Featuring '90s and ‘00s Latin pop hits from Enrique Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, Santana, Ricky Martin, and more
Tickets on sale now at dso.org
Detroit, (February 19, 2025) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is pleased to present the next performance on the PNC Pops Series, La Vida Loca, conducted Principal Pops Conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez on March 14–16 at Orchestra Hall.
An all-star group of musicians including world-renowned vocalists Ender Thomas and Jackie Mendez and multi-GRAMMY® Award winners José Sibaja on trumpet and Luisito Quintero on percussion will join the DSO. The energetic program features timeless Latin pop hits and fresh symphonic arrangements by Lopez-Yañez and Sibaja. Audiences will be “Livin’ La Vida Loca” experiencing this live performance of hits from Enrique Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, Santana, Ricky Martin, and more.
La Vida Loca will take place Friday, March 14 at 10:45 a.m., Saturday, March 15 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 16 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall.
Tickets for these performances start at $20 and can be purchased at dso.org or by calling the Box Office at 313.576.5111, open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The title sponsor of the DSO’s PNC Pops Series is PNC Bank.
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PNC Pops
Friday, March 14 at 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, March 15 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 16 at 3 p.m.
Orchestra Hall
Enrico Lopez-Yañez, conductor
Ender Thomas, vocals
Jackie Mendez, vocals
José Sibaja, trumpet
Luisito Quintero, percussion
Get on your feet and let’s get loud with the greatest hits of the ‘90s and ‘00s Latin pop explosion! La Vida Loca celebrates artists including Enrique Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, Santana, Ricky Martin, and more. Conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez, world-renowned vocalists Ender Thomas and Jackie Mendez, and multi-Grammy Award winners José Sibaja on trumpet and Luisito Quintero on percussion join the DSO for a high-octane program featuring all-new symphonic arrangements by Lopez-Yañez and Sibaja.
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About Enrico Lopez-Yañez
Enrico Lopez-Yañez is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Detroit, Nashville, and Pacific Symphonies as well as the Principal Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Presents and Principal Guest Conductor for Pops of the Indianapolis Symphony. Lopez-Yañez has quickly established himself as one of the Nation’s leading conductors of popular music and become known for his unique style of audience engagement. Also an active composer/arranger, he has been commissioned by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Omaha Symphony, and has had his works performed by orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Utah Symphony among others.
Lopez-Yañez has conducted concerts with a broad spectrum of artists including Nas, Patti LaBelle, Itzhak Perlman, Trisha Yearwood, Kenny Loggins, Stewart Copeland, Kelsea Ballerini, Leslie Odom Jr., Renee Elise Goldsberry, Portugal The Man, Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Hanson, The Beach Boys, Kenny G and more. Each year Lopez-Yañez conducts the annual Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th fireworks show which is televised annually on CMT reaching millions of viewers across the nation.
This season Lopez-Yañez will collaborate with artists including Dolly Parton, Bernadette Peters, Lyle Lovett, War & Treaty, Ben Folds, Indigo Girls, Joss Stone, Girl Named Tom, Lettuce, and Tower of Power. He will appear with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Toronto Symphony as well as make return appearances with the Baltimore Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony and more. Previously, Lopez-Yañez has appeared with orchestras throughout North America including the Cincinnati Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony among others.
Lopez-Yañez was the recipient of the 2023 “Mexicanos Distinguidos” Award by the Mexican government, an award granted to Mexican citizens living abroad for outstanding career accomplishments in their field. As an advocate for Latin music, he has arranged and produced shows for Latin Fire, Mariachi Los Camperos, The Three Mexican Tenors, and collaborated with artists including Aida Cuevas, Arturo Sandoval and Lila Downs.
As Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, Lopez-Yañez curates and leads programs designed to cultivate new audiences. Symphonica’s show offerings range from Pops shows to Family and Education productions which have been described as “incredibly special – and something that needs to become the new norm” (Lima Symphony). Symphonica’s productions have been performed by major orchestras across North America including the Baltimore Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Tucson Symphony and many more.
As a producer, composer, and arranger, Lopez-Yañez’s work can be heard on numerous albums including the UNESCO benefit album Action Moves People United and children’s music albums including The Spaceship that Fell in My Backyard, winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Hollywood Music and Media Awards, Family Choice Awards and Kokowanda Bay, winner of a Global Media Award as well as a Parents’ Choice Award where Lopez-Yañez was lauded for his “catchy arrangements” (Parents’ Choice Foundation).
About the DSO
The acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. Led by Music Director Jader Bignamini since 2020, the DSO makes its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, offering a robust performance schedule that features classical, pops, jazz, and family concerts, plus community performances. Enrico Lopez-Yañez was named Principal Pops Conductor in 2023, trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard serves as the orchestra’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair, and Tabita Berglund began her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor in the 2024–25 season. A dedication to broadcast innovation and technology began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts.
The DSO’s distinguished history of recordings—many led by its renowned music directors—spans nearly a century, beginning with the orchestra’s first 78 rpm singles with Ossip Gabrilowitsch released on the Victrola label in 1928. A steady recording output has continued since then, with highlights including more than 20 releases with Paul Paray for Mercury’s Living Presence series, and 27 under the baton of Neeme Järvi, mostly on the Chandos label. In the 1970s, the DSO took part in the historic Black Composers Series for Columbia Records led by its then-Associate Conductor Paul Freeman and later made several acclaimed recordings with Antal Doráti for the Decca label. More recently, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, the DSO recorded music by Rachmaninoff, Copland, and John Williams for the Naxos label, earning its first GRAMMY® nomination in 2017 for Copland’s Third Symphony / Three Latin American Sketches. The first recording with Jader Bignamini, of Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony, will be released in 2025 on the Pentatone label.
Since its first school concerts a century ago, and particularly since the founding of the Civic Youth Ensembles in 1970, the DSO has been a national leader in bringing the benefits of music education to students, teachers, and families in Detroit and surrounding communities. The DSO remains committed to expanding its participation in the growth and well-being of Detroit through programs like its Detroit Neighborhood Initiative—cultural events co-created with community partners and residents—and Detroit Harmony, a promise to provide an instrument and instruction to any student in the city who wants to learn. With unwavering support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact lives through the power of unforgettable musical experiences.