Doug Droste

Doug Droste conducts the Canton Symphony Orchestra in Canton, Ohio, for a pair of pops programs, a Holiday Pops concert in December 2026 and a program celebrating the music of Queen in March 2027. Listeners can expect orchestral arrangements of familiar seasonal and rock repertoire led from the podium.

These two programs sit in the pops tradition, where an orchestra performs arrangements of popular music rather than the standard symphonic repertoire. The Holiday Pops concert will likely draw on seasonal favorites, orchestrated carols, and festive standards designed for a broad audience during the December concert season. The Music of Queen program takes the catalog of the rock band Queen, songs built around layered vocals, guitar riffs, and anthemic choruses, and reworks them for full orchestra, often with rock band or vocal soloists added to the mix. For a listener new to this kind of concert, the interest lies in hearing how a conductor paces familiar tunes for a much larger ensemble than the original recordings, balancing brass, strings, and percussion against arrangements built for stadium rock or holiday sing-alongs.