Friday Favorites: Holiday Pops

The North Carolina Symphony brings its Holiday Pops program to the Meymandi Concert Hall at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, December 11, 2026. It's a midday concert, starting at 12 PM, so you'll be out and on with your afternoon still ahead of you.

This particular performance pulls double duty. It's part of the 2026/27 Friday Favorites series—a season of matinees designed by Music Director Carlos Miguel Prieto—and it also fits into the symphony's 2026 Holiday Concerts statewide tour. The program is conducted by David Glover, and the music is Holiday Pops, which is exactly what it sounds like: the festive, lighter side of the orchestral repertoire that usually kicks off the holiday season.

If you're not already familiar with the ensemble, the North Carolina Symphony was founded in 1932 and holds the title of the first state-supported symphony in the country. It operates under the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, and its reach goes well beyond the downtown Raleigh stage—it puts on more than 300 concerts, education programs, and community engagement offerings across all 100 North Carolina counties every year. Over its history, it's staged more than 50 U.S. or world premieres and runs one of the most extensive education programs of any American symphony orchestra, reaching over 100,000 students annually. The symphony describes its mission as being the state's orchestra, combining high artistic standards with a dual legacy of statewide service and music education.

So, if you're looking for a way to get some holiday music in before the December rush really takes hold, this is a good spot to start. The concert is at the Meymandi Concert Hall, located within the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts at 2 E. South St. in downtown Raleigh, on Friday, December 11, at 12 PM.