Keith Lockhart is an American conductor and music director who has a net worth of $4 million.

Keith Lockhart's salary is $700 thousand per year. He is best known as the longtime conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, one of the most famous and commercially recognizable orchestral institutions in the United States. Lockhart took over the Boston Pops in 1995, following in the lineage of Arthur Fiedler and John Williams, and became the public face of the orchestra for a new generation of audiences.

Keith Lockhart has led thousands of Boston Pops performances, national tours, international tours, television specials, holiday concerts, and the orchestra's nationally known July 4th performances. Beyond Boston, he has served as artistic director of the Brevard Music Center, principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, music director of the Utah Symphony, and music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. His career has combined classical conducting, pops programming, television, education, guest conducting, and major public events, making him one of the most visible American conductors of his generation.

Keith Alan Lockhart was born on November 7, 1959, in Poughkeepsie, New York. He grew up in nearby Wappingers Falls and began studying piano when he was seven years old. His parents, Newton Frederick Lockhart and Marilyn Jean Woodyard Lockhart, both worked in computers, and Lockhart was raised in New York's Dutchess County public school system.

Lockhart attended Furman University in South Carolina, where he studied German and piano performance. He graduated in 1981 and later earned a master's degree in orchestral conducting from Carnegie Mellon University. He also attended the Brevard Music Center as a teenager, creating a connection with the institution that would later become one of the central relationships of his professional life.

Lockhart's early career included work with the Akron Symphony Orchestra and the Akron Youth Symphony. He later moved into prominent conducting roles in Cincinnati, where he served as associate conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra from 1990 to 1995. During that same period, he became music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

In Cincinnati, Lockhart built a reputation as a conductor who could handle serious symphonic repertoire while also making orchestral music accessible to broader audiences. That combination made him a natural fit for the Boston Pops, which has long occupied a distinctive space between classical tradition and mainstream entertainment.

In 1995, Lockhart was named the 20th conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. He was just 35 years old when he opened his first Boston Pops season, making him the same age Arthur Fiedler had been when he became conductor of the orchestra in 1930.

Lockhart quickly became associated with the Pops' blend of orchestral showmanship, celebrity guests, patriotic programming, film music, Broadway selections, and holiday concerts. Under his leadership, the Boston Pops performed across the United States and abroad, appeared in dozens of television programs, and participated in major sporting events, including Super Bowl XXXVI, the 2008 NBA Finals, the 2013 Boston Red Sox Ring Ceremony, and Game 2 of the 2018 World Series.

The Boston Pops' annual July 4th Fireworks Spectacular has been one of Lockhart's signature platforms. The event draws huge live crowds in Boston and reaches millions more through television and online broadcasts. He has also led the Pops through recordings and special projects, including albums such as "The Celtic Album," "The Latin Album," "The Red Sox Album," "A Boston Pops Christmas: Live from Symphony Hall," and "Lights, Camera… Music! Six Decades of John Williams."

While continuing his Boston Pops work, Lockhart served as music director of the Utah Symphony from 1998 to 2009. His tenure included performances of the complete symphonic works of Gustav Mahler, a European tour, and a major institutional period that included the merger of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera. He also led the Utah Symphony during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

From 2010 to 2018, Lockhart served as principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra. His work with the ensemble included North American tours, performances at The Proms, and a concert honoring Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.

Lockhart became artistic director of the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival in 2007. The role brought him back to an institution he had attended as a young musician. At Brevard, he has worked with emerging performers and helped guide one of the country's prominent summer training programs for young classical musicians.

Keith Lockhart's earnings have come primarily from his long-running Boston Pops position, orchestral conducting contracts, guest conducting appearances, television specials, recordings, public performances, and educational leadership roles.

In the late 1990s, when he added the Utah Symphony role to his Boston Pops position, Lockhart was reported to be earning a combined annual salary of at least $335,000 between those two posts. His salary has since been estimated at $700 thousand per year. Public filings have shown that his compensation from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the parent organization of the Boston Pops, has reached even higher levels in some years, including nearly $920,000 in 2017. For a conductor in the nonprofit classical music world, that places him among the more commercially successful and widely recognized figures in the field.

Keith Lockhart and his wife, Emiley, have owned valuable real estate in Massachusetts. In 2019, they bought a home in Newton, Massachusetts, for $2.055 million. The property, located in Newton Highlands, has five bedrooms and nearly 6,000 square feet of living space.

The couple also owns a Cape Cod property in East Sandwich. That home, a waterfront Cape-style residence with four bedrooms and deeded beach frontage on Cape Cod Bay, was purchased in 2013 for $915,000. Public real estate estimates later valued the property at more than $2 million.

Lockhart has received numerous honors over the course of his career. In 2006, he received the Bob Hope Patriot Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. In 2017, he received the Commonwealth Award, one of Massachusetts' highest cultural honors. He has also received honorary doctorates from institutions including Boston University, the Boston Conservatory, Northeastern University, Furman University, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Keith Lockhart has been married three times. He was previously married to Ann Louise Heatherington and later to Boston Symphony violinist Lucia Lin, with whom he has a son named Aaron. In 2007, he married Emiley Zalesky, an attorney and executive. Keith and Emiley have two sons together, Edward and Christopher.