When Evan Roider makes his fifth appearance with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 17, it will not be as a guest conductor.
The TSO Pink Martini concert, part of the 2026 HSL Properties Tucson Jazz Festival, will mark Roider's debut as principal pops conductor.
The orchestra announced Roider's appointment Tuesday. It is the first time in the orchestra's 97-year history that it has had a principal pops conductor.
Evan Roider, Tucson Symphony Orchestra's first principal pops conductor.
"We're committed to programming that can be broader than just the classical programming and reach different audiences," said TSO President and CEO Paul Meecham. "And we felt it was important that we had an artistic leader to be the mouthpiece and the artistic leader of the non-classical programming to complement, obviously, the musical directorship of José Luis Gomez."
Roider signed a three-year contract to work alongside Gomez, who is in his ninth season as TSO music director. In October, the orchestra extended Gomez's contract through the 2029-30 season.
The principal pops role is a first for Roider, who has focused his nine-year conducting career on freelancing. The closest the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native has come to a permanent role was the four years he spent as music director/conductor with the national tour of "Wicked," which included a stop in Tucson. Instead, he has spent his career guest conducting with orchestras around the country including the San Diego and Utah symphonies.
In January 2022, Roider made his guest conducting debut with the TSO in a Jazz Festival concert that also featured Pink Martini.
"It's kind of funny, my first concert with the TSO was Pink Martini and now that'll be my first concert with them after I've been announced as principal pops conductor," Roider said, in an interview before his appointment was made public.
Evan Roider will return to conduct the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's jazz festival concert with Pink Martini in his debut as the orchestra's principal pops conductor.
Roider said he took the principal pops role because he sees similarities between Tucson and his native south Louisiana, where "everything culturally is magnified."
"It's extreme," he said. "And I like places like that, where the culture is so significant. I felt that in Tucson, like you walk around Tucson, the murals, the art, the food, the music. There's such a cultural identity to it. ... As I kept conducting there, I just felt like there's real opportunity to do something really great with the pops programming."
Roider had no role in programming the pops concerts this season, but his vision will drive the pops series in the 2026-27 season, Meecham said.
"Because he's a frequent guest conductor with other major orchestras, he can bring ideas that we otherwise might not be aware of," said Meecham.
And in today's vastly different pops landscape, Roider's experience dealing with artists and diverse programs will be key.
"If you look at pops, even 10, 15, 20 years ago, it was still very much in the sort of tradition of Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops," Roider said, which included healthy doses of Broadway and Hollywood music. "Of course, we're going to do those things, but I also want to try to attract some of the audiences that wouldn't necessarily come to the orchestra for classical music.
"So my goal is to do a real variety in our planning. Nothing in the season will be the same from concert to concert. It's going to be a little bit of everything. ... Not everyone is going to love every program or every piece of music on it equally, but hopefully we can build enough trust that maybe there are three, four concerts out of five that people are really interested in, but they trust the programming quality so much that they say, 'You know what, we're going to go to that fifth program just because we know the quality of what they do'."
Among his more inventive pops programs, Roider led the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert with New Orleans bounce star Big Freedia in September. Bounce is Louisiana's signature upbeat take on hip-hop that dates back to the early 1980s.
In November, Roider was back on the LPO stage with New Orleans hip-hop royalty Mannie Fresh.
Meecham said he's not sure Tucson audiences are ready to see a hip-hop orchestra collaboration, but he's excited to see what Roider brings to the stage.
"I think it's a catch for us, and we're thrilled about it," he said, adding that the orchestra in its past four experiences with Roider has established a musical bond. "He loves working with the orchestra and the orchestra loves working with him. It seemed very natural."
Pink Martini joins the TSO at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17 and 2 p.m. Jan. 18 at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. For tickets and more information, visit tucsonsymphony.org.
The 2026 Tucson Jazz Festival runs Jan. 16-24. For information on events, artists and ticket prices, visit tucsonjazzfestival.org.
