Join Pops Principal Guest Conductor Damon Gupton and the Cincinnati Pops for a symphonic celebration of Disney music, animation, and memories — 100 years in the making! Favorite characters and soundtracks from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Parks come together live on stage and on the big screen at Music Hall in a live-to-film concert like never before. 

BERNSTEIN: Overture to Candide

PRICE: Symphony No. 1

COPLAND: Lincoln Portrait
BERNSTEIN: Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront

DARIUS MILHAUD: La création du monde ("The Creation of the World")

COURTNEY BRYAN: Piano Concerto [World Premiere, (orchestral version), CSO Co-Commission]
DUKE ELLINGTON: Night Creature

GEORGE GERSHWIN: An American in Paris (ed. Clague)

JMR and the Pops wrap up the 22/23 season with a Broadway musical reimagined for the concert hall! Nominated for 13 Tony Awards and two GRAMMY Awards in 1998, the show beat out The Lion King for the Tony for Best Original Score. Now you can experience the celebrated smash hit in a whole new way—in concert with the Cincinnati Pops!

NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Russian Easter Overture
BILLY CHILDS: Saxophone Concerto [CSO Co-Commission]

MODEST MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)

• Love and community ring throughout Music Hall when the Cincinnati Pops and the Classical Roots Community Mass Choir celebrate a much-beloved Queen City tradition. JMR leads a program that’s guaranteed to inspire—an evening of powerful performances that will fill your heart with joy and bring you to your feet!

Choreographer Rosie Herrera wants you to imagine that, after a night of gleefully overindulging in absinthe cocktails, filmmaker Federico Fellini stumbles down an alley in old Havana. A door cracks open and music washes over him like a primordial soup of neon and tropical heat.

In 2018, Marvel Studios’ Black Panther quickly became a global sensation and cultural phenomenon, showing a new dimension of what superhero films could be. Relive the excitement of T’Challa becoming king and battling Killmonger all while the Cincinnati Pops performs Ludwig Göransson’s Oscar-winning score live to picture.

JULIA PERRY: Homunculus CF

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto

SERGEI PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 3

Damon Gupton and the Pops give the holidays an afterglow and keep the celebration going into the New Year! Expect timeless classics from the Billie Holiday songbook—songs like "I Cover the Waterfront," "Lady Sings the Blues," and "In My Solitude."

CAROLINE SHAW: The Observatory [CSO Co-Commission]

GEORGE GERSHWIN: Rhapsody No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra

GUSTAV HOLST: The Planets

Academy Award, Emmy and GRAMMY-winning artist, actor, author, and activist, Common joins the Pops for a special one-night-only performance! After dazzling a sold-out crowd with the CSO at Classical Roots in 2016, the legendary R&B and hip-hop icon returns to Music Hall for his debut with the Pops. 

Typically a composer responds to a director’s ideas in a film scoring capacity, or a filmmaker is given music to respond to visually, but Sun Dogs explores how stories can be told with music and film from equal footing.

JMR and the Pops open the new season with a powerful celebration of iconic divas of soul, pop, Broadway, R&B, jazz, opera and gospel—think Adele, Aretha Franklin, Carol King, Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston—that'll blow the roof off Music Hall. 

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9, op. 95, B. 178, E minor
JAMES LEE III: Ameri'can
JOEL THOMPSON: breathe/burn
FLORENCE PRICE: Adoration
CARLOS SIMON: Amen

GABRIELA ORTIZ: New Work [World Premiere, CSO Commission]
ANTON BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7

• This is what joy and inspiration sound like!

An immerisive staged performance that provides a lens into Black cultural realities and human conditions. 

JMR and the Pops join with three powerhouse vocalists to pay R-E-S-P-E-C-T to Aretha Franklin, “the #1 singer of all time” (Rolling Stone). Come celebrate the life and music of an American icon featuring your favorite hits from the Queen of Soul!

PHILIP GLASS: The Canyon
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA: Aconcagua

JOHN ADAMS: City Noir

Pops Principal Guest Conductor Damon Gupton and the Pops treat us to a slice of John Williams’ most beloved scores—just in time for his 90th birthday. Selections from Superman, Star Wars, E.T., Jaws, Witches of Eastwick and more by one of the greatest composers of our lifetime.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Overture to Fidelio
WILLIAM DAWSON: Negro Folk Symphony
LEONARD BERNSTEIN: West Side Story; Symphonic Dances
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3

CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)

MAURICE RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G Major
FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 3, Scottish

The countdown stops at 007. John Morris Russell leads a thrilling Top Secret program featuring iconic themes and famous music from the longest-running franchise in movie history.

Joy to the world! Cincinnati’s beloved holiday tradition returns with music, warmth, laughter and seasonal inspiration for the entire family. Gather those dear to you to share unforgettable memories in the grandeur of a Music Hall adorned with wondrous decorations and joyful song.

Follow 12-year-old Miguel on an extraordinary musical journey in this Academy Award® winner for Best Animated Feature Film.

Kick off the MAC Series with Louis Langrée and the CSO in a jazz-inspired program featuring Litany of Sins by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis, plus Milhaud's ballet music "The Creation of the World" depicting an African folk creation story.

Take a trip with JMR and the Pops to the sunny shores of Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and beyond in this celebration of sophisticated sounds and romantic rhythms from the southern hemisphere.

Louis Langrée and the CSO present an all-Mozart program featuring Melissa White who brings her “brightly cast timbre” (Chicago Tribune) to the bouncy melodies of Mozart’s Strasburg violin concerto.

Standards at the core of mid-century American music—from icons like Ella Fitzgerald, Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole and more—fill a program featuring vocalists Mandy Gaines and Darius de Haas joining JMR and the Pops.

As one of the earliest church partners for Classical Roots, Zion Baptist Church has been an active supporter of the annual celebration. Members of the CSO will perform in celebration of this Congregation and the 20^th anniversary of this important collaboration.

The very first Classical Roots concert took place at Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church on July 11, 2001. The church has been an active supporter of Classical Roots ever since. Celebrate this important 20th-anniversary milestone with members of the CSO and our community partners.

As one of the earliest church partners for Classical Roots, Quinn Chapel AME Church has been an active supporter of the annual celebration. Members of the CSO will perform in celebration of this Congregation and the 20^th anniversary of this important collaboration.

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Classical Roots and amplify the many contributions of Black composers, artists and musicians to the American musical landscape.