Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Announce 2024-25 Live from Music Hall Digital Concerts

Six Full-Length Concerts Will Be Livestreamed on the CSO YouTube Channel for Free Beginning November 17 
 
CSO Music Director Designate Cristian Macelaru, Cincinnati Pops Conductor John Morris Russell, Pops Principal Guest Conductor Damon Gupton, and Marin Alsop to Conduct 
 
CSO Program Highlights Include: 
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, Leningrad 
Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the May Festival Chorus 
Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World 
Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 featuring Randall Goosby 
Grieg’s Piano Concerto featuring Michelle Cann 
Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige 
Classical Roots with the Classical Roots Community Choir 
 
Pops Program Highlights Include: 
Holiday Pops with Broadway Star Norm Lewis 
Centennial Anniversary Celebration of the Harlem Renaissance in  
American Originals: Harlem Renaissance 

CINCINNATI, OH (October 1, 2024) —The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops have announced the continuation of the Orchestra’s groundbreaking Live from Music Hall digital concerts for the 2024-25 season, with six free full-length, full-orchestra concerts to be digitally streamed through the CSO’s YouTube channel beginning November 17. Since the creation of the Orchestra’s live digital performances during the pandemic, its livestreams have surpassed 2 million views, creating a global community of virtual concertgoers. This commitment to digital innovation remains at the heart of the Orchestra’s mission to seek and share inspiration as it enters its 130th season. 
 
“We’re excited to unveil the fifth season of our Live from Music Hall digital concert series,” said CSO President & CEO Jonathan Martin. “As a proud ambassador of Cincinnati, our goal is to bring inspiring performances to our local community and a global audience through engaging and accessible formats. In today’s digital age, our livestreams enable us to further our mission and connect with more people than ever. Our growing international viewership fortifies the CSO’s dedication to digital content and innovation, and we’re thrilled to share our 2024-25 season with audiences both in Cincinnati and beyond.” 
 
Most concerts will be free for the public for seven days after each digital premiere; subscribers and donors receive extended access via the CSO and Pops On Demand portal. Subsequently, select excerpts from each livestream will be released as digital singles, available to watch for free on the Orchestra’s website and social media channels. 
 
The 2024-25 Live from Music Hall Digital Concert Series follows: 
 
Live from Music Hall 
BERNSTEIN & SHOSTAKOVICH 
Sunday, November 17, 2024 at 2pm ET 
Marin Alsop, conductor 
May Festival Chorus, Matthew Swanson, director 
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 
Program: 
Leonard Bernstein, Chichester Psalms 
Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7, Leningrad 
 
Marin Alsop conducts the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, 
Leningrad, written during the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II. The May Festival Chorus 
(Matthew Swanson, director) joins the CSO for Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Sung in Hebrew, 
Chichester Psalms is an ecumenical plea for peace.  
 
Live from Music Hall 
HOLIDAY POPS 
Saturday, December 14, 2024 at 7:30pm ET 
John Morris Russell, conductor 
Norm Lewis, vocalist 
May Festival Youth Chorus, Jason Alexander Holmes, director 
School for the Creative and Performing Arts Chorale, Sterling Finkbine, director 
Sycamore High School Select Ensemble, Ken Holdt, director 
Cincinnati Pops 
 
Broadway star Norm Lewis joins John Morris Russell, the Cincinnati Pops, choruses, vocalists and 
dancers from around the city for this hallmark of Cincinnati’s holiday season. 
 
Live from Music Hall 
DVORÁK NEW WORLD SYMPHONY 
Sunday, February 9, 2025 at 2pm ET 
Cristian Macelaru, conductor 
Randall Goosby, violin 
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 
Program: 
Wynton Marsalis, “Southwestern Shakedown” from Blues Symphony 
Ernest Chausson, Poème 
Florence Price, Violin Concerto No. 2 
Antonín Dvorák, Symphony No. 9, From the New World 
 
CSO Music Director Designate Cristian Macelaru returns for the first time since his appointment as the 
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s next Music Director. The program includes Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony 
No. 9, From the New World; Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Ernest Chausson’s Poème, 
featuring Randall Goosby; and Wynton Marsalis’ “Southwestern Shakedown” from Blues Symphony. 
 
Live from Music Hall 
CLASSICAL ROOTS 
Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 7:30pm ET 
John Morris Russell, conductor 
Classical Roots Community Choir, Jason Alexander Holmes, resident conductor 
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 
 
John Morris Russell, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Classical Roots Community Choir 
come together for this celebration of the African American musical experience. 
 
Live from Music Hall 
AMERICAN ORIGINALS: HARLEM RENAISSANCE 
Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 2pm ET 
John Morris Russell, conductor 
Cincinnati Pops 
 
John Morris Russell, the Cincinnati Pops and special guests celebrate the centennial anniversary of the 
beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, with the music, dance and poetry of this all-American movement. 
 
Live from Music Hall 
GRIEG & ELLINGTON 
Saturday, May 10, 2025 at 7:30pm ET 
Damon Gupton, conductor 
Michelle Cann, piano 
Program:  
Antonín Dvorák, The Noon Witch 
Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto 
Igor Stravinsky, Scherzo à la russe 
Arthur Honneger, Pastorale d’été 
Edward “Duke” Ellington, Black, Brown and Beige 
 
Damon Gupton makes his Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra debut in a program that includes Antonín 
Dvorák’s The Noon Witch; Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto, featuring pianist and former MAC Music 
Innovator Michelle Cann; Igor Stravinsky’s Scherzo à la russe, Arthur Honegger’s Pastorale d’été and 
Edward “Duke” Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige. 
 
Ms. Cann’s appearance is made possible by Dr. Lesley Gilbertson & Dr. William Hurford. 
 
For more information on the 2024-25 season schedule and to join the Orchestra’s growing digital 
community, please visit cincinnatisymphony.org. 

CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
& CINCINNATI POPS

With a legacy dating back 130 years, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is considered one of America’s finest and most versatile ensembles. In the 2025-26 season, Cristian M?celaru joins the Orchestra as its 14th Music Director, after serving as Music Director Designate in the 2024-25 season, adding to the CSO’s distinguished roster of past music directors that includes Leopold Stokowski, Eugène Ysaÿe, Fritz Reiner, Max Rudolf, Jesús López Cobos, Paavo Järvi and Louis Langrée. Matthias Pintscher is the Orchestra’s Creative Partner; previous artistic partners have included Lang Lang, Philip Glass, Branford Marsalis and Jennifer Higdon. The Orchestra also performs as the Cincinnati Pops, founded by Erich Kunzel in 1977 and currently led by John Morris Russell with Damon Gupton serving as Principal Guest Conductor. The CSO further elevates the city’s vibrant arts scene by serving as the official orchestra for the Cincinnati May Festival, Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet.

The CSO has long championed the composers and music of its time and has given historic American premieres of works by Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók, William Grant Still and other prominent composers. It has also commissioned many works that ultimately became mainstays of the classical repertoire, including Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. The Orchestra continues to actively commission new work, amplifying new voices from a diverse array of backgrounds.

Deeply committed to enhancing and expanding opportunities for the children of Greater Cincinnati, the Orchestra works to bring music education, in its many different forms, to as broad a public as possible. These efforts include two youth orchestras, the Nouveau Program, Musicians in Schools, the CSO Brass Institute and one of the longest running Young People’s Concerts series in the United States, which was launched more than 100 years ago.

A leader in diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the industry, the CSO was one of the first American orchestras to create a Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer position on its administrative team and the first to endow the role, ensuring the absorption of best DE&I practices into every facet of the organization in perpetuity. In 2007, the CSO created the Nouveau Program, which has supported increased participation in classical music and provided equitable opportunities for music study and performance for more than 80 African American and Latine student musicians. The CSO is also an incubator for and partner to Equity Arc, a consortium of American orchestras, professional musicians and educators established to address the lack of racial equity in the classical music field by aligning resources and collaborating to strengthen the trajectory of classical instrumentalists of color at all stages of their pre-careers.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra & Cincinnati Pops gratefully acknowledge support from:

CSO Season Sponsor

Cincinnati Pops Season Sponsor

IDEA Series Title Sponsor 

Digital Access Partner 

Dvorák New World Presenting Sponsor 

Holiday Pops Concert Sponsor 

American Originals: Harlem Renaissance Concert Sponsors 
Kelly Dehan and Rick Staudigel 

Annual Support 

All programs, artists, and dates are subject to change. 

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