JON BATISTE JOINS THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY FOR A SPECIAL CONCERT, DECEMBER 12 IN DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—On December 12, seven-time Grammy and Academy Award–winning singer, songwriter, and composer Jon Batiste joins conductor Anthony Parnther and the San Francisco Symphony for a special performance at Davies Symphony Hall. The performance marks Batiste’s return to Davies Symphony Hall, this time with the full complement of the San Francisco Symphony, following his solo performance as part of his Maestro Tour in May.

This special one-night-only performance comes at the end of a landmark year for Batiste, who won two Grammy Awards in 2025, including Best Music Film for the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary American Symphony and Best Song Written for Visual Media for “It Never Went Away” from the film; performed the National Anthem at the 2025 Super Bowl; and debuted My United States, a two-track project exploring his personal identity through the filter of the American identity. 

Jon Batiste 
Jon Batiste is a seven-time Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and composer. 

His ninth studio album, Big Money, released August 22 via Verve/Interscope, featuring collaborations with No I.D., Randy Newman, and Andra Day, and is supported by a national headlining run, The Big Money Tour: Jon Batiste Plays America, which kicked off August 27 with more than 30 stops nationwide. Big Money caps a landmark year that included Batiste’s Super Bowl performance and the chart-topping success of his album Beethoven Blues, which spent nine weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart.  Marking the first installment in his solo piano series, the project showcases Batiste’s interpolations of some of Beethoven’s most iconic works, reimagined through an expansive lens. These reimagined classics embody the indomitable spirit of the blues, and—true to Batiste’s “message of open-armed inclusivity” (New York Times)—embrace a broad genre spectrum.

Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol.1) followed World Music Radio (released August 2023 via Verve), which draws inspiration from Batiste’s mission to create community and expand culture with the power of music. Featuring collaborators including Jon Bellion, Lana Del Rey, Lil’ Wayne, and more, the album received positive reviews from critics who praised the project for its universal message and genre-defying sound. Hailed by NPR as “a sprawling exploration of what global music can sound like,” the album received a total of five Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. Batiste kicked off his first-ever headlining tour, Uneasy Tour: Purifying the Airwaves for the People, the following year.

Batiste was the subject of Matthew Heineman’s moving 2023 documentary American Symphony, released on Netflix in partnership with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground. Batiste and Grammy Award-winner Dan Wilson penned the emotional song “It Never Went Away” for the film, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song and two Grammy nominations.

In 2021, Batiste released We Are, which was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards across seven different categories, a first in Grammy history. He went on to win five Grammy Awards that evening, including Album of the Year. In 2018, he received a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots, and in 2020, he received two Grammy nods for the albums Chronology of a Dream: Live at the Village Vanguard and Meditations (with Cory Wong). Batiste also composed and performed music for the Disney/Pixar film Soul, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Score alongside fellow composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Soul also earned Batiste a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, an NAACP Image Award, and a Critic’s Choice Award.  

From 2015 until 2022, Batiste served as the bandleader and musical director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS. 

Tickets for A Special Evening with Jon Batiste and the San Francisco Symphony go on sale on Thursday, October 30, at 10:00am PT at sfsymphony.org.