BFO Scales Up Summer Series

As Boston Festival Orchestra is in the middle of its sixth season of chamber concerts and gearing up for its summer season of performances, Sampan caught up with Alyssa Wang, BFO’s artistic director and principal conductor. We asked Wang about upcoming shows and their significance.

Here is that conversation, during which Wang spoke on behalf of herself and BFO-cofounder Nicholas Brown, executive director and principal clarinet for the group:

Alyssa Wang; Courtesy Photo

Sampan: We know your sixth season of chamber concerts is in full swing, but I wanted to ask first about "The Sound of Revolution" performance on June 18. This seems particularly timely, could you tell me what inspired this show and what the audience can expect?

Wang: We love presenting concerts that are tied together by relevant themes, and in this case, the Boston Public Library is exploring their own yearlong Revolutionary Ideas initiative that highlights Boston’s legacy of art, activism, and innovation as part of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Our concert, ‘The Sound of Revolution’ is inspired by this theme. We've put together a unique program of music by composers who have wielded music as a tool of resistance, truth, and moral courage. This includes composers who have been silenced by the Holocaust, censored under Stalin’s regime, and those who have fought against slavery and systemic injustice. Like all BFO concerts, audiences can expect an intimate performance paired with thoughtful discussion that connects music, history, and our own community.

Sampan: On that note, could you talk about your views of art as a form of resistance and expression of ideas, even when that art contains little spoken or written language?

Wang: Art has always been intertwined with revolutionary ideas of resistance and self-expression throughout history, and it's no different today. Music plays an important role in uniting communities, making our voices heard, preserving memory, and reminding us of what a beautiful society can look like. Many composers choose to reflect the state of the world through their music, and many more challenge us to imagine what could be. These are powerful messages that are essential to our freedom of self-expression. We wanted to create a concert that embraced this concept fully, by featuring composers such as Ervín Schulhoff, whose exceptional compositional output was cut short after he perished in the Holocaust; or Reza Vali, who currently composes music celebrating his Iranian heritage and infuses Persian musical traditions into Western compositional techniques. Or Quinn Mason, whose piece reflects on the ongoing struggle for voting rights and civic participation in America.

Sampan: Moving on to the summer concerts, could you talk about "The Drop That Contained the Sea" and how it relates to the theme of our shared humanity?

Wang: Our July 11 concert is the boldest undertaking in Boston Festival Orchestra history. We will be performing Christopher Tin's "The Drop That Contained the Sea," in what will be its Boston premiere. This is an extremely ambitious work for choir, orchestra, and seven vocal soloists. Each of the 10 movements is sung in a different language, with the text relating to the theme of water. These are languages rarely heard in the orchestral concert hall: Sanskrit, Mongolian, Bulgarian, Turkish, and Xhosa, just to name a few. Each movement embodies the culture represented by these languages, singing a beautiful message in their own tongue, that within one drop of water there contains the entire ocean -- and within each person is all of humanity. The message is clear: we are beautiful in our differences, and our shared human experiences unite us. It's exactly the kind of message we're passionate about sending to our audiences, and we think it will resonate deeply with our community. It's also a special event because it's BFO's first time collaborating with a choir, and we're so excited to cross this milestone with Chorus pro Musica. With so many moving parts, this kind of concert does not happen often, so we hope that everyone will take advantage of our pay-what-you-can tickets to make sure they can be there for this special night.

Sampan: And then there's Bruckner 6, which seems to bring the emphasis back to classical styles and composers….

Wang: One of the things that is important to BFO is making sure to strike a balance between new music and traditional masterpieces. With our July 26 concert Bruckner 6, we return to a classic, yet bold, style with Mozart's violin-viola double concerto "Sinfonia Concertante" and Bruckner's epic "Symphony No. 6". A double concerto is always an exciting thing to witness, because what's better than one soloist? Two, of course. We're so excited to be partnering for the first time with Morningside Music Bridge to bring on two fantastic soloists: Agata Szymczewska (violin) and Teng Li (viola). Bruckner's Sixth Symphony is also a big milestone for BFO, as it represents our first steps into the large-scale ultra-romantic works that showcase a new kind of musicianship and technical ability of the orchestra. This concert is also available through pay-what-you-can tickets.

Sampan: Finally, could you briefly talk about the Boston Festival Orchestra's MusicReach program, its mission and how families in town can get involved?

The Boston Festival Orchestra’s MusicReach program is our flagship initiative for education and community engagement. Our mission with this program is to bring live classical music out of traditional concert halls and into neighborhoods across Greater Boston, ensuring that people of all ages and backgrounds can experience music in welcoming, accessible, and meaningful ways. MusicReach does this through free performances, hands-on workshops, and close partnerships with local organizations. Our musicians work directly in community settings in partnerships with organizations such as Kwong Kow Chinese School, Horizons for Homeless Children, the Chinatown YMCA, the Cambridge Public Library, and Boston Centers for Youth and Families. These relationships allow us to connect with families and young people in Chinatown and beyond, offering programming that is both culturally responsive and deeply rooted in community needs. Families can get involved in MusicReach by attending our free events and following the Boston Festival Orchestra’s announcements for upcoming neighborhood performances. We also encourage families to reach out to us to suggest new places where we could bring our MusicReach services.

For more, see: bforchestra.org.