At times, Harry Ellis Dickson, conductor of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, can be a very confusing fellow.
Ask him what his future plans are and he shoots back, “Conducting. It’s part of my life, it’s like breathing — I need it.”
One breath later, however, and Dickson, 82, is expounding on a much different view.
“I’ve become very cynical about conductors, even though I am a conductor myself,” Dickson said in a telephone interview last week. “It’s a strange profession, conducting an orchestra. You don’t produce one note by yourself.
“I’ve talked to other conductors about this. I used to talk to Lenny Bernstein a lot about it. What actually does a conductor do? Lenny used to say, ‘I don’t know.’ And frankly, I don’t know, either.”
Dickson described Serge Koussevitsky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra when he joined as a violinist in 1938, as “probably one of the greatest I ever played with, because he had the ability of making the musicians play better than they knew how themselves.”
For the past 22 years, Dickson has been conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra, first as an assistant conductor and later as the associate conductor.
The Boston Pops Orchestra consists primarily of Boston Symphony players, while the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra is made up of other Boston-based musicians. Both Pops orchestras operate under the auspices of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra makes its South Florida debut on Saturday at Miami’s Knight Center. The concert will benefit the Hialeah Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that supports community assistance programs in Hialeah, as well as international disaster relief and development projects.
The Pops’ crowd-pleasing musical program — a combination of light classical pieces and contemporary popular music — has changed little in the 105 years since it was first introduced.
“I think one of the attractions from the audience’s standpoint,” Dickson said, “is (this) group of serious-minded musicians who play Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart one week, and then very next week, they’re playing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. They’re sort of taking their hair down.”
The Cambridge, Mass., native — who also is the father of Kitty Dukakis — cited another reason for the Pops’ enduring popularity.
“A pops concert nowadays is practically the only place where you can hear live music,” Dickson said. “Everything else is canned: You listen to radio, you (watch) television, you go to a rock concert and you’re deafened by the explosion of sound. None of it is natural.
“But when you go to a concert hall and you hear the Boston Pops, you’re hearing music as it comes from the instruments.”
The Pops’ musical selections are spiced by Dickson’s own effervescent personality.
“I talk in between these pieces,” Dickson said. “I’m a very great believer that concerts like these should not be stultifying. A lot of people who wouldn’t be caught dead at a symphony concert love this kind of music.”
That sentiment, however, is not shared by many of the high-brow classical music aficionados who would not be caught dead at a Pops concert.
“I think it’s human nature for people to have something to look down on,” Dickson said. “Regular symphony-goers, well, they kind of look down their noses. But the real music lover, who doesn’t need airs or anything, enjoys all kinds of music.
“Look, I’m a classical musician; I love jazz. I’m fascinated by it. I even try to go to rock concerts. I put plugs in my ears and I don’t like it. But at least, I try.”
In a 50-year career filled with memories, Dickson said his most memorable performance was the 75th anniversary concert of the Boston Symphony.
Dickson, who still trots around the globe as a guest conductor, founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concert series in 1959 and has written two books. He even found time to provide musical guidance for a world-renowned entertainer admired more for his comedic prowess than his conducting skills — Danny Kaye.
“I miss him very much,” Dickson said. “He was one of the closest friends I ever had in the world. He actually started his conducting career through me in Boston. He had a wonderful musical ear. He always amazed me, because he could rehearse a whole program just by ear.
“He could never have been a serious conductor because he couldn’t write music,ppearance.
Harry Ellis Dickson will conduct the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra on Saturday in its first South Florida appearance.
