PICNIC POPS Will Return to the Grand Rapids Symphony This Summer

By | January 17, 2020

Broadway World

In 1995, the Grand Rapids Symphony stepped on stage beneath a new outdoor band shell at Cannonsburg Ski Area, and a new West Michigan summer tradition of great music in the great outdoors was born. The sizzling sounds of the 1990s returns to the 2020 D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops in July with the pop sensation, Hanson.

The Grand Rapids Pops’ 26th annual summer season features the extraordinary fiddle, mandolin and hammer dulcimer virtuosity of Kittel & Co.; the suave and sophisticated, close-harmony vocals of The Doo Wop Project; and the joyously uplifting world music sounds of Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Sponsored by SpartanNash, the 2020 Picnic Pops, led by Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt and Associate Conductor John Varineau, opens with Grammy nominees Kittel & Co., fronted by Michigan’s own Jeremy Kittel from Ann Arbor, on July 22. Brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson, whose smash hit “MMMBop” was the summer anthem of 1997, join the Grand Rapids Pops at Cannonsburg Ski Area on July 24.

“Symphony Under the Sky” continues with stars of Broadway’s “Jersey Boys” and “Motown: The Musical” singing songs made famous by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and Smokey Robinson and The Miracles and more in The Doo Wop Project on July 29. The 2020 Picnic Pops wraps up on July 30 with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, featured prominently on Paul Simon‘s 1986 album “Graceland,” which won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Season ticket sales for renewing subscribers are now underway. Season tickets for new subscribers, offering substantial discounts as well as access to the special event presale for Hanson, will go on sale on Feb. 3.

Single tickets to see Hanson for subscribers go on sale Feb. 24. All remaining single tickets for Hanson go on sale March 2. Single tickets for the rest of the 2020 D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops go on sale March 9. Call the Grand Rapids Symphony at (616) 454-9451 ext. 4 or go online to PicnicPops.org.

Hanson – July 24

In 2017, the trio of brothers who make up pop-rock trio Hanson celebrated 25 years of playing music together, selling millions of albums and reaching fans from Tulsa to Tokyo. After five years and two independent albums, Hanson released their major label debut in 1997 and saw a meteoric rise with the international smash single “Mmmbop” from the album Middle Of Nowhere, which garnered multiple Grammy nominations and five consecutive top 40 singles, including “Where’s The Love,” “I Will Come To You” “Weird.”

HANSON | String Theory brings together an exciting collaboration of song craftsmanship and symphonic spectacle framing the established Grammy nominated multiplatinum pop-rock trio’s music with symphonic arrangements.

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