Boston Landmarks Orchestra Announces 2018 Free Summer Concerts

Boston Landmarks Orchestra (LO) under the direction of Music Director Christopher Wilkins, and Executive Director Jo Frances Meyer, announces its 2018 season of free concerts at the DCR's Hatch Memorial Shell on the Esplanade. Concerts will be held every Wednesday evening (7 p.m.) from July 11 through August 29, 2018. For more information visit landmarksorchestra.org.

According to Wilkins, "A spirit of joy and openness lies at the heart of all Boston Landmarks Orchestra programs. Families, children, newcomers, and first-time concertgoers all have a welcome place at our concerts. The 2018 season celebrates great orchestral literature, innovation and creativity in our city, and the diverse talents of our many collaborators."

July 11 6:00-8:00 pm
"Season Tune-Up"
Join us at the Hatch Shell one week before the concerts begin for an evening of family fun and musical games. Try out real orchestral instruments at our largest "Musical Playground" ever, practice your conducting skills at the "Maestro Zone" to recordings of some favorite classics, get your face painted, and enjoy exhibits from our friends at the Boston Children's Museum, New England Aquarium, and more.
No rain date. If it rains, this event will be canceled.

July 18 7:00 pm
The Planets
ZUMIX, St. Paul's Girls' School Choir
Sir Edward Elgar Pomp and Circumstance No. 1
Claude Debussy Clair de lune
Gonzalo Grau Constellations (World Premiere)
Gustav Holst The Planets

Music inspired by the heavens includes
Debussy's bewitching Clair de lune. In the centenary year of The Planets, the orchestra welcomes the St. Paul's Girls' School Choir for whom its spell-binding finale was composed. Holst's masterpiece explores the astrological influence of the planets on human personality and behavior. Young musicians of Zumix perform an original work echoing Holst's fascination with the human psyche.

Rain Date: Thursday, July 19. If it rains on July 19 as well, the concert will be held at an indoor location TBA.

July 25 7:00 pm
Boston University Tanglewood Institute
Young Artists Orchestra; Paul Haas, conductor
Young Artists Wind Ensemble; H. Robert Reynolds, conductor

Leonard Bernstein Candide Overture
Suite from Mass
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story for wind ensemble
Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring

For over fifty years, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute has been among the country's most prestigious musical training programs. These gifted teenagers perform a program built to showcase their talents. It features the orchestra in Stravinsky's electrifying Rite of Spring and the wind ensemble in music of Leonard Bernstein, who was a mainstay at Tanglewood since he was a student there in 1940.
No rain date. If it rains on July 25, this concert will be canceled.

August 1 7:00 pm
Giuseppe Verdi: Messa da Requiem
One City Choir; Back Bay Chorale

Boston Landmarks Orchestra, One City Choir, Back Bay Chorale, and a quartet of soloists combine forces in Verdi's monumental Requiem, a work Hans von Bülow described as "opera in church vestments." The music opens in hushed, prayerful tones, and closes with an impassioned plea for salvation. In its most famous "scene," trumpets surround the audience as if on Judgment Day. It is a representation to rival Michelangelo's.

Rain Date: Thursday, August 2. If it rains on August 2 as well, the concert will be held at an indoor location TBA.

August 8 7:00 pm
Longwood Symphony Orchestra
Ronald Feldman, conductor

John Williams, Georges Bizet, Hector Berlioz, and Ralph Vaughan Williams

Boston's medical community orchestra has been a leader in innovative programming and community engagement for thirty-five years. Recognizing that music is a healing art, the Longwood Symphony serves the Greater Boston area through performances and programming related to the services these musicians provide in their medical professions. Music Director Ronald Feldman conducts.

No rain date. If it rains, this event will be canceled.

August 15 7:00 pm
Sounds of the Sea
New England Aquarium; Boston String Academy

Maurice Ravel Une Barque sur l'océan
Bernard Herrmann Moby Dick excerpts
Stella Sung Oceana (World Premiere)
Claude Debussy La Mer

Animal song and representations of sea life are woven together in a program conceived and presented in collaboration with the New England Aquarium. Debussy's La Mer summons the mysterious power and psychological depths of wind and waves. Stella Sung's seascape creates a watery dialogue between marine and human life. And Moby Dick rises again in the haunting music of Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Hitchcock's most frequent musical collaborator.

Rain Date: Thursday, August 16. If it rains on August 16 as well, the concert will be held at an indoor location TBA.

August 22 7:00 pm
Symphonic Dances
with Boston Ballet II; Peter DiMuro, The Dance Complex, Camp Harbor View, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston; Conservatory Lab Charter School

Tchaikovsky Scenes from Swan Lake
Amy Beach Bal Masqué
And a tribute to Leonard Bernstein

Celebrating the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein-who made his professional debut as a conductor at the Hatch Memorial Shell-the Landmarks Orchestra performs music to move by from diverse cultures. Boston Ballet II and Peter DiMuro's Public Displays of Motion are joined by dancers from throughout the community. Judging from past programs, the urge for audience members to get up and dance may prove irresistible.

Rain Date: Thursday, August 23. If it rains on August 23 as well, the concert will be held at an indoor location TBA.

August 29 7:00 pm
Mercury Orchestra
Channing Yu, Music Director

The program includes works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Alexander Borodin, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Channing Yu and the Mercury Orchestra return to the Hatch Shell after a highly acclaimed appearance in 2017. The orchestra boasts some of the most talented amateur musicians in the region who come together each year to deliver invariably memorable performances. The final concert of the 2018 season is a journey deep into the heart of the Russian repertoire.

No rain date. If it rains, this concert will be canceled.

The Boston Landmarks Orchestra was founded in 2001 by conductor and community advocate Charles Ansbacher. The orchestra is comprised of many of the area's finest professional musicians. In its earliest years, the orchestra performed in such historically important settings as Fenway Park, the USS CONSTITUTION pier, Jamaica Pond, Franklin Park, Copley Square, Boston Common, and other landmark locations. Since 2007, its principal home has been at the DCR's Hatch Memorial Shell. For more history visit http://www.landmarksorchestra.org/About.html.

Boston Landmarks Orchestra's 2018 sponsors include the Free for All Concert Fund, The Boston Foundation, 99.5 WCRB, WCVB-TV Channel 5 and The Boston Globe.

These programs are supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Boston Cultural Council, a local agency which is funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and administered by the Mayor's Office of Arts + Culture for the City of Boston.

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