This week the Boston Landmarks Orchestra announces a 2009 schedule of nine concerts and three movies (?) at the Hatch Shell, as well as several neighborhood concerts. The season runs July 15-Sept. 9. The best part is that the orchestra commissioned local composer Thomas Oboe Lee to write a piece called "The Story of Frederick Law Olmstead," honoring the landscape architect who had a lot to do with the way Boston's green spaces look. The piece will be heard at four Concerts for Children in August, premiering at a concert in Codman Square in Dorchester on August 6 at 9:00 am. You may remember the Landmarks commissioning Daniel Pinkham to write "Make Way For Duckings" for the orchestra. The complete announcement, including other dates, is after the jump. (Pictured: Charles Ansbacher, the Conductor and Founder of Boston Landmarks Orchestra, right, speaking with Gerry Wright, the Founder and President of Friends of Jamaica Pond, who is dressed as Frederick Law Olmsted.)
CHARLES ANSBACHER, CONDUCTOR OF THE BOSTON LANDMARKS ORCHESTRA, ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR THE ORCHESTRA’S 2009 CONCERT SEASON
Boston Landmarks Orchestra will present 9 free concerts at DCR’s Hatch Shell on Wednesday evenings beginning July 15, 2009, as well as several neighborhood concerts, and a new film series
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – April 22, 2009 – Charles Ansbacher, Conductor and Artistic Director of Boston Landmarks Orchestra, announced today that the highlights of the Orchestra’s 2009 season will include returning to DCR’s Hatch Shell for the third consecutive season of Landmarks Festival at the Shell, which for the first time, will include the screening of three performance films, and that the Orchestra has commissioned a new work by local composer Thomas Oboe Lee called The Story of Frederick Law Olmsted, with story by Nancy Stevenson.
“The two previous seasons of the Landmarks Festival at the Shell were highly successful. I am excited to return to the Esplanade and bring classical music to Bostonians in a beautiful, outdoor setting,” said Conductor Charles Ansbacher. “I am also looking forward to presenting films at DCR’s Hatch Shell on Thursday evenings and performing the brand new piece of music about the life and work of Frederick Law Olmsted. It brings me great pleasure to present exciting, cultural events like these for free, so that audiences who might otherwise not have the opportunity to enjoy orchestral music can share in the performances,” Ansbacher continued.
The Orchestra will perform nine concerts at DCR’s Hatch Shell beginning at 7:00 PM on Wednesday nights from July 15 through September 9. This year, for the first time, three films will be shown as part of the Festival. The films, which will be shown at 7:00 PM on Thursday September 3, 10, and 17 respectively, include The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews, Swan Lake with Rudolf Nureyev, and La Traviata with Thomas Hampson.
Boston Landmarks Orchestra will collaborate on some of the concerts with a number of local arts organizations, including the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, which is in residence at the New England Conservatory this summer, with Conductor Benjamin Zander on July 29, the Boston Lyric Opera, with General Manager and Artistic Director Esther Nelson on August 12, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, with Conductor Jonathan McPhee on August 19, and New World Chorale, with Director Holly Krafka on September 9.
The Orchestra will also perform several Neighborhood Concerts, which bring free, classical music to diverse Boston neighborhoods. The Orchestra will perform at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem on June 14 at 3:00 PM, at the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy on July 23 at 7:00 PM, at Jamaica Pond in Jamaica Plain on July 26 at 6:00 PM, and at Dorchester Park in Dorchester on August 9 at 6:00 PM.
The Orchestra will perform this year’s commission celebrating the life of Frederick Law Olmsted and his work as a landscape architect at four Concerts for Children in August. The work’s world premiere will be at a concert in Codman Square in Dorchester on August 6 at 9:00 AM. On the same day, a second Codman Square concert will follow the premiere at 10:30 AM. Two more concerts will take place at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston’s Yawkey Club in Roxbury on August 7 at 9:00 and 10:30 AM. The Orchestra will also feature the work at its Green Masterpieces concert at DCR’s Hatch Shell on September 2. Through its Concerts for Children program, the Orchestra exposes young people to live classical music and teaches them history lessons by performing works commissioned specifically for children based on significant events or individuals in Boston’s history. The Orchestra has commissioned works for children for the past seven years. Aiding the Orchestra in presenting the Olmsted concerts are the following organizations: Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, The Esplanade Association, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Friends of Fairsted, National Park Service/Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site.
The Landmarks Festival at the Shell is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and Boston's Classical Radio Station 99.5 WCRB. Presenting the Neighborhood Concerts in Dorchester and Jamaica Plain is the City of Boston Department of Parks and Recreation. Media sponsors include: The Boston Globe, New England Cable News Network, and WGBH.
The rain location for all DCR’s Hatch Shell concerts is the Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury Street, Boston.
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