No Name Pops announces its inaugural music director

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The No Name Pops orchestra, soon to be known as the latter-day Philly Pops, has named its first music director: Christopher Dragon, who currently holds conductor positions with the Wyoming Symphony, Colorado Symphony and Greensboro Symphony in North Carolina. He begins his role in Philadelphia in July.

A native of Perth, Australia, Dragon has conducted orchestras around the world with credits ranging from standard classical repertoire, soundtrack music live-to-picture and new music. He has worked with violinist Joshua Bell, Broadway and film singer Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”), and RZA of the seminal hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

Dragon, 34, came to the United States in 2015 to take a job at the Colorado Symphony in Denver, which he considers the home base of his wide-ranging conducting career. He has performed once in Philadelphia, last November as guest conductor with the No Name Pops.

Dragon said he wants to bring a contemporary energy to pops music.

“In my opinion, orchestral pops around the country isn’t meeting the modern-day audience expectation. I think a modern-day pops orchestra can be much more versatile,” he said. “We’re going to be able to push the boundaries of what people expect an orchestra to be doing.”

The executive director of the No Name Pops, Matthew Koveal, was once a colleague of Dragon’s when Koveal also worked at the Colorado Symphony. He said Dragon is right for the job because he is able to take on a range of music styles with equal rigor and enthusiasm.

“Chris has this ‘do whatever’ attitude,” Koveal said. “He’s totally down to try new things and to realize that the Pop’s idiom needs to progress in order to be successful.”

The No Name Pops formed two years ago by musicians who had left the Philly Pops as its parent organization, Encore Series, Inc., began to collapse under bankruptcy and lawsuits. Recently No Name acquired the copyrighted name “Philly Pops” by permission of the estate of the late conductor Peter Nero, but it has not yet begun to use that name.

Installing a music director further solidifies No Name Pops as the successor of the Philly Pops.

“Some people have asked, ‘Is it risky? Are you concerned about this?’” Dragon said. “I am not at all. To me this is one of the safest bets I’ve ever taken.”

“There’s something very rewarding as a conductor being able to build something from the bones, to really put your stamp on it and direct it where you think it should go,” he said.

During his time as music director at the Wyoming Symphony, Dragon oversaw that ensemble’s first original commission, “Suffragette Symphony” by composer Stephanie Ann Boyd, which premiered in 2022.

Dragon recently announced his departure from Wyoming at the end of the 2024-2025 season, a role he will have held for six years. He recently picked up the role of music director at the Greensboro Symphony in North Carolina, while maintaining his position as resident conductor at the Colorado Symphony, an ensemble he has been with for over a decade. He will keep both positions while working for the Pops in Philly.

For its first two years as an ensemble, the No Name Pops staged concerts piecemeal, typically announcing new concerts with little lead time. With Dragon in place as artistic director, Koveal intends to operate the orchestra on a more regular, seasonal cycle.

“It’s challenging to climb up this big mountain — because concerts aren’t cheap — you climb up this big mountain, and then roll down and say, ‘Oh, man, we’ve got to do that again,’” Koveal said. “We would like to announce the season all at once. We are hoping that we’re able to do that pretty soon.”

The next concert of the No Name Pops will be March 30 at Marian Anderson Hall in the Kimmel Center, with a program of soul and R&B songs made popular by women singers featuring singer Capathia Jenkins. Dragon will not be conducting; rather, it will be Lucas Waldin.