Much of his conducting work is within the contemporary music, opera, and multimedia spheres, including art installations and film scores. In October 2023, he conducted Corey Field’s The Trial of Benjamin Britten, a monodrama in nine scenes featuring tenor Todd Strange and hornist Dylan Hart, for First Leaf Records. Following this, he conducted UC Irvine’s acclaimed production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, directed by Andreas Mitisek, formerly Artistic and General Director of Long Beach Opera. Recent performances include Puccini’s La bohème for Valley Opera and Performing Arts, and a live-to-picture performance of Kathryn Bostic’s new score to The Flying Ace (1927) at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in a celebration of early Black cinema. Other notable Southern California conducting engagements include the premiere of David Reyes’ Aztec opera El Circo Anahuac, the premiere of Jason Barabba’s Lettere da Triggiano oratorio with Synchromy and members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, a multimedia concert performance of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and Son of Chamber Symphony at the Inside the (G)Earbox: John Adams @ 70 symposium held at UCLA and curated by visionary pianist Gloria Cheng. While a doctoral conducting student at UCLA, Pope presented symphonic programs including an exploration of connections between music of Richard Wagner and Bernard Herrmann. Prior to this he conducted Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, as part of the worldwide Benjamin Britten Centenary celebrations, with “energy and flair” (Boston Classical Review), leading a “warm and expressive rendering of Britten’s complicated score” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). He also led performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire throughout the Denver metropolitan area. Other concert music recordings appear on the Open Space, Orenda Records, and Perspectives on New Music labels.

Pope is dedicated to musical performance on a global scale and is a regular conductor of concert and media music in the recording studios of Hollywood and Budapest, Hungary. Recent projects include Music in Light, an immersive classical music multimedia installation that opened in April 2024 in Macau. In August 2023, he was hired to conduct the orchestra and choir recordings for the St. Stephen’s Day fireworks display in Budapest along the Danube, a yearly televised event in Hungary akin to America’s Independence Day celebrations. His conducting and/or orchestration work can also be heard in numerous motion pictures, television series, and videogames, including Riot Games’ League of Legends and The Woman King. As a forensic musicologist, industry consultant, and researcher, Pope has worked nearly a decade on behalf of composers, studios, and attorneys.

Pope’s degrees in composition and conducting were completed at USC, UCLA, and the Eastman School of Music, where he was awarded the prestigious Walter Hagen Conducting Prize. His scholarly interests include Viennese music of the early 20th century and the role of diegetic music in the evolution of sonic spatialization. His dissertation addressed the evolving role of instrumental music written to be performed onstage (Bühnenmusik or banda) in German-language opera and the coordination issues involved in its execution and synchronization with the orchestra pit. Pope’s dissertation was used as a primary support document in the Vienna State Opera musicians’ petition to include Bühnenmusik on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

In addition to his faculty appointment at UCI, Pope holds is Music Director of the Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble founded 75 years ago in Torrance, California.