Pops concerts pop up on Web

One does not usually mess with an institution, especially if it's the stalwart 121-year-old Boston Pops. But even century-old traditions need some dusting off if they are to stay relevant. Keith Lockhart, the 47-year-old conductor and music director of "America's Orchestra" since 1995, is faced with the challenge of keeping the Pops fresh and exciting while maintaining its traditional roots. He wields not just a baton, but a magic wand that he hopes will invigorate the orchestra in the face of today's rapidly shifting entertainment scene.

It's not that the Pops need a whole lot of shaking up. Their 2007 holiday tour concludes today at the Zoellner Arts Center in Bethlehem, Pa. The tour precedes the orchestra's ever-popular Christmas concerts at Symphony Hall in Boston, which Arthur Fiedler began in 1974 with a three-concert series and has now been expanded to 38 concerts.

The holiday tour features the Pops performing a host of favorites. The orchestra will play its upbeat signature tune "Sleigh Ride," along with such standards as "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "White Christmas," and classical pieces such as Ralph Vaughn-Williams "Fantasia on Christmas Carols," a favorite of Lockhart's. This year the orchestra will be joined by Cantus, one of America's finest professional male vocal ensembles. Concerts will conclude with visits from Santa and audience sing-alongs.

So what's the problem?

"We're in the middle of a cultural revolution where more and more people are getting their entertainment without getting out of their armchairs or having to pay for baby sitters," says Lockhart in a telephone interview from the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, where he is the incoming music director.

"This is a dangerous time for the arts. We are becoming in many ways a society that's walled off in individual surround-sound stereo and computer-console enclaves. We have to look for new media with which to connect to our audiences."

That search led the Boston Pops to boldly go where no orchestra had gone before. On Nov. 1 it launched the first Internet TV program by a symphony orchestra. The free program, which can be viewed at www.bostonpops.tv, is an online broadcast of the Boston Pops' "Oscar and Tony" concert and features Lockhart leading the orchestra in melodies from such Broadway and film favorites as "Phantom of the Opera," "Chicago" and "42nd Street," and movie themes from "The Sound of Music" and "Lawrence of Arabia."