BSO NOW Continues On Thanksgiving Day With Conductor Thomas Wilkins And Guests

On Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26 at noon, at www.bso.org/now, the Boston Symphony Orchestra continues its series of new BSO NOW online offerings with a program of works by Jessie Montgomery, William Grant Still, and Duke Ellington under the direction of Germeshausen BSO Youth and Family Concerts Conductor Thomas Wilkins-the second of 15 BSO performance streams under the banner title of Music in Changing Times.

Among the performance's featured guests, dynamic pianist Aaron Diehl is soloist in William Grant Still's Out of the Silence and Duke Ellington's New World A-Comin', and African American storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston narrates Ellington's Come Sunday. The program also includes Starburst for string orchestra by African American composer/violinist Jessie Montgomery and the fourth movement from Still's Fourth Symphony.

American broadcast journalist and radio presenter Callie Crossley serves as host for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's BSO NOW streams, each of which will also feature a magazine-style segment with musicians and experts offering ideas and insights into the programming and introducing the guest artists and composers who will be featured, as well as a chamber music performance spotlighting BSO musicians. The November 26 stream will also feature a performance of Osvaldo Golijov's Lullaby and Doina with BSO musicians Elizabeth Rowe, flute; William Hudgins, clarinet; Haldan Martinson, violin; Steven Ansell, viola; Oliver Aldort, cello; and Edwin Barker, bass. Click here for further details about the Boston Symphony Orchestra's initial BSO NOW streams on November 19, 26, and December 3.

On November 19, the Boston Symphony Orchestra launched BSO NOW, an expanded online presence with newly recorded hour-long video performances by the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and BSO musicians in chamber music, along with behind-the-scenes storytelling with conductors, composers, and musicians, plus much more. All BSO NOW newly recorded programs will be released on select Thursdays at noon, November 19 through April 29, at www.bso.org/now, with each program remaining available for 30 days after its initial posting. The director for the concert portions of the BSO NOW series is Habib Azar; click here for a recent biography.

One of New England's most popular Christmastime traditions continues in 2020 with a BSO NOW virtual Holiday Pops program that will feature the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Keith Lockhart in favorites of the season. Drawing from performances recorded both at Symphony Hall during the second week of November and Fenway Park in October, as well as some special archival performances, this program embodies the Holiday Pops' classic formula of combining beloved seasonal classics such as "Sleigh Ride" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with newer content and inspirational readings of Christmastime favorites.

Since no Holiday Pops program is complete without performances of the great choral works of the season, 156 members of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus will join the festivities virtually for "Home for the Holidays," and 58 young singers of the Boston Symphony Children's Choir join virtually as well for a performance of "Christmas Time is Here." The TFC and BSCC are under the direction of James Burton. For further programming information, as well as details about sensory friendly supports, a Holiday Pops virtual program for Boston Children's Hospital, Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, and other hospitals throughout the Greater Boston area, and the 37th annual A Company Christmas at Pops fundraiser, online in 2020, click here.

BSO NOW Streams Continue January-April 2021
Continuing into the new year, BSO NOW offerings will feature newly recorded performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Andris Nelsons and guest conductors, Boston Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Keith Lockhart, and BSO musicians in chamber music works, as well as a BSO Youth and Family Concert, under the direction of Thomas Wilkins, and special projects featuring the orchestra's educational and community partnerships. The BSO, Pops, and youth-focused video performances will be recorded from the stage of Symphony Hall-widely considered one of the top three acoustic concert halls in the world-which will also be featured for all its beautiful detail and historic significance.

BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons will return to Boston in the new year to record future episodes of Music in Changing Times that will focus on Beethoven symphonies. The three-program theme for Mr. Nelsons' series will be Sounds of Revolution: Beethoven and Musical Revolutionaries. Mr. Nelsons had been scheduled to conduct all nine Beethoven seasons during the first portion of the 2020-21 BSO season before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additional BSO NOW programming details, January-April, will be announced on a rolling basis in order for the BSO to respond effectively to any changes in restrictions that might be implemented around official COVID-19 protocols. Click here for a joint statement about BSO NOW from Mark Volpe, Andris Nelsons, Keith Lockhart, and Thomas Wilkins. (Mark Volpe is the Eunice and Julian Cohen BSO President and CEO, Andris Nelsons is the Ray and Maria Stata BSO Music Director, Keith Lockhart is the Julian and Eunice Cohen Boston Pops Conductor, and Thomas Wilkins is the Germeshausen BSO Youth and Family Concerts Conductor.) For more information, click here.

Each of the BSO's Music in Changing Times online video programs will include at least one magazine-style segment with content that sheds light on the musical selections and themes associated with each program. Between three and five minutes in length, these segments-a BSO first-weave historical context with striking imagery and storytelling. The magazine segment for the November 26 release will explore the Harlem Renaissance (BSO and Thomas Wilkins, streaming November 26 through December 26) and the way in which key figures like William Grant Still and Duke Ellington figure into it. Throughout the short feature, the enduring music of these seminal artists underscores archival footage and images that contextualize their work and legacy. The piece is narrated by Callie Crossley of WGBH.

The December 3 release will shed light on the working relationship between composer Aaron Copland and choreographer Martha Graham with an interview with a current member of the Martha Graham Dance Company (BSO and Marcelo Lehninger, streaming December 3 through January 2). The first BSO NOW online program, streaming through Thursday, December 19, under the direction of Ken-David Masur, focuses on the idea of American promise and juxtaposes a chronology of the Boston Symphony with American history from 1881 through the present. This program also contextualizes the music of African American composer Florence Price with the world of Dvořák and late 19th-century American composers.

In appreciation for the support of essential workers in our communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in partnership with Bank of America, is pleased to offer complimentary access to select online concerts and other programs. For additional information about the Essential Workers Program, visit www.bso.org/essential. The BSO also is proud to continue offering access to college students via the newly revised online College Card program, in partnership with the Arbella Insurance Foundation. For additional information, click here.

BSO NOW-the BSO's expanded digital content series to be recorded at Symphony Hall and made available through bso.org/now beginning on November 19-is part of the BSO's continuing series of online offerings created in response to the live performance hiatus imposed by regulations around the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing health crisis. In response to this hiatus from live performances, the BSO launched its expanded digital offerings on March 26 with BSO at Home and BSO HomeSchool, followed by Boston Pops at Home (all available at www.bso.org), the Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival (www.tanglewood.org), and Encore BSO Recitals (www.bso.org), available through November 19. The success of these programs, which have generated millions of interactions-both directly with the actual online content and indirectly through posts on the orchestra's social media channels about that content-has been an inspiration for the orchestra to continue to explore new ways of reaching its music community and beyond with new, innovative, and compelling programming during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of March 13, 2020, and continuing on through April 2021 and possibly beyond, the orchestra has been forced to cancel the remainder of its 2019-20 BSO Youth Concert Series and 2019-20 BSO season and the entire 2020 Boston Pops, 2020 Tanglewood, 2020 Holiday Pops, and 2020-21 BSO seasons. The series of announcements detailing the full slate of cancellations by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, beginning on March 13, can be found here.

Working with 9 Foundations, Inc., the BSO's reopening strategy for its BSO NOW online recording schedule at Symphony Hall will include a robust testing schedule, two layers of daily screening, social distancing, universal masking, engineering controls, and enhanced cleaning and disinfection protocols. (Click here for additional details.) In addition, BSO musicians will sit on a 35.5 foot stage extension-more than doubling the size of the stage-especially built to accommodate official social distancing requirements between orchestra members.

With the health and safety of everyone involved the highest priority, the BSO will continually monitor updates from the Centers for Disease Control, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the City of Boston, as well as its own team of experts, to determine when it can gradually start inviting audiences bad to Symphony Hall and its other venues. The timing of this process will not be known for at least several months.

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