walks out to conduct his own orchestra.

"It is gorgeous, and I'll tell ya - the view from the stage looking out doesn't get any better. And that's a view that I didn't imagine I was going to have," he says.