Picnic Pops and Fireworks Make a Great Evening

You can’t go wrong with picnics in the park and fireworks after dark. Add live music, and it just doesn’t get better. For nearly 25 years, Grand Rapids Symphony’s Classical Fireworks show has been an audience favorite and a West Michigan summer tradition, and it's next week!

The 2018 D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops opens next Thursday and Friday, July 12-13 with Classical Fireworks and The 3 Maestros. GRS conductors Marcelo Lehninger, Bob Bernhardt and John Varineau take turns leading the orchestra in music from “West Side Story” and “E.T.” plus An Armed Forces Salute, “God Bless America” and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture leading to cannon fire and pyrotechnics over the hills of Cannonsburg Ski Area.

Grand Rapids native and former U.S. Attorney Patrick Miles Jr. joins the orchestra to narrate Aaron Copland’s dramatic “A Lincoln Portrait,” a musical salute to the 16th president told in Lincoln’s own words set to Copland’s stirring score.

By the way, coming later in the season to Cannonsburg Ski Area: 80s’ Rewind, Beethoven v. Coldplay, Tito Puente Jr. and Ben Folds.