Tempo speeding up as Lockhart juggles jobs

Keith Lockhart is crammed into the back seat. On this fall night, the Boston Pops conductor has bummed a ride to the gala honoring James Levine, the maestro hired to revive the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Symphony supporters are streaming into the Fairmont Copley Plaza to raise their glasses to Levine. It's the kind of celebration Lockhart remembers well. Ten years ago, he was the guest of honor, the blue-eyed heir to the legendary Arthur Fiedler. BSO Inc., which runs the Pops, Symphony and Tanglewood, plucked him from obscurity to lead "America's orchestra."

Marketing director Kim Noltemy, in the passenger seat, tries to make small talk. She asks Lockhart about his weekend plans. He tells her he's going to catch the Sox at Fenway and head to a Patriots game Sunday.

"What about your music?" asks Noltemy.

"Screw my music," Lockhart says, and silence follows.

Though he later says he was joking, the Pops conductor acknowledges it was a tough night. The strain had nothing to do with Levine's coronation, which overshadowed Lockhart's own career-marking moment: a decade leading the Pops. This was personal. Only two months earlier, Lockhart and BSO violinist Lucia Lin announced their separation after seven years of marriage. Their son, Aaron, had just turned 1.

At the Fairmont Copley Plaza, Lockhart heads into a function hall and grabs a drink. He would rather be someplace else.

"If the party's about me, at least I know what I have to do," Lockhart says later. "I have a very good veneer, but it doesn't always work. Also, that was one of the first social events I went to without Lucy. That felt awkward in itself."

Two weeks ago, tens of thousands of Bostonians — and thanks to national TV coverage, millions of Americans — saw a more familiar Lockhart taking the podium for the July Fourth gala on the Esplanade. This was the effervescent Lockhart, the showman who a decade ago kicked up his multicolored high-tops on the cover of his first Pops album, "Runnin' Wild." He was thrilled to lead some of the world's greatest players in one of the world's greatest concert venues, Symphony Hall, and the excitement showed.

Now, at 45, having led more than 800 Pops performances, Lockhart feels the weight of his increasingly demanding schedule and the economic pressures facing the orchestra.

By no means is he standing still. His push to broaden the orchestra's audience led to this year's new series, "Pops on the Edge," and a pair of sold-out concerts featuring the rock band Guster. The Pops have just put out their second self-released CD. And Lockhart's range — his ability to conduct everything from traditional classical music to Broadway songs and pop tunes — continues to impress his bosses.