Many an evening is spent with a crowd around this piano, singing,” says New York Pops music director Steven Reineke, referring to his Yamaha baby grand.

And when that crowd includes Broadway stars like Kelli O’Hara and Kate Baldwin, it definitely attracts the attention of neighbors.

“They love it,” Reineke says. “They’re waiting out in the hallway and listening. They want to see who emerges from my apartment.”

These living-room gatherings aren’t all impromptu singalongs; the 40-year-old conductor regularly holds rehearsals here for the eight concerts the New York Pops stages at Carnegie Hall each season. His Hell’s Kitchen rental, on West 52nd Street, is just a seven-minute walk from the famed concert venue.

Getting to the New York Pops offices is even easier — it’s on the same block. “Whenever they need me, I can be there in a minute,” says Reineke. “It’s an easy commute.”

Reineke took over the reins of the 28-year-old, 77-member orchestra, which was founded by the late Skitch Henderson, in 2009. “He was the founder and the only conductor, so those were big shoes to fill,” Reineke says. “It took three years [after Henderson’s passing in 2005] of looking for the right person.”

And it was while interviewing for the Pops job that Reineke discovered the Costas Kondylis-designed condo building where he would soon live. “I was walking back to my hotel and I noticed the building: It was all lit up,” he says of the glass-cube entryway. “I just walked in and started talking to the concierge.”

In July 2009, Reineke signed a lease for a 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom, 2½-bathroom corner unit, for which he pays $5,900 a month. The 26th-floor apartment offers breathtaking views of the city and the Hudson River through floor-to-ceiling windows — one of the main reasons he chose it.

“I signed the lease on July 1 and spent six days in a completely empty space, sleeping on an air mattress,” he recalls. “It was July 4 and there were the Macy’s fireworks, and I was looking out over at the Intrepid. I thought, ‘I don’t care that my apartment is empty, I’m here in New York!’ ”

Though Reineke had owned a 1932 Tudor in Ohio, where he was a composer, arranger and conducting protégé at the Cincinnati Pops for 15 years, he chose to decorate his Manhattan apartment from scratch.

“Nothing I had fit in with this swanky, modern space,” he explains. “And because it’s so open, with all the glass, I wanted to bring in some nature, some earth tones, and put some color on the walls.”

Reineke warmed up the living room with a rich brown velvet sofa from Williams-Sonoma, two brown-leather cubes that serve as a coffee table or extra seating, and a side table with a driftwood base from Room & Board. On the wall hangs an abstract image of the Metropolitan Opera building by photographer James Henry. It’s one of several photographs Reineke had commissioned from the artist; others depict Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall and even a series of Pop Art-style prints of the building in which he now lives.

But not everything was left behind in Ohio. There’s the piano — “It’s the first I’ve ever owned, and the most important thing in the apartment; I’ve written a lot of music on that piano” — and several mementos he cherishes. Like the baton that belonged to the late Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel; Reineke uses it at every performance. “Every time I conduct, I feel some Harry Potter energy with that wand,” he says.

And there’s the original sheet music for “Celebration Fanfare,” a manuscript he wrote when he was 25; it was recently performed by the New York Philharmonic.

“I am both a conductor and a composer,” explains Reineke, who, in addition to his position at the New York Pops, also conducts symphony orchestras in Long Beach and Modesto, Calif., the Cincinnati Pops and guest-conducts all over the world.

“I’m traveling about 40 weeks out of every year,” says Reineke, who says that New York now “feels more like home than anywhere else . . . I’m surrounded by so much talent, and I feel rejuvenated by that talent.”

Talent like Brian Stokes Mitchell, star of “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” who’ll be taking a couple nights off from the Broadway production for a holiday concert with the New York Pops this Friday and Saturday at Carnegie Hall.

“Stokes is a good friend, and he’s great to collaborate with,” says Reineke, who is creating several new arrangements to classic seasonal songs for the program. “I also commissioned a new Hannukah medley and a new Kwanzaa song.”

As Reineke enters his second season as music director, he sees a lot of exciting things happening with the New York Pops.

“I want to raise the orchestra’s profile,” he says. “I want more guest artists. I want to do more concerts. I want to play on the Great Lawn.”

Steven Reineke’s favorite things

* The conductor baton that was given to him by his mentor, Erich Kunzel (below)

* A wild jacket that was a gift from Doc Severinsen (below)

* The Yankees jacket he received for performing the national anthem at the new stadium

* A photo of the entire New York Pops ensemble bowing at a Lerner and Loewe concert (his first sold-out show at Carnegie Hall)

* A signed poster of his first concert with the New York Pops, its 25th anniversary gala

* His piano