Jon Batiste

Jonathan Taylor Rush has appeared with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Nashville Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Savannah Philharmonic, Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, and Nairobi Philharmonic. Rush often collaborates with non-classical musicians including Cypress Hill, Leslie Odom Jr., Wordsmith, Ledisi, Freedia, Darin Atwater, and Karen Clark Sheard. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut last April with the rapper Common.

Rush served as assistant and associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony, where he curated the inaugural Gospel Fest and served as artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, which he led on tour to Europe. His most recent release, on Decca Classics, is the world premiere recording of Carlos Simon’s brea(d)th. He has premiered works by James Lee III and Fernando Arroyo Lascurian, and championed the music of William Grant Still, Florence Price, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. 

Jon Batiste is a seven-time Grammy, Emmy, and Academy Award–winning singer, songwriter, and composer. He recently released his ninth studio album, BIG MONEY, a project rooted in American traditions spanning gospel and soul to blues, folk, and rock and roll, and featuring collaborations with No I.D., Randy Newman, and Andra Day. He recently wrapped his national headlining BIG MONEY tour in support of the album, which is nominated for three 2026 Grammy Awards including Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song, and Best American Roots Performance.

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. His 2023 album, World Music Radio, earned five Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. That same year, Batiste also earned an Oscar nomination and a Grammy Award for his song “It Never Went Away,” from the Netflix documentary American Symphony, which follows him as he is celebrated with 11 Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, for his 2021 studio album We Are, while navigating the return of his wife’s long-dormant cancer. His accolades also include an Academy Award for Pixar’s Soul and a seven-year tenure as bandleader and musical director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.