Jon Batiste joins the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall

Details

Boston Symphony Hall
May 12 – May 14
Tickets

Eight-time Grammy winner Jon Batiste is coming to Symphony Hall for three nights with the Boston Pops, and the three-night run is expected to draw major attention from Boston music fans..

Batiste will perform May 12 through May 14 alongside the legendary Boston Pops orchestra, bringing his wildly unpredictable mix of jazz, soul, classical, funk, gospel, and New Orleans energy into one of the most iconic concert halls in America. Batiste is known for energetic live performances that often blur the line between concert and audience experience.

The Jon Batiste Boston Pops Symphony Hall performances arrive during one of the busiest and most visible periods of Batiste’s career. He is a classically trained pianist, a television personality, an Oscar winner, a composer, a bandleader, and one of the few artists capable of making orchestral music feel spontaneous and explosive at the same time.

Late Night Fame

Many people first discovered Jon Batiste during his seven-season run leading the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Others know him from his emotional documentary American Symphony, which followed both his creative process and his wife Suleika Jaouad’s cancer battle. But live performance remains the center of everything he does.

That is exactly why the Jon Batiste Boston Pops Symphony Hall concerts feel like such a perfect fit.

Symphony Hall is known for pristine acoustics and formal orchestral performances, but Batiste has built a career on breaking down walls between audiences and musicians. His concerts often feel more like communal celebrations than traditional performances. One minute he is delivering virtuosic piano passages, the next he is dancing through the crowd or transforming a familiar melody into something completely unexpected.

The Big Easy to Julliard

Batiste also carries serious musical pedigree. He grew up in a famous New Orleans musical family and studied at Juilliard before launching his career onto the international stage. Over the years, he has collaborated with artists including Mick Jagger, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Lana Del Rey.

The Jon Batiste Boston Pops Symphony Hall performances will likely pull from across his catalog, which ranges from intimate piano compositions to massive orchestral arrangements and genre-bending reinterpretations of American music traditions.

Batiste has frequently spoken about the connections between classical music, jazz, gospel, blues, and other Black musical traditions. That perspective often shapes both his compositions and his live performances.

A legendary Boston landmark

For Boston audiences, the setting only adds to the experience. Symphony Hall remains one of the most revered concert venues in the country, and hearing Jon Batiste backed by the full force of the Boston Pops inside that room could produce the kind of live music moment people talk about for years afterward.

The Jon Batiste Boston Pops Symphony Hall engagement only lasts three nights, which makes these performances feel even more special. In a music landscape increasingly dominated by algorithm playlists and short-form clips, Batiste continues to champion the emotional power of live musicians playing together in real time.

For Boston audiences, the performances offer a chance to see one of contemporary music’s most versatile performers inside one of the country’s most celebrated concert halls.