Name: Holiday POPS!
Start: 2025-12-13T18:00:00
Location: Princeton University

John Devlin

Princeton Symphony Orchestra

Join us for our annual Holiday POPS! concert, and enjoy all the magic of the season brought forth through festive music and song. Bring family and friends, and prime your voices for a cheerful carol sing-along led by the Princeton High School Choir! John Devlin returns to conduct this very special concert.

Holiday POPS!

Princeton University

Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova has won international acclaim for her “expressive nuance and rich tone” (The New York Times). She performs Sergei Prokofiev’s lyrical first violin concerto. Andreia Pinto Correia’s 2018 work Ciprés explores themes of trees and water. The program concludes with Dmitri Shostakovich’s first symphony, an early work revealing the composer’s profound talent.

Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto

Michelle Cann, lauded as “exquisite” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, joins the PSO for Edvard Grieg’s majestic piano concerto. Jessie Montgomery’s Records from a Vanishing City is based on her recollections of the music that surrounded her as she grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s and 1990s. Ludwig van Beethoven’s second symphony, one of his lesser-known works, brims with positivity.

Beethoven & Grieg

The harpsichord shines in this program embracing the old and the new. Leading harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani performs a world premiere work by Julian Grant for solo harpsichord and orchestra. Viet Cuong’s Extra(ordinarily) Fancy cleverly reinterprets the baroque double oboe concerto. The PSO performs Igor Stravinsky’s neo-classical ballet Pulcinella in its full version featuring three vocal soloists.

The Harpsichord & Stravinsky’s Pulcinella

Serbian-born cellist Maja Bogdanović makes her long-awaited Richardson Auditorium debut with Camille Saint-Saëns’ melodic first cello concerto, one of the most popular in the repertoire. Aaron Copland’s Letter from Home is an emotional wartime offering in Copland’s unmistakable voice. Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, one of his most beloved works, completes this program with its powerful message of hope and optimism.