Jon Batiste's rare orchestral stop in Atlanta finally has a new date. The Grammy- and Oscar-winning musician will join the Atlanta Pops Orchestra at Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park on Sunday, August 23, after severe weather forced organizers to postpone the original April 25 show.
All tickets purchased for the original date will be honored for the makeup performance, according to WABE. The Chastain date is part of Batiste's international Fantastical Tour, which is taking the eight-time Grammy winner across the United States and abroad, but the Atlanta stop stands out as one of the tour's rare full orchestral collaborations, per the station's report.
For Batiste, the show carries weight beyond the music. He has four generations of family roots in neighboring Clayton County, Georgia, and has said Atlanta is where he congregates with his family. His wife, friends and family often travel with him on the road, and the same report notes that his sister, mother, father and nephews have all joined him at points during the tour.
A Family Show With A History Of Surprises
Atlanta performances in particular seem to bring out the unexpected. During a previous show in the city, Batiste's uncle joined him onstage for an impromptu jam session, the outlet notes, and Batiste has suggested a similarly larger lineup — possibly including his uncle again — could take shape for the Chastain performance.
In an interview for WABE Arts and Culture's What's Feeding You?, Batiste described his approach to music as rooted in craft, tradition and philosophy rather than genre, drawing a comparison between Bob Dylan and Thelonious Monk's differing views on folk music to illustrate the point. He said he wants audiences at his shows to feel uplifted and to receive something in their spirit, and that bringing joy and hope through his music remains central to his philosophy as an artist, according to the same report.
Why An Orchestra, And Why Chastain
Batiste has called the orchestra one of the greatest musical vehicles ever created, a sentiment that lines up with his recent output. In November 2024 he released Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1), a solo piano reimagining of Ludwig van Beethoven's classical works filtered through blues and jazz, which spent nine consecutive weeks atop Billboard's Classical Albums chart, according to the GRAMMY Museum.
That genre-blurring instinct has defined much of his career. Batiste spent 2015 to 2022 as bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, performing nightly with his band Stay Human before stepping away to focus on touring and composing full time, per the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2021 he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for Disney/Pixar's Soul alongside co-composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, becoming only the second Black composer to win that Oscar category. His 2023 documentary American Symphony, which chronicled his musical work alongside wife Suleika Jaouad's fight against leukemia, went on to win Best Music Film at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in early 2025.
Atlanta's Oldest Outdoor Stage Gets A New Name
The venue itself carries its own layered history. Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park opened on June 20, 1944, as North Fulton Park Amphitheater, making it Atlanta's oldest outdoor music venue, with a current seating capacity of roughly 6,900, according to its Wikipedia entry. In March 2025, Synovus Bank took over the amphitheater's naming rights in a multiyear partnership with Live Nation, rebranding the site from Cadence Bank Amphitheatre, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Atlanta Pops Orchestra shares its own long connection to the venue. Founded in 1945 by French immigrant and WSB Radio music director Albert Coleman, the ensemble originally performed free public concerts throughout the city and played the amphitheater's opening concert back in 1952, according to the orchestra's own history. Today the Atlanta Pops is led by Music Director and Conductor Dr. Jason Altieri, who has directed the ensemble since 2010 while also serving as Associate Conductor for the Reno Philharmonic.
Batiste's Fantastical Tour has made stops across the country this year, including recent dates with the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom's one-night orchestral show and a summer visit to Kansas City's Starlight Theatre. The August 23 Chastain performance adds another rare full-orchestra date to that run, this time on ground that is, for Batiste, close to home.
