Boston Landmarks Orchestra Announces 2017 Free Summer Concerts

Boston Landmarks Orchestra (LO) under the direction of Music Director Christopher Wilkins, and Executive Director Jo Frances Meyer, announces its 2017 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 19 through August 23, 2017. For more information visit landmarksorchestra.org.

According to Wilkins, "The 2017 season celebrates the scenic beauty of our city, the brilliance of our orchestra, and the diverse talents of our many collaborators. 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."

Meyer adds, "Once again, our season will be defined by a "strategy of participation," a phrase so eloquently and aptly coined by our Music Director Christopher Wilkins. We think our audiences will be thrilled-as always-by the artistically excellent results of our musical, cultural, and educational collaborations with our amazing community partners!"

JULY 19 - MUSIC FOR A SUMMER EVENING (Opening Night)
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Sonja DuToit Tengblad, soprano
Prelude: Boston University Tanglewood Institute Brass and Wind Quintets (student brass and wind quintets from BUTI will play as audience arrives, between 6:15 and 6:45)

Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Samuel Barber's setting of a prose poem by James Agee, evokes sweetly nostalgic childhood memories of summer. Elgar created his Enigma Variations as a musical gift for his wife and closest friends. With exuberance, humor, and warmth, he presents a separate variation-akin to a musical portrait-for each of them. Boston composer Peggy Stuart Coolidge composed The Blue Planet to accompany a poem written by her husband. In 1971, the World Wildlife Fund adopted it as their official theme song. Rain date: July 20 at Hatch Shell or Emmanuel Church

Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite
Frederick Delius Summer Evening
Peggy Stuart Coolidge The Blue Planet
Samuel Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Giuseppe Verdi "Winter' and 'Summer' from I vespri siciliani
Edward Elgar Enigma Variations

JULY 26 MERCURY ORCHESTRA SYMPHONIC OPERA
Channing Yu, Music Director

Channing Yu and his Mercury Orchestra have thrilled Boston area audiences every summer for a decade. Through skill, devotion, and truly ambitious repertoire-much of it opera-related-some of the most talented amateur musicians in the region come together each year to deliver invariably memorable performances. This summer for the first time, they appear on the Esplanade as guests of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. No rain date.

Richard Wagner Die Meistersinger - An Orchestral Tribute
Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Suite

AUGUST 2 BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO. 9
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Adrian Anantawan, violin
One City Choir
Back Bay Chorale
Scott Allen Jarrett, Music Director

The drama of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony-a journey from darkness to light-is one of the glories of Western art. Beethoven believed in music's power to redeem a suffering humanity, to bring us closer to heaven in this life. His music to Goethe's play, Egmont, came at the apex of his "Heroic Period." The story honors the sacrifice of a nobleman condemned to death for resisting tyranny. The sublime Romance in F for solo violin and orchestra is among Beethoven's most sweetly lyrical instrumental works. Rain date: August 3 at Hatch Shell or Kresge Auditorium at MIT.

Ludwig van Beethoven Egmont Overture
Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Romance in F
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9
AUGUST 9 ANTHEMS OF THE WORLD
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Zumix
Boston Arts Academy Spirituals Ensemble
Gonzalo Grau, composer

Fired by local pride, some of Western music's most passionate works are closely identified with their cultures of origin. At its premiere, Finlandia was heard to symbolize Finnish independence. It is now considered a second Finnish national anthem. Dvo?ák urged American composers to borrow from the spirituals, much as he had employed Czech folk songs in his own writing. Márquez's Danzón No. 2 has become one of the most popular of all orchestral dances. The young musicians of Zumix are featured in a Landmarks-commissioned work they have created with composer Gonzalo Grau. Rain date: August 10 at Hatch Shell or Kresge Auditorium at MIT
Jean Sibelius Finlandia
Amy Beach Gaelic Symphony: Alla siciliana
Traditional Spirituals
Kareem Roustom Aleppo Songs
Gonzalo Grau new work for Zumix
Antonín Dvo?ák Symphony No. 8
AUGUST 16 LONGWOOD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Ronald Feldman, Music Director

Boston's medical community orchestra has been a leader in innovative programming and community engagement for thirty-five years. Recognizing that music is at its essence 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. Program TBA. No rain date.

AUGUST 23 LANDMARKS DANCE CARNIVAL
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Peter DiMuro, curator/choreographer Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion and The Dance Complex
Ryan Edwards, composer and drummer
Apostolos Paraskevas, composer and orchestrator
Conservatory Lab Charter School (CLCS)
Camp Harbor View
Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston
Irish and Brazilian Traditional Dancers

"Music to move by" from many cultures features dancers from across the city. Composer and drummer Ryan Edwards teams up with Apostolos Paraskevas to create a new work for young drummers and dancers from Camp Harbor View and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston. The evening culminates in a grand performance of Copland's Rodeo with choreography by Peter DiMuro. It will be hard for anyone to sit still for this season finale. But at Boston Landmarks Orchestra concerts, that's perfectly okay. Rain Date: Thursday, August 24
Johann Strauss Jr. Emperor Waltzes
Brazilian and Irish Dance traditional dance music
Georges Enesco Romanian Rhapsody No. 1
Ryan Edwards/Apostolos Paraskevas new work for Camp Harbor View and Boys & Girls Clubs
Aaron Copland Rodeo (complete ballet music)

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 2017 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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