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 that'll blow the roof off Music Hall. Experience some of the most popular songs made famous by the likes of Adele, Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston and others. Three powerhouse singers join the Pops for an inspiring display of vocal fireworks sure to make you say, “I’m with HER!”

MusicNow in collaboration with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Academy Award, Emmy and GRAMMY-winning artist, actor, author, and activist, Common joins the Pops and Principal Guest Conductor Damon Gupton 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 takes the stage at Music Hall to make his debut with the Pops.

MusicNow in collaboration with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

OLGA NEUWIRTH:

Aello – ballet mécanomorphe

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER:

NUR

HELMUT LACHENMANN:

Tableau

ALEXANDER SCRIABIN: 

Symphony No. 4, Poème de l’extase, ("The Poem of Ecstasy")

CSO Musicians deliver a one-of-a-kind chamber music performance at the breathtaking Plum Street Temple.

Damon Gupton and the Pops give the holidays an afterglow and keep the celebration going into the New Year! Quiana Lynell, “a vocalist comfortable and commanding in styles including pop, jazz classics and the blues” (DownBeat), makes her Cincinnati Pops debut with timeless classics from the Billie Holiday songbook—songs like "I Cover the Waterfront," "Lady Sings the Blues," and "In My Solitude."

Join the full CSO Brass for a performance from the stage of Music Hall.

JOHANNES BRAHMS: F-A-E Sonata, Scherzo
ANDREW NORMAN: Suspend, a fantasy for piano and orchestra
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Symphony No. 3

JOHANN BAPTIST GEORG NERUDA: Trumpet Concerto

GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 4

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 8
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN: Concerto in D Major

SEBASTIAN CURRIER: Track 8 [World Premiere, CSO Commission]

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.

CAROLINE SHAW: The Observatory [CSO Co-Commission]

GEORGE GERSHWIN: Rhapsody No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra

GUSTAV HOLST: The Planets

Do you remember your brain before the internet? Before you became tethered to a tiny computer that travels on an infinite loop from nightstand to pocket to purse to your hand and back again? Were your dreams different? Did you wander the streets of a strange city, and did you delight in the terror of getting lost? In a new song cycle, Gabriel Kahane examines our cultural and economic obsessions with convenience and efficiency, and the debts that accrue as a result: debts to labor, to the planet, to privacy and, increasingly, to our free will.

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER: Assonaza II (for violin and chamber orchestra) [CSO Commission, World Premiere]

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Symphonic Dances

JULIA PERRY: Homunculus CF

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto

SERGEI PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 3

ANNA CLYNE: This Midnight Hour
EDWARD ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor

JOHANNES BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1

MISSY MAZZOLI: Violin Concerto [CSO Co-commission]

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Mass in C Minor, Great Mass

FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Die schöne Melusine ("The Fair Melusine")

ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD: Violin Concerto

ALEXANDER VON ZEMLINSKY: Die Seejungfrau ("The Mermaid")

TŌRU TAKEMITSU: A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden
BÉLA BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 3
SERGEI PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 5

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3
JULIA ADOLPHE: Paper Leaves on Fields of Clay [World Premiere, CSO Commission]
CLAUDE DEBUSSY: La mer

QIGANG CHEN: The Five Elements

FRANZ LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2

ZHOU TIAN: The Palace of Nine Perfections

MAURICE RAVEL: Rapsodie espagnole

• Love the classic sounds of Frankie Valli, The Drifters, The Del Vikings? Join conductor John Morris Russell and the Pops for The Doo Wop Project. From foundational tunes of groups like the Crests and Flamingos through their influences on the sounds of Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, and The Four Seasons all the way to Doo Wop-ified versions of modern musicians like Michael Jackson and Jason Mraz. Featuring stars of Broadway’s smash hits Jersey Boys and Motown: The Musical, the Doo Wop Project brings unparalleled authenticity of sound and vocal excellence to recreate some of the greatest music in American pop and rock history!

GUILLAUME CONNESSON: Les belles heures ("The Beautiful Hours") [World Premiere, CSO Commission]
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 2