Photos: David Benoit to Conduct Vince Guaraldi Holiday Symphony 2026 Tour

GRAMMY-nominated jazz pianist and composer David Benoit has announced the forthcoming release of his new album, David Benoit Conducts A Vince Guaraldi Holiday Symphony. A definitive holiday tribute to 75 years of the famed composer Vince Guaraldi's musical legacy, it is set for a digital-only release on October 30, followed by the physical release on November 20 via Candid Records.

Released alongside the announcement is the first single, 'Christmas Time Is Here,' a breathtaking, full-orchestral rendition of the holiday staple first written for the 1965 Peanuts classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Originally commissioned by the family of Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson, this gorgeous record brings Guaraldi's iconic, timeless melodies to life on a grand scale with full orchestral arrangements conducted by Benoit and performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.

Blending Guaraldi's classic charm and innocence with rich symphonic power, A Vince Guaraldi Holiday Symphony is a heartfelt culmination of Benoit's career-defining relationship with Guaraldi's music for Peanuts and his consummate work as an orchestrator/conductor — an often-overlooked strain of Benoit's artistry that includes projects like 1997's American Landscape, for which he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra. In addition to Guaraldi's indelible score for A Charlie Brown Christmas, there are selections from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, as well as Benoit's original Peanuts contribution, 'Just Like Me,' which he co-wrote with Mendelson, and more.

Benoit shares, 'I've done a few Charlie Brown records where the focus is mostly on me playing the piano, but this is the first time the concept was 'Let's focus on David as the conductor and arranger.' And that's a part of my career I've felt has gone unnoticed for a long time — my abilities as a classical arranger, conductor and composer.'

'Of course, the real focus is on Vince Guaraldi,' Benoit adds, in his modest, self-effacing way. 'He's the one.'

The new record also serves as a kind of victory lap for Benoit, who had a successful kidney transplant in 2023, after 10 years of illness, including a trying period of dialysis. Kidney disease, Benoit says, 'slowly just takes all the life out of you. Ever since I had the transplant, I've just been rocking and rolling. It was this jolt of energy.'

In many ways, A Vince Guaraldi Holiday Symphony is a project that's been a lifetime in the making, and the story begins before Benoit even knew who this champion of crossover jazz was. As a child growing up in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, he read Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comics religiously, and found himself identifying with the strip's hapless main character. 'I was very much like Charlie Brown,' reveals Benoit, 'the same kind of kid that just didn't get things right, and kind of the quiet one.'

Benoit was in junior high and already a budding pianist when A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered in 1965, and he quickly fell in love with its music, which could be bittersweet and wistful or dancing and ebullient, or some remarkable combination of those feelings. Without knowing anything about Guaraldi, he started picking apart the music by ear, copping the icon's effortless, gliding way with bebop language.

As Benoit got older and grew as a player, he was able to identify the various elements that made Guaraldi so engaging: the Latin tinge of his rhythmic concept; the deceptive simplicity of his harmonic approach; the overarching sense of freedom that came with being a largely self-taught pianist. Today, a theoretically fluent musician, Benoit, too, played by ear in his formative years, relishing the process of pulling apart the sounds he heard on records. Above all, Benoit looked to Guaraldi as a lodestar for what his own music could mean to an audience.

In that spirit, Benoit released his breakout version of 'Linus & Lucy' in 1985, which became a landmark recording in smooth and contemporary jazz while also spotlighting Guaraldi's role as a forebear to those genres. 'Linus & Lucy' got the attention of the Peanuts camp, kicking off decades of collaboration and forging transformative relationships with a pair of certified cultural icons, Schulz and Mendelson.

Benoit recalls the time Schulz greeted him with an accolade he'll never forget: 'How is the world's greatest keyboardist?' Meanwhile, Mendelson, Benoit says, was 'the most down-to-earth, fun, amazing guy. We just bonded. He was like a father figure to me.'

Benoit became a go-to composer for Peanuts TV specials and episodes spanning 1989 to 2006, and contributed music to the 2015 film The Peanuts Movie. He would also pay homage to Peanuts' musical legacy through albums like 40 Years: A Charlie Brown Christmas and the GRAMMY-nominated Here's to You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years!, matching smooth- and mainstream-jazz A-listers with pop luminaries.

Benoit's experience as a composer and arranger would go on to rival his accomplishments as a pianist in range and ambition. In addition to extensive film and TV score work, he served for over two decades as musical director for the Asia America Symphony Association, where he conducted the main orchestra and founded and conducted the Asia America Youth Orchestra. As guest conductor and pianist, Benoit has appeared with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra. In addition to American Landscape, his symphonic albums include Orchestral Stories, which, like the new project, also features the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. To gain confidence as a conductor, he studied with the maestros Dr. Jon Robertson and Kent Nagano.

All those lessons are on full, brilliant display throughout A Vince Guaraldi Holiday Symphony, for which Benoit transcribed Guaraldi endlessly, deconstructing the nuances of his piano work and striving to include those singularities in his arrangements.

Tracklist

CD + Digital

1. Christmas Is Coming

2. Skating

3. What Child Is This

4. O Tannenbaum

5. Christmas Time Is Here

6. My Little Drum

7. Just Like Me

8. The Christmas Song

9. Red Baron

10. Good Grief Medley

11. Pumpkin Medley

12. Linus & Lucy

13. Air Music

14. Grace and Happiness Medley

Vinyl, Side A

1. Christmas Medley: Christmas is Coming • Skating • What Child Is This • O Tannenbaum • Christmas Time Is Here

2. My Little Drum

3. Just Like Me

4. The Christmas Song

Vinyl, Side B

1. Red Baron

2. Good Grief Medley: Oh, Good Grief! • Frieda (With the Naturally Curly Hair) • Charlie Brown Theme • Oh, Good Grief! (Reprise)

3. Pumpkin Medley: Graveyard Theme • The Great Pumpkin Waltz

4. Linus and Lucy

5. Air Music

6. Grace and Happiness Medley: Theme to Grace • Happiness Theme

Tour Dates

Nov 27-28 - Hollywood, CA - Catalina Jazz Club

Nov 30 - Palm Springs, CA - Plaza Theatre

Dec 2 - Cincinnati, OH - Ludlow Garage

Dec 4-6 - Washington, DC - Blues Alley

Dec 7 - New York, NY - Iridium

Dec 8 - Portsmouth, NH - Jimmy's

Dec 10 - Oakland, CA - Yoshi's

Dec 11 - Saratoga, CA - Montalvo Arts Center

Dec 12 - Long Beach, CA - Carpenter Center

Dec 13 - San Juan Capistrano - Coach House

Dec 14 - Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up

Dec 15-16 - Phoenix - Musical Instrument

Tickets are available at davidbenoitmusic.com/tour.

Photo Credit: Lori Stoll