Biography
Conductor
Steven Reineke
Steven Reineke is in his second decade as music director of the New York Pops. He is also principal conductor and artistic advisor of the National Symphony Orchestra and principal pops conductor of the Houston Symphony and Toronto Symphony. He is a frequent guest conductor with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Detroit Symphony.
Reineke has collaborated with a range of leading artists in hip-hop, R&B, Broadway, television, and rock, including Killer Mike, Maxwell, Common, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Ne-Yo, Bob Weir, Trey Anastasio, Barry Manilow, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Sutton Foster, Amos Lee, Dispatch, Jason Mraz, and Ben Folds. In 2024, he led the NSO on PBS’s Next at the Kennedy Center: Ben Folds Presents DeClassified with Jacob Collier, Laufey, and dodie. He was previously seen with the NSO on Great Performances with Nas performing his seminal album Illmatic. Reineke is also the conductor on Ben Folds Live and William Shatner’s So Fragile, So Blue, both with the NSO. In 2025, Reineke was joined on the podium by retired NFL player Marshawn Lynch, who visited the Houston Symphony ahead of Thursday Night Football for a conducting tutorial featured in his Amazon Prime show, N Yo City.
Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition, and was awarded the 2020 Alumnus Distinguished Achievement Medal. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in July 2011.
Reineke has collaborated with a range of leading artists in hip-hop, R&B, Broadway, television, and rock, including Killer Mike, Maxwell, Common, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Ne-Yo, Bob Weir, Trey Anastasio, Barry Manilow, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Sutton Foster, Amos Lee, Dispatch, Jason Mraz, and Ben Folds. In 2024, he led the NSO on PBS’s Next at the Kennedy Center: Ben Folds Presents DeClassified with Jacob Collier, Laufey, and dodie. He was previously seen with the NSO on Great Performances with Nas performing his seminal album Illmatic. Reineke is also the conductor on Ben Folds Live and William Shatner’s So Fragile, So Blue, both with the NSO. In 2025, Reineke was joined on the podium by retired NFL player Marshawn Lynch, who visited the Houston Symphony ahead of Thursday Night Football for a conducting tutorial featured in his Amazon Prime show, N Yo City.
Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition, and was awarded the 2020 Alumnus Distinguished Achievement Medal. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in July 2011.
