Circle City audiences know Jack Everly for his easy demeanor and penchant for humor on stage as he leads an orchestra. But the Indianapolis Symphony’s principal pops conductor didn’t always envision himself in a leadership role on the podium — like the one he’ll take this weekend when he directs the ensemble’s live performance of the score to “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” as the film plays.
In fact, as a child growing up in Richmond, Indiana, Everly was shy. He watched his father chat with people outside the shoe store he owned but avoided jumping into conversations with strangers.
Instead, the young boy fell in love with the expansive set-design photos depicted in the vinyl albums of famous Broadway musicals like “West Side Story,” “Hello, Dolly” and “Camelot.” At about age six, Everly began piano lessons after growing enamored with the way his mom played the family’s Baby Grand.
“I started to sit next to her while she played and watch the hands doing that, and I said, ‘I want to do that,'” said Everly, now 74.
Instead of playing each note on the page, though, the young musician improvised, much to the distress of his patient teacher.
“I would play a Beethoven sonata, or at least my idea of a Beethoven sonata, even though I was looking at the music,” Everly said. “(The teacher) said, ‘Well, that was very nice, Jack. Now why don’t you play the notes that (Beethoven) wrote?'”
Through these explorations, however, the young musician realized he possessed an ear for harmonies. He further developed his skills at Richmond High School, where he learned the basics of arranging and composing orchestral music.
Everly went on to study piano and set design at Indiana University, and he was among the first students to work inside the Jacobs School’s Musical Arts Center, which was completed in 1972.
He moved to New York in 1974 and cobbled together jobs directing music, designing sets and playing piano before he was hired in 1978 as the conductor for the New York Broadway revival and touring production of “Hello, Dolly” starring Carol Channing.
He went on to become music director of American Ballet Theatre, worked with composer and conductor Marvin Hamlisch and reunited with Channing for the 1995 “Hello, Dolly” production, among other high-profile accomplishments.
In 1994, Everly’s reputation garnered him an invitation to conduct Yuletide. After pops music director Erich Kunzel departed, Everly took the helm as the Indianapolis Symphony’s principal pops conductor in 2002 and moved to Indianapolis. He was the first to conduct the symphony’s annual Film Series and has directed myriad pops concerts that marry the ensemble’s versatility with diverse styles of music.
Although he was once a bashful kid, Everly no longer worries about facing a crowd. Instead, he recalls his father’s charisma when he talked to people outside his shoe store all those years ago.
And early in his career, Everly took to heart a critical lesson in how to listen to audiences. During a matinee performance of the touring “Dolly” production, he noticed that Channing and co-star Eddie Bracken changed up the scene and dialogue rhythms. When Everly asked Channing about it later, she told him she wanted to recapture listeners’ attention because she sensed them slipping away.
“‘You can hear them if they’re rustling in their seats, coughing, not responding with enough energy, et cetera,'” Everly remembers her saying.
“So a combination of Carol saying, ‘Always listen to your audience,’ and my dad’s enthusiasm with working with people and being social and loving to tell jokes — I called upon those two things.
“That’s what helps me when I do pops concerts, cause, you know, shy kid to ham is a long journey,” Everly said with a laugh. “And I enjoy it now.”
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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Sign up here for the newsletter she curates about things to do and ways to explore Indianapolis. Find her on Facebook, Instagram or X: @domenicareports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Jack Everly went from shy kid to renowned Indianapolis pops conductor
Reporting by Domenica Bongiovanni, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
