JANUARY 8 & 10
2025–26 Season
Samuel BARBER VANESSA ANDRIS NELSONS conducting JENNIFER HOLLOWAY (Vanessa) SAMANTHA HANKEY (Erika) ANNE-SOFIE VON OTTER (The Old Baroness) PAVEL ČERNOCH (Anatol) THOMAS HAMPSON (The Old Doctor) TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL CHORUS BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CHORUS Presented in association with BOSTON LYRIC OPERA
Andris Nelsons Music Director
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Happy New Year!
The United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, giving us the opportunity to both celebrate and interrogate our ongoing American experiment in democracy and our shared values of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Living up to the self-evident truths of our country’s founding requires effort and introspection. We all have our own thoughts about what America is and what it could be, but artists and the arts provide unique and valuable perspectives on this American experiment and on our culture at large. This month, the Boston Symphony Orchestra presents our E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One festival, in which we explore those ideas that continue to shape America through the kaleidoscope of voices and viewpoints at play in our music and art. “From Many, One”: because no single musical style or philosophical view defines “America”; every individual contributes something unique to its astonishing richness. Virtually all the music we’re presenting this month is American. The festival embraces the idea that this multiplicity of voices, heard and valued individually, can lead to greater solidarity within and among our communities. Empathy begins with understanding. We invite you to join us in the joy and excitement of discovery as we present E Pluribus Unum programming throughout this season and beyond. This exploration with its many voices emphasizes the multiplicity not only of American art, but the character of our country and society more broadly. Starting with performances of Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa, co-presented with Boston Lyric Opera, our BSO concerts range from classic works to an all-John Williams program featuring his new Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax and two new BSO co-commissions: Allison Loggins-Hull’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Joni (featuring our wonderful Principal Flute, Lorna McGhee) and Carlos Simon’s Good News Mass. Complementing these orchestral concerts are numerous chamber music performances and talks at Symphony Hall involving collaborations and partnerships throughout Greater Boston. Especially exciting for us is that BSO musicians will be performing in virtually all of these events. My colleagues and I will be attending these events alongside you, reflecting on what these works reveal about our shared cultural moment. We look forward to connecting with you and encourage you to share your thoughts with us. We love having these conversations, which always stimulate new ideas. We so appreciate your presence and your being a part of the BSO family. With gratitude,
Chad Smith Eunice and Julian Cohen President and Chief Executive Officer
Welcome | 1
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Table of Contents | January 8 & 10 8
Music Director Andris Nelsons
10 The Boston Symphony Orchestra 13 Where Do I Leave Off and Where Do You Begin? by Anne Bogart 17 Welcome, from Chad Smith and Bradley Vernatter 18 Coming Soon 21 This Week’s Program 20 The Program in Brief 23 Vanessa: Synopsis 25 Samuel Barber, Vanessa, Opera in Three Acts Artists 31 Jennifer Holloway 32 Samantha Hankey 33 Anne Sofie von Otter 34 Pavel Černoch 35 Thomas Hampson 37 Wei Wu 39 Alexandra Dietrich 39 Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Betsy Burleigh, guest choral conductor 44 Boston Lyric Opera Chorus, Brett Hodgdon, conductor 47 Explore 48 BSO Archival Exhibits 49 BSO News 51 Thank You: Sponsors and Donors 63 BSO Administration 67 Symphony Hall Information and Exit Plan As part of our E Pluribus Unum Festival, there will be a special Pre-Concert Talk by Dr. Carolyn Abbate, Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard University, January 8, 6-7pm, in the Symphony Hall auditorium. To read about Dr. Abbate, please see page 45. Please silence and darken the screens of any electronic devices. Photos, video, and audio recordings are prohibited during the performance. Feel free to take photos before and after the concert and during intermission. Program copyright ©2025 Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. Program book design by Fenway Group/BSO Creative Services | Cover photo: Winslow Townson BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | bso.org Symphony Hall | 301 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115-4511 | (617) 266-1492
Contents | 3
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Andris Nelsons, Ray and Maria Stata Music Director, endowed in perpetuity, and Head of Conducting at Tanglewood
145th Season, 2025–2026
Board of Trustees of The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. Barbara W. Hostetter, Chair • John M. Loder, Vice Chair • Joshua A. Lutzker, Treasurer
Trustees Noubar Afeyan • David Altshuler • Holly Ambler • Ted Berk, ex-officio • William N. Booth • Gregory E. Bulger • Ronald G. Casty • Susan Bredhoff Cohen • Richard F. Connolly, Jr. • Angela Q. Crispi • William Curry, M.D. • Lynn A. Dale • Philip J. Edmundson • Thomas E. Faust, Jr. • Todd R. Golub • Reverend Dr. Ray Hammond • Nathan Hayward, III • Ricki Tigert Helfer • Albert A. Holman, III • David Howse • Giselle J. Joffre • Stephen W. Kidder • Tom Kuo • Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D. • Nancy K. Lubin • Pamela L. Peedin • M. Lee Pelton • Steven R. Perles • Lina S. Plantilla, M.D. • Andrew S. PIump • Seán C. Rush • Wendy Shattuck • Nicole M. Stata • Theresa M. Stone • Caroline Taylor • Dr. Christoph Westphal • Jenny Williams, Ph.D. • Joanna Wu, ex-officio • D. Brooks Zug
Life Trustees George D. Behrakis • Gabriella Beranek • Jan Brett • Paul Buttenwieser • Diddy Cullinane • Cynthia Curme • Deborah B. Davis • Nina L. Doggett • Nancy J. Fitzpatrick • Michael Gordon • Brent L. Henry • Charles H. Jenkins, Jr. • Stephen B. Kay • Edmund F. Kelly • George Krupp • Carmine A. Martignetti • Robert J. Mayer, M.D. • Richard P. Morse • Susan W. Paine • William J. Poorvu • Peter C. Read • John Reed • Arthur I. Segel • Roger T. Servison • Ray Stata • Stephen R. Weiner • Dr. Nicholas T. Zervas
Other Officers of the Corporation Chad Smith, Eunice and Julian Cohen President and Chief Executive Officer • Joseph Kamay, Clerk of the Corporation
† Deceased
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Board of Advisors of The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. Ted Berk, Co-Chair • Joanna Wu, Co-Chair
Advisors Nathaniel Adams • Manak Ahluwalia • James E. Aisner • Deborah Allinson • Maureen Alphonse-Charles • Bob Atchinson • Kathleen Auth • Liliana Bachrach • Allison S. Bailey • Darcey Bartel • Annie Bartlett • Mark R. Belsky, M.D. • Bob Braun • Karen Bressler • C. Thomas Brown • Thomas Burger • Bonnie Burman, Ph.D. • Yumin Choi • Michele Montrone Cogan • Roberta L. Cohn • Sally Currier • Anna L. Davol • Matt Drew • Douglas Drachman, MD • Hermine Drezner • Lisa Dynner • Terry B. Eastman • Eran Egozy • Sarah E. Eustis • Beth Fentin • Daniel Freelander • Adaline H. Frelinghuysen • Stephen T. Gannon • Marion Gardner-Saxe • Levi A. Garraway • Zoher Ghogawala, M.D. • Paul Gompers • Barbara Nan Grossman • Deborah Elfers Haffenreffer • Alexander D. Healy • James M. Herzog, M.D. • Caroline Holland • Susan A. Johnston • Saj-Nicole Joni • Gail Kitch • Stephanie Kwei, M.D. • Peter Li • Howard Liang • Roy Liemer • Gabriel Ling • Cathy Demain Mann • Tod J. MacKenzie • Jo Frances Meyer • Rick Muraida • John Nichols • Cecilia O’Keefe • John F. O’Leary • Jeryl Oristaglio • Jean Park • Donald R. Peck • Rex Perlmeter • Randy Pierce • Irving H. Plotkin • Jim Pollin • Mitch Pomerance • Esther A. Pryor • Geoffrey M. Raux • Ronald Rettner • Robert L. Reynolds • Graham Robinson • Patricia Romeo-Gilbert • Michael Rosenblatt, M.D. • Marc Rubenstein • Sally Rubin • Thomas Ruffing • Dan Schrager • Carol S. Smokler • Nathan D. Somogie • Anne-Marie Soullière • Katherine Chapman Stemberg • Jacqueline Togut • Blair Trippe • Diane Troderman • Jillian Tung, M.D. • Antoine van Agtmael • Edward Wacks, Esq. • Sarah Rainwater Ward • Linda S. Waintrup • Dorothy Weber • Vita L. Weir • Karen Thomas Wilcox • Gwill E. York • Marillyn Zacharis
Advisors Emeriti Marjorie Arons-Barron • Diane M. Austin • Lloyd Axelrod, M.D. • Sandra Bakalar • Judith W. Barr • Lucille M. Batal • Linda J.L. Becker • Paul Berz • Jim Bildner • Mark Borden • Joanne M. Burke • Hon. Levin H. Campbell • Richard E. Cavanagh • Charles L. Cooney • Ranny Cooper † • Joan P. Curhan • James C. Curvey • Gene D. Dahmen • Tamara P. Davis • Barbara de Bragança • Paul F. Deninger • JoAnne Walton Dickinson • Phyllis Dohanian • Alan Dynner • Ursula Ehret-Dichter • George Elvin • Judy Moss Feingold • Peter Fiedler • Steven S. Fischman • Myrna H. Freedman • Cora H. Ginsberg • Robert P. Gittens • Michael Halperson • Carol Henderson • Stuart Hirshfield • Lawrence S. Horn • Valerie Hyman • Everett L. Jassy • Stephen J. Jerome • Darlene Luccio Jordan, Esq. • Paul L. Joskow • Martin S. Kaplan • John L. Klinck, Jr. • Peter E. Lacaillade • Robert J. Lepofsky • Frederick H. Lovejoy, Jr. • Diane H. Lupean • Nancy Lurie Marks • Joseph B. Martin, M.D. • Joseph C. McNay • Robert Mnookin • Paul M. Montrone • Sandra O. Moose • Joseph Patton • Ann M. Philbin • Wendy Philbrick • May H. Pierce • Claudio Pincus • Dr. John Thomas Potts, Jr. • Dr. Tina Young Poussaint • James M. Rabb, M.D. • Robin S. Richman, M.D. • Carmichael Roberts • John Ex Rodgers • Alan W. Rottenberg • Joseph D. Roxe • Kenan Sahin • Malcolm S. Salter • Lynda Anne Schubert • Donald L. Shapiro • L. Scott Singleton • Gilda Slifka • Christopher Smallhorn • Margery Steinberg, Ph.D. † • Patricia L. Tambone • Jean Tempel • Douglas Dockery Thomas • Mark D. Thompson • Albert Togut • Diana Osgood Tottenham • Joseph M. Tucci • David C. Weinstein • James Westra • Margaret Williams-DeCelles • Patricia Plum Wylde † Deceased
Trustees and Advisors | 7
Ray and Maria Stata Music Director, endowed in perpetuity, and Head of Conducting at Tanglewood
Andris Nelsons is in his twelfth season as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and also holds the position of Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (GHO). Recognized as one of the world’s finest conductors, the Grammy Award-winning artist also guest conducts and records with the world’s finest orchestras. In the 2025-2026 season, Nelsons and the BSO celebrate the 125th anniversary of Symphony Hall and its central place in the cultural life of Boston in parallel with the 250th birthday of the United States. In October, Nelsons conducts Beethoven’s monumental Missa Solemnis, with which the BSO inaugurated Symphony Hall in 1900. Among other highlights of the BSO’s American programming at Symphony Hall, Nelsons leads concert performances of Samuel Barber’s celebrated opera Vanessa, an all-John Williams program featuring the composer’s new Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with soloist Emanuel Ax, and music from John Adams’s opera Nixon in China featuring soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, which he also conducts in the orchestra’s annual Carnegie Hall concerts. He further works with such soloists as violinist Augustin Hadelich, the BSO’s 2025-2026 Artist in Residence, and pianists Seong-Jin Cho, Yunchan Lim, and Lang Lang. In the 2024-2025 season, Nelsons and the BSO celebrated his tenth anniversary season as the orchestra’s music director in programs that included a highly successful threeweek cycle of the nine Beethoven symphonies, concert performances of Erich Korngold’s rarely heard opera Die tote Stadt, and music of Shostakovich and Beethoven with soloists Yo-Yo Ma and Mitsuko Uchida at Carnegie Hall. In May 2025, he toured with the BSO to his hometown of Riga, Latvia, as well as to Prague and Vienna in advance of the orchestra’s joint residency with the Gewandhausorchester for the Shostakovich Festival Leipzig, marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. In Leipzig, Nelsons led both the BSO and the Gewandhausorchester in performances including the composer’s six concertos, the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and 13 of the 15 symphonies, including a historic performance of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony by a combined orchestra of BSO and GHO musicians. He conducted a Festival Orchestra made up of young musicians from Leipzig’s Mendelssohn-Akademie and the BSO’s Tanglewood Music Center, where he has served as Head of Conducting since 2024. This momentous series built upon the GHO’s week-long residency at Boston’s Symphony Hall in fall 2019. Andris Nelsons began his tenure in Boston at the start of the 2014-2015 season and was appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in Leipzig in February 2018. Shortly thereafter, he established the innovative BSO/GHO Alliance, which has resulted in joint programming, commissions, recordings, touring projects, a musician exchange, and educational initiatives. As part of the BSO/GHO Alliance, Deutsche Grammophon released a celebrated 2022
8
Robert Torres
Andris Nelsons
seven-CD album of Richard Strauss’s major symphonic works featuring both orchestras. Nelsons’ recording projects as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist reflect the depth and breadth of his musical vision. With the Boston Symphony Orchestra, over the course of a decade he recorded the complete Shostakovich symphonies and concertos and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, a series that earned four Grammy Awards and which was released as a 19-CD box set in May 2025. Nelsons’ other recent BSO releases include Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie and the two Ravel piano concertos with soloist Seong-Jin Cho. With the Gewandhausorchester, Nelsons completed a Bruckner symphonic cycle marking the composer’s bicentenary in 2024. His Beethoven cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic was released in 2019. Nelsons’ other activities include opening the 2025-26 GHO season with a European tour and a further tour in November 2025. As Focus Artist at the Vienna Musikverein, Nelsons conducts concerts with the GHO and with the Vienna Philharmonic this season. He concludes his Mahler cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic and embarks on a U.S. tour with the orchestra in February and March that includes a performance at Symphony Hall copresented by the BSO. He returns to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Winslow Townson
Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra while studying conducting. Outside music, Nelsons is a keen collector of perfumes and holds a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo. His deeply held commitment to musical excellence is reflected in numerous accolades throughout his career, including an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for services to music.
Andris Nelsons | 9
2025–2026 Andris Nelsons Ray and Maria Stata Music Director, endowed in perpetuity, and Head of Conducting at Tanglewood
Seiji Ozawa (1935–2024) Music Director Laureate
Keith Lockhart Julian and Eunice Cohen Boston Pops Conductor, endowed in perpetuity
John Williams George and Roberta Berry Boston Pops Conductor Laureate
Thomas Wilkins Artistic Partner, Education and Community Engagement / Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts Conductor, endowed in perpetuity
Carlos Simon Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair
First Violins Nathan Cole Concertmaster Charles Munch chair, endowed in perpetuity
Alexander Velinzon First Associate Concertmaster Helen Horner McIntyre chair, endowed in perpetuity
Sophie Wang Associate Concertmaster Robert L. Beal, Enid L., and Bruce A. Beal chair, endowed in perpetuity
Elita Kang Assistant Concertmaster Edward and Bertha C. Rose chair, endowed in perpetuity
Yuncong Zhang John and Dorothy Wilson chair, endowed in perpetuity
Lucia Lin ˚
Dorothy Q. and David B. Arnold, Jr., chair, endowed in perpetuity
Ikuko Mizuno Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro chair, endowed in perpetuity
Tatiana Dimitriades * Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser chair
Si-Jing Huang * Kristin and Roger Servison chair
Wendy Putnam * Donald C. and Ruth Brooks Heath chair, endowed in perpetuity
Xin Ding * Robert Bradford Newman chair, endowed in perpetuity
10
Glen Cherry * Mary B. Saltonstall chair, endowed in perpetuity
Violas Steven Ansell
Jenny Ahn *
Principal Charles S. Dana chair, endowed in perpetuity
Takumi Taguchi *
Cathy Basrak
Lisa Ji Eun Kim *
Samuel Andonian * Rachel Arcega Orth * u
Assistant Principal Anne Stoneman chair, endowed in perpetuity
Volpe Family chair
Danny Kim
Second Violins
Lois and Harlan Anderson chair, endowed in perpetuity
Haldan Martinson
Rebecca Gitter
Principal Carl Schoenhof Family chair, endowed in perpetuity
Julianne Lee Assistant Principal Charlotte and Irving W. Rabb chair, endowed in perpetuity
Sheila Fiekowsky Shirley and J. Richard Fennell chair, endowed in perpetuity
Bracha Malkin Brooks and Linda Zug chair
Aza Raykhtsaum * David H. and Edith C. Howie chair, endowed in perpetuity
Michael Zaretsky * Daniel Getz * Kathryn Sievers * Mary Ferrillo * Steven O. Laraia *
Mihail Jojatu * Sandra and David Bakalar chair
Adam Esbensen * ˚
Richard C. and Ellen E. Paine chair, endowed in perpetuity
Will Chow * Jonah Ellsworth * ˚ Christine Lee * Roric Cunningham * Max Oppeltz-Carroz * u
Basses Caleb Quillen Principal Harold D. Hodgkinson chair, endowed in perpetuity
Lawrence Wolfe
Cellos
Assistant Principal Maria Nistazos Stata chair, endowed in perpetuity
Blaise Déjardin
Benjamin Levy
Principal Philip R. Allen chair, endowed in perpetuity
Oliver Aldort ˚
Leith Family chair, endowed in perpetuity
Dennis Roy Todd Seeber *
Bonnie Bewick *
Assistant Principal Vernon and Marion Alden chair, endowed in perpetuity
James Cooke *
Alexandre Lecarme
Catherine French *
Mischa Nieland chair, endowed in perpetuity
Thomas Van Dyck *
Nicole Monahan *
Mickey Katz
Carl Anderson *
Jason Horowitz *
Stephen and Dorothy Weber chair, endowed in perpetuity
Ala Jojatu * Arianna Brusubardis Grace *
Owen Young * John F. Cogan, Jr., and Mary L. Cornille chair, endowed in perpetuity
Eleanor L. and Levin H. Campbell chair, endowed in perpetuity E.D. Rushworth chair
Flutes
Bass Clarinet
Trumpets
Lorna McGhee
Andrew Sandwick
Thomas Rolfs
Principal Walter Piston chair, endowed in perpetuity
Bassoons
Principal Roger Louis Voisin chair, endowed in perpetuity
Clint Foreman
Richard Svoboda
Myra and Robert Kraft chair, endowed in perpetuity
Principal Edward A. Taft chair, endowed in perpetuity
Elizabeth Klein
Suzanne Nelsen
Associate Principal Marian Gray Lewis chair, endowed in perpetuity
John D. and Vera M. MacDonald chair
Piccolo
Associate Principal Diana Osgood Tottenham/ Hamilton Osgood chair, endowed in perpetuity
Cynthia Meyers Evelyn and C. Charles Marran chair, endowed in perpetuity
Oboes John Ferrillo Principal Mildred B. Remis chair, endowed in perpetuity
Mark McEwen Keisuke Wakao Assistant Principal Farla and Harvey Chet Krentzman chair, endowed in perpetuity
Josh Baker
Contrabassoon Samuel Watson Helen Rand Thayer chair
Horns Richard Sebring Principal Helen Sagoff Slosberg/ Edna S. Kalman chair, endowed in perpetuity
Michael Winter
Benjamin Wright Thomas Siders Associate Principal Kathryn H. and Edward M. Lupean chair
Michael Martin Ford H. Cooper chair, endowed in perpetuity
Trombones Toby Oft Principal J.P. and Mary B. Barger chair, endowed in perpetuity
Matthew McKay Peter Andrew Lurie chair, endowed in perpetuity
Toby Grace
Harp Jessica Zhou Principal Nicholas and Thalia Zervas chair, endowed in perpetuity by Sophia and Bernard Gordon
Voice and Chorus (position vacant) BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky chair, endowed in perpetuity
Stephen Lange
Librarians
Bass Trombone
D. Wilson Ochoa
James Markey John Moors Cabot chair, endowed in perpetuity
Principal Lia and William Poorvu chair, endowed in perpetuity
Mark Fabulich
Tuba
Russel Allyn
Mike Roylance
Assistant Conductors
English Horn
Associate Principal Margaret Andersen Congleton chair, endowed in perpetuity
Robert Sheena
Rachel Childers
Principal Margaret and William C. Rousseau chair, endowed in perpetuity
Beranek chair, endowed in perpetuity
John P. II and Nancy S. Eustis chair, endowed in perpetuity
Timpani
Clarinets
(position vacant)
Timothy Genis
Anna Handler
Elizabeth B. Storer chair, endowed in perpetuity
Sylvia Shippen Wells chair, endowed in perpetuity
Stage Manager
Jason Snider
Percussion
William R. Hudgins Principal Ann S.M. Banks chair, endowed in perpetuity
Christopher Elchico Thomas Martin Associate Principal & E-flat clarinet Stanton W. and Elisabeth K. Davis chair, endowed in perpetuity
Austin Ruff Assistant Principal
Samy Rachid Anna E. Finnerty chair, endowed in perpetuity
John Demick
J. William Hudgins Peter and Anne Brooke chair, endowed in perpetuity
Daniel Bauch Assistant Timpanist Mr. and Mrs. Edward H. Linde chair
* participating in a system of rotated seating
˚ on leave u Susan W. and Stephen D.
Paine Resident Fellow
Concertmaster Nathan Cole performs on a Stradivarius violin, known as the “Lafont,” generously donated to the Boston Symphony Orchestra by the O’Block Family. First Associate Concertmaster Alexander Velinzon performs on a 1754 J.B. Guadagnini violin, the “ex-Zazofsky,” and James Cooke performs on a 1778 Nicolò Gagliano violin, both generously donated to the orchestra by Michael L. Nieland, M.D., in loving memory of Mischa Nieland, a member of the cello section from 1943 to 1988. Todd Seeber performs on an 1835 Kennedy bass, the “Salkowski Kennedy,” generously donated to the orchestra by John Salkowski, a member of the bass section from 1966 to 2007.
Boston Symphony Orchestra | 11
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Where Do I Leave Off and Where Do You Begin? by Anne Bogart, Boston Lyric Opera Artistic Associate American culture mythologizes the solitary individual: the boxer standing alone in the ring anticipating the match, the cowboy riding along a barren ridge, the singular genius who seems to “do it all” through sheer willpower. These stories are powerful but incomplete. Humans have evolved as collaborators and co-thinkers, and our capacity for friendship, imitation, and shared problem-solving has been as decisive for our survival as any act of individual heroism. “Who I am” is always entangled with “who we are.” The opera Vanessa sits precisely at this boundary between selves. It arose from the intimate artistic and romantic partnership of Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti, two composers whose lives and imaginations became deeply interlaced over more than four decades. Completed in 1957, Vanessa premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in January 1958, with a production directed by Menotti. It was an immediate critical and public success, earning Barber the Pulitzer Prize for Music that year. Barber and Menotti met as teenagers at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where Menotti—newly arrived from Italy and still struggling with English— found in Barber a patient guide to American life. What began as a practical friendship evolved into something far deeper: a romantic partnership that would define their personal and creative lives. In 1943, they purchased Capricorn, a house in upstate New York, which became both a domestic sanctuary and a spatial frame for their entwined lives, allowing each composer to maintain his own creative space while also sustaining a shared gathering place for friends. For decades, the world knew the two men simply as colleagues and housemates, although those in their intimate circle understood the true nature of their bond. They sharpened and enriched one another’s tastes in art, music, and literature, and their social world intertwined almost completely. In their collaboration on Vanessa, the question “where do I leave off and where do you begin?” became not only emotional, but also structural. Whose voice is this, whose desire, whose fantasy? For years, Barber had hunted for a suitable subject for an opera, but nothing matched the emotional and dramatic scope he imagined. The turning point came when Menotti offered to write an entirely original libretto, freeing them from the constraints of a specific source. They steeped Vanessa in a deliberately gothic world inspired by the atmosphere of Isak Dinesen’s Seven Gothic Tales without directly borrowing from plot specifics. Menotti described the opera as an exploration of a timeless human dilemma: whether to remain forever loyal to an impossible dream of perfect love, or to risk the vulnerability of accepting a real, flawed, and attainable happiness. He set this dilemma in a remote, aristocratic country house in an unspecified northern European land, a snowbound estate of
Gian Carlo Menotti and Samuel Barber, ca. 1955
In the Spotlight | 13
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shuttered rooms, covered mirrors, and suffocating quiet, where the house itself feels like a projection of the characters’ frozen hopes and distorted self-images. Barber’s music deepens Menotti’s gothic world. By choosing expansive melodies, clear tonal harmony, and Wagnerian-style motifs at a moment when modernism was heading elsewhere, he doubled down on emotional immediacy rather than stylistic fashion. This language, often described in queer musicological writing as part of Barber’s intimate, “domestic” romanticism, let him translate Menotti’s dark fairy tale into a richly layered psychological soundscape that feels at once close to the heart and operatically large. Barber and Menotti’s collaboration, though rooted in deep trust and affection, was somewhat tentative at the start: because both were established composers with individual styles and ambitions, each approached the partnership cautiously, striving to honor their distinct creative voices while learning how to synchronize their talents without overshadowing one another. Their temperaments were strikingly different: Barber more introverted, serious, and “northern” in affect; Menotti more extroverted, theatrical, and “southern,” a polarity that later commentators hear echoed in the contrast between Vanessa’s dreamy idealism and Erika’s more grounded, skeptical intelligence. Menotti himself, speaking after Barber’s death, linked the opera’s theme of “eternal love that never changes” to Barber’s own longing for an ideal, unshakeable love, suggesting that Vanessa is partly a coded exploration of what they desired and struggled to sustain together. Both artists were drawn to themes of waiting, idealized love, and the haunting of the present by the past, and Vanessa allowed them to crystallize that shared sensibility in a concentrated narrative space. The opera’s emotional core of longing, secrecy, renewal, and vulnerability mirrors the depth and nuance of Barber and Menotti’s own relationship. Commentators point out that the opera’s obsession with ideal love, fear of disillusionment, and the notion of “home” as both refuge and prison closely echo dynamics in Barber and Menotti’s own evolving relationship at the time. Their romantic relationship formally ended in 1970, but the friendship endured; Menotti was at Barber’s side when he died in 1981. Even after the romantic tie was severed, their respect, loyalty, and affection towards each other continued to shape both their personal lives and musical legacies. The line between “me” and “you” in their lives, as in their art, shifted over time. Vanessa stands as a record of that complex interdependence: an opera in which music and text, fantasy and biography, self and other are so tightly braided that it becomes hard to say where either man leaves off and the other begins. Anne Bogart is a renowned theater and opera director, celebrated author, and founder of SITI Company. She is also a professor at Columbia University, where she leads the graduate directing program. She serves as the Artistic Associate at Boston Lyric Opera.
Program Notes | 15
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Welcome, from Chad Smith and Bradley Vernatter
Dear Friends, Welcome to this special evening, a celebration of American music and the magic of collaboration. These performances mark the second consecutive year that the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Lyric Opera are working together to present a seminal work in the operatic repertoire. Continuing Andris Nelsons’ and the BSO’s tradition of presenting opera in concert, Samuel Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Vanessa is also a signature event in the BSO’s E Pluribus Unum—“From Many, One”—programming, celebrating American music, art, and thinking in all its variety in this year of our country’s 250th anniversary. Barber composed Vanessa on a libretto by the Italian-born Gian Carlo Menotti, himself a powerhouse opera composer as well as Barber’s life partner. As Boston Lyric Opera Artistic Associate Anne Bogart emphasizes, Barber and Menotti were two very different personalities. Vanessa is testament to the idea that different viewpoints and strengths can combine brilliantly to create something transcendent. Vanessa notably draws on deep traditions of European opera—most importantly on luxuriating in the beauty of the human voice in its soaring, impassioned arias, but also in the humanity of its storyline. The very relatable title character lives in a state of suspension, clinging to a hope that has long since passed her by and falling victim to her inability to shape her own future. It’s almost too easy to see this as a warning that if we fail to forge our own paths forward, we will find ourselves stuck in the past. The ongoing partnership between the BSO and BLO aims to create new energies, forge meaningful connections, and expand the reach of both organizations, amplifying the impact of our work beyond what might otherwise be possible. At times of insecurity and instability in our world, the arts play such an important role in creating a sense of empathy and connection among us all. As the BSO and BLO look to our futures, we aspire to find innovative ways to share the power of the arts and to create meaningful experiences that resonate deeply with our community. We are so grateful for your continued curiosity, enthusiasm, and support!
Kayana Szymczak
Warm regards,
Chad Smith Eunice and Julian Cohen President and CEO, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Bradley Vernatter Stanford Calderwood General Director & CEO, Boston Lyric Opera
Coming Soon The BSO’s E Pluribus Unum Festival in January centers on BSO programs at Symphony Hall: January 8 & 10, 15-17, 22-25, and 29 & 30. Visit bso.org/events/e-pluribus-unum-from-many-one for details and tickets.
Rachel Sterns
E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One
Emily Wells
Humanities and Chamber Music Events
Wednesday, January 14, 7pm, Ohabei Shalom, Brookline On Being: Krista Tippett in Conversation with Nicole Krauss Sunday, January 18, 3pm, Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory Boston Symphony Chamber Players Johnny with Seong-Jin Cho, piano Gandelsman Music of Brahms, Valerie Coleman, and Carlos Simon (world premiere; BSO commission) Wednesday, January 21, 1pm, Brattle Theatre, Cambridge Sunday, January 25, 4:30pm, United Methodist Church South End, Boston Monday, January 26, 7pm, Vilna Shul, Boston Johnny Gandelsman, violin “This Is America” Thursday, January 22, 6pm, MFA Boston American Road Trip, Part 1: Photography The Open Road and Street Scenes with David Campany Friday, January 23, 8pm, ICA Boston Emily Wells: Regards to the End Wednesday, January 28, 6pm, WBUR CitySpace Boston Vibe Check Live with Special Guest Carlos Simon Sunday, February 1, 3pm, Thomas Tull Concert Hall, MIT, Cambridge Augustin Hadelich, violin, and Orion Weiss, piano American Road Trip Music of John Adams, Beach, Copland, Hartke, Ives, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Carlos Simon (world premiere; BSO commission)
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Marco Giannavola
Tuesday, January 13, 7pm, Boston Athenaeum Allison Loggins-Hull, flute, with Members of the BSO Music of Allison Loggins-Hull
Coming Soon at Symphony Hall
Boston Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons, conductor Seong-Jin Cho, piano Lorna McGhee, flute Tanglewood Festival Chorus (1/15 & 17 only) Jean-Sébastien Vallée, guest choral conductor Allison LOGGINS-HULL Rhapsody on a Theme by Joni, for flute and orchestra (BSO co-commission) BERNSTEIN Chichester Psalms (1/15 & 17 only) TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1
Christoph Köstlin
Thursday, January 15, 7:30pm Friday, January 16, 7:30pm Saturday, January 17, 8pm
Seong-Jin Cho
Considered among the greatest film composers of all time, Boston Pops Conductor Laureate and longtime BSO family member John Williams is also known for his concert works. His new Piano Concerto, composed for Emanuel Ax, received its premiere at Tanglewood in summer 2025. Violinist Gil Shaham gave the world premiere of TreeSong with the BSO and Williams at Tanglewood in 2000.
Lisa Marie Mazzucco
Thursday, January 22, 7:30pm Friday, January 23, 1:30pm (Pre-concert Talk by Robert Kirzinger, 12:15-12:45pm) Saturday, January 24, 8pm Sunday, January 25, 2pm (Pre-concert Talk by Tim Greiving, author of John Williams: A Composer’s Life, 12:30-1:30pm) Boston Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons, conductor Emanuel Ax, piano Gil Shaham, violin All-John WILLIAMS program “Joy Ride” from Escapades Piano Concerto TreeSong, for violin and orchestra Theme from Schindler’s List Suite from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Robert Torres
As part of our E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One exploration, BSO Principal Flute Lorna McGhee makes her solo debut in Allison Loggins-Hull’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Joni, a lively tribute to Joni Mitchell. Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms blends Christian and Jewish traditions in one of his Lorna McGhee most uplifting works. Boston hosted the 1875 world premiere of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto—just a few years before the BSO was founded.
Emanuel Ax
John Williams Coming Soon | 19
The Program in Brief These performances of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa continue Andris Nelsons’ and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s tradition of presenting great operatic works in concert. Considered by many the greatest American opera, Vanessa is a highlight of the BSO’s E Pluribus Unum programming this season, celebrating American music in the 250th anniversary of the birth of our country. Vanessa won the Pulitzer Prize following its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958, which featured the great soprano Eleanor Steber in the title role. Barber wrote the opera on a libretto by his partner, the composer Gian Carlo Menotti; they aimed for a cosmopolitan, nostalgic work on lost love and the consequences of self-delusion. Vanessa, in its vaguely gothic European estate setting and Chekhovian characters, is both nostalgic and critical of nostalgia, both romantic and skeptical of love. Barber’s expressive lyricism is ever-present in this powerfully affecting work, and the orchestra provides an atmosphere by turns lushly overwhelming and delicate. In its rich, emotive melodies, the opera evokes the melodic strains of such masters as Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss—composers for whom Andris Nelsons has a strong affinity. Remarkably, given its immediate success and its well-publicized premiere on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, Vanessa was Barber’s first mature opera. As a singer himself (he was a fine baritone and studied voice along with composition and piano as a young man), Barber had an innate understanding of how to write for voice. Nearly half of his works feature voice, and his best instrumental works are rich with melody and narrative drama. Beginning in the 1930s, Barber’s work had been championed by some of the great conductors and orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Serge Koussevitzky, the New York Philharmonic, Artur Rodzinski, and Arturo Toscanini. Over the course of the 1940s he became one of the country’s most recognizable artists, driven especially by the enormous popularity of his poignant Adagio for Strings. The world was ready for an opera by Samuel Barber. Vanessa’s rapturous reception in New York and the Pulitzer Prize were testament to his success. Robert Kirzinger
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Andris Nelsons, Ray and Maria Stata Music Director and Head of Conducting at Tanglewood
145th Season, 2025–2026 Thursday January 8, 7:30pm | THE CATHERINE AND PAUL BUTTENWIESER CONCERT Saturday January 10, 8pm
Presented in association with Boston Lyric Opera Andris Nelsons conducting Jennifer Holloway, soprano (Vanessa) Samantha Hankey, mezzo-soprano (Erika) Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano (The Old Baroness) Pavel Černoch, tenor (Anatol) Thomas Hampson, baritone (The Old Doctor) Wei Wu, bass (Major Domo/Footman) Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Betsy Burleigh, guest choral conductor Boston Lyric Opera Chorus, Brett Hodgdon, conductor Alexandra Dietrich, staging coordinator
Vanessa Composed by Samuel Barber Libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti
Presented under license from G, Schirmer, Inc., copyright owners Sung in English with English supertitles Supertitles by Cori Ellison Supertitles technician, James Campbell | Supertitles caller, Ruth DeSarno This week’s performances by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus are supported by the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Fund for Voice and Chorus.
Performance time is approximately two hours. There is a 20-minute intermission after Act II, about 80 minutes after the start of the performance. The Thursday performance will end about at 10:15 and the Saturday performance at about 10:45.
Program | 21
Synopsis: Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, Opera in Three Acts Act I. Scene 1. A drawing room in a country manor in an unnamed “northern country about 1905,” where the middle-aged Vanessa has lived with her mother, the Baroness, and her niece Erika. The mirrors in the house are covered in order to suspend time. As a storm rages, the household servants bustle about, preparing for a visitor. Vanessa awaits the return of her beloved Anatol, who left her twenty years before. When the guest arrives, it is not Anatol but his son, also called Anatol. The young man makes himself confidently at home, asking Erika to join him at the dinner table. The young woman is fascinated. Scene 2. About a month later. Erika reveals to the baroness that Anatol seduced her the very day he arrived and proposed marriage, which she had not accepted. In high spirits, Vanessa and Anatol arrive from ice skating. Vanessa announces her plans to uncover the mirrors and host a great ball. A family friend, the Doctor, tries to teach Anatol a dance from his past. Vanessa thinks Anatol has fallen in love with her and confides her belief to an astounded Erika. Anatol reiterates his proposal to Erika but refutes the possibility of eternal love. Left alone, Erika cries, “My answer is no! Let Vanessa have him!” Act II. The manor house entrance. New Year’s festivities in the great ballroom in the background. The Doctor enters, tipsy, and tells the Major Domo he’s about to announce Vanessa and Anatol’s engagement. Vanessa and Anatol enter; she is upset that neither her mother nor Erika is present at the party. Erika appears at the top of the stairs just as the Doctor announces the engagement. Erika faints, but upon recovering, runs out of the house. The Baroness appears, crying for help: she has seen Erika headed for the lake. Act III. Scene 1. Erika’s bedroom, a few hours later. Anatol has gone with others to seek Erika while Vanessa, the Doctor, and the Baroness wait anxiously. Anatol’s party returns, carrying an unconscious Erika; Vanessa confronts Anatol about Erika’s motivation. After the others leave, the Baroness asks Erika why she wished to kill herself. Erika reveals her pregnancy, and that she miscarried when she fell. Scene 2. The manor house drawing room, a month later. Anatol and Vanessa, now married, are preparing to depart for their new home in Paris. The Doctor again reminisces about the past. Vanessa still has her doubts about Erika’s relationship with Anatol, but Erika refuses to reveal the identity of her seducer. After Vanessa and Anatol leave, Erika orders the Major Domo to cover the mirrors once more.
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Samuel Barber Vanessa, Opera in Three Acts, Opus 32 Samuel Osborne Barber II was born March 9, 1910, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and died on January 23, 1981, in New York City. The composer Gian Carlo Menotti offered to write a libretto as early as 1952 and had written part of it by summer 1954, when Barber began his first sketches. Menotti didn’t complete the libretto until 1956. Barber composed most of the opera in winter 1956 and completed the orchestration the following year. Vanessa was premiered in its original four-act form on January 15, 1958, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, with Dmitri Mitropoulos conducting and soprano Eleanor Steber in the title role and Nicolai Gedda as Anatol. Barber revised the score in 1964, combining the first two acts and shortening the work somewhat. This new version was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in March 1965, and it is this version that is most commonly performed today, including in these concerts. The score for Vanessa calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bells, sleigh bells, triangle, cymbal, tam-tam, snare drum, tom-tom, bass drum), harp, and strings (first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses). When staged, the opera also features an onstage band of flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, drum, piano, celesta, organ, accordion, and strings. In 1956, even the whiff of a new American opera on the horizon amounted to big news: “Menotti Writes 4-Act Libretto,” a New York Times headline celebrated, “finishes book of Vanessa for which Samuel Barber will compose the score” (January 7, 1957). For most, this was the earliest notice of Vanessa, the first full-length opera composed by the already-famous Barber and the only evening-length American work that New York’s Metropolitan Opera had produced in over 20 years. The pressure on both composer and librettist was immense—could an American opera succeed at the Met? History was not on their side. In the first half of the 20th century, opera production in the United States was dominated by European composers. While it was commonplace to hear beloved works by Verdi and Puccini, Wagner and Strauss, Gounod and Bizet at the Metropolitan and other major opera houses, there was little appetite for contemporary music, and even less so for a new opera by an American composer. The Metropolitan had attempted to mount only a handful before Vanessa, and none had achieved any lasting success. In the mid1950s, however, change seemed to be afoot. Just days before the premiere of Vanessa, music critic Howard Taubman colorfully described a growing taste for opera born in
Synopsis | 23
THREE MONODRAMAS. ONE NIGHT. William Bolcom Medusa Julia Mintzer, Soprano
e
Ronald Perera The White Whale Michael Chioldi, Baritone Carlisle Floyd Flower and Hawk Sarah Coburn, Soprano
e
(
Gil Rose Conductor
)
Saturday, February 21, 2026, 8PM Jordan Hall
Upcoming Performances
Presenting one-of-a-kind American operas in Winter/Spring 2026 Music and Libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti
The Last Savage Friday, March 13, 2026, 8PM, Huntington Theatre Phillip Lopez Abdul Sharleen Joynt Kitty Anya Matanovič Sardula Omar Najmi Prince Kodanda Gabriel Preisser Scattergood Michelle Trainor The Maharani BMOP/sound Current Release Dominick Argento: The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe
TOBIAS PICKER b. 1954 AWAKENINGS
KENNETH KELLOGG
Frederick Douglass MELODY MOORE
LIBRETTO BY ARYEH LEV STOLLMAN DISC 1 (55.25) ACT I
[2] Scene 2: Leonard’s room, a week later.
4:55
September 1969
6:32
[3] Scene 3: October 1969. Dayroom afternoon.
Rose’s room, evening
[3] Scene 3: March 1969 9:30
[4] Scene 4: Morning, July 1969 8:02
[5] Scene 5: Sultry evening. Early August 1969.
Sacks’ dining room. Patients’ rooms 8:20
8:03
LEROY DAVIS
[4] Scene 4: Administration meeting room.
Sacks’ parents’ living room
8:45
[5] Scene 5: Morning, December 1969. Dayroom 5:45
[6] Scene 6: Twilight, December 1969. Dayroom 10:14
PICKER AWAKENINGS
Hospital meeting room
Howard Douglass
[1] Scene 1: Evening August 26, 1969. Dayroom 8:51
8:24
[2] Scene 2: Three years later, February 1969.
New York Botanical Garden
JOHN ALLEN NELSON
Senator Norton
OMAR NAJMI
Demler
MATTHEW ARNOLD
Busby
DEVON RUSSO
Secretary Welles
[6] Scene 6: Early August 1969.
8:01
DANI ZHANG
[7] Scene 7: Later that afternoon. Dayroom 8:12
Agnes
BMOP/sound Upcoming Release Ulysses Kay: Frederick Douglass
BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT | ODYSSEY OPERA Gil Rose BMOP/sound, the label of the acclaimed Boston Modern Orchestra Project, explores the evolution of the music formerly known as classical. Its eclectic catalog offers both rediscovered classics of the 20th century and the music of today’s most influential and innovative composers. BMOP/sound gives adventurous listeners a singular opportunity to explore the music that is defining this generation and the next.
ULYSSES KAY FREDERICK DOUGLASS BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT | ODYSSEY OPERA GIL ROSE
Scan QR code for tickets or visit bmop.org or odysseyopera.org novelist/librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman; love for the brave survivors of the “Sleepy-Sickness” pandemic;
heart, who is central to the story; love for my husband and partner of 43 years, the splendid neuroradiologist/ Composing AWAKENINGS was an act of love: love for my old friend Oliver, a man with an endless
TOBIAS PICKER has drawn commissions from and performances by the world’s leading musicians, orchestras, and opera houses. The New Yorker has called him “a genuine creator with a fertile, unforced vein of invention”; The Wall Street Journal wrote he was “our finest composer for the lyric stage”; and BBC Music Magazine described him as “displaying a distinctively soulful style that is one of the glories of the current musical scene.”
GREG BOLLINGER
DR. SACKS, SUNG BY JARRETT PORTER. PHOTO BY KATHY WITTMAN/BALL SQUARE FILMS.
— Tobias Picker
2023 BMOP/sound 1094
and love for the power of music and words to bring to life a long-dormant story of sadness and hope.
BMOP/sound | 376 Washington Street | Malden, MA 02148 | bmop.org
1094
JARRETT PORTER AS DR. OLIVER SACKS, KEITH KLEIN AS DR. PODSNAP. PHOTO BY KATHY WHITTMAN/BALL SQUARE FILMS.
Aubrey
ACT II
[1] Scene 1: October 1966.
A hospital dayroom
Helen Douglass
NEAL FERREIRA
DISC 2 (48:13)
the United States with this: “Can it be that, despite the unquestioned bouquet and effervescence of imported champagne, there is something to be said for the taste and fizz of the domestic brands? It can be, and there is. American opera is growing up” (NYT Jan. 12, 1958). Taubman’s optimism stemmed, in part, from his confidence in the creative team of Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007). A composer starting at the age of 7, Barber made his first mark with his Violin Sonata in 1928, followed by his orchestral Overture to The School for Scandal (1931). In 1935 he received the Rome Prize, enabling him to study at the American Academy in Rome, where he wrote several important works including his first Essay for Orchestra and the String Quartet (best known for its slow movement, which became the famous Adagio for Strings). What followed was a career studded with major commissions by famous performers and organizations, the Boston Symphony Orchestra prominent among them. The BSO and Serge Koussevitzky premiered his Second Symphony (1943) and his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), the latter commissioned by soprano Eleanor Steber, who also sang the first performances. The conductors Arturo Toscanini, Artur Rodzinski, and Bruno Walter also championed his music. His Piano Sonata (1949) was commissioned by Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers and was first performed by Vladimir Horowitz. The classical music world positively swooned for Barber, not only for his musical accomplishments and impressive commissions, but also for his personality and looks. An article published following the premiere of Vanessa described him as “almost unbelievably handsome,” as a young man, “and he remains one of the most photogenic of today’s composers. He is of medium stature, with deep brown eyes and brown hair. He talks rapidly in a low voice. He is fond of travel and is facile in all the operatic languages—French, German, and Italian” (New York Times, January 16, 1959). Despite his considerable popularity, Barber remained a relative novice to the world of opera when he set out to write Vanessa. His only prior experience with the genre was at the age of 10 when he composed The Rose Tree, an operetta whose libretto was penned by the family’s Irish cook. As inexperienced as he was, however, Barber was intimately familiar with the voice, having studied singing at the Curtis Institute and having pursued a brief career as a baritone after graduating. He applied his understanding of the voice directly to his compositions. As the biographer Barbara Heyman has observed, “first-hand experience as a singer and an intuitive empathy with the voice would find expression in the large legacy of songs that occupy some two-thirds of his output.” Despite his facility with vocal writing, however, it took a huge leap of faith to make his operatic debut at one of the most important opera houses in the world, a leap he confidently attempted in part because of his partnership with Gian Carlo Menotti, Vanessa’s librettist and its first stage director. The Italian-born Menotti was uniquely equipped for these tasks: a composer, librettist, director, and playwright of considerable stature, he was also Barber’s life partner and creative collaborator for over 40 years. Menotti himself wrote 25 operas, two of which had already been produced at the Met when Vanessa was premiered: Amelia Goes to the Ball in 1938 and The Island God in 1942. Menotti understood the ins and outs of operatic production better than almost anyone in the United States, and together, he and Barber made an unstoppable pair.
Program Notes | 25
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Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 at Sanders Theatre | 3 p.m. Debussy / Première Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Piano FAuRÉ / Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 45 MessIAeN / Quartet for the End of Time $32-$72; Students: $9
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8/24/22 2:26 PM
Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti with Eleanor Steber in costume as Vanessa for the 1958 Metropolitan Opera premiere production (courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)
In a New York Times article published three days prior to Vanessa’s premiere, Barber described his experience of working with Menotti: “As we were not bound by the conditions of a commission, we were utterly free in choice of time and place. This particular idea seemed to call for a European setting, so we allowed ourselves the same freedom that Mozart, Verdi and Puccini did. We picked an exotic scene.” Later in the same article, Barber praised Menotti for his precise language, words that lent themselves easily to musical setting: “Menotti himself, perhaps with undue modesty, would say a libretto is no more than a pretext for music. But this is an over-simplification. Interested as I have always been in any poetic texture I have set to music (and I have set Joyce, Hopkins, Yeats, Agee), I could immediately understand and appreciate the economy of Menotti’s use of words (so necessary for the singing stage), their utter simplicity (how wonderful to set!) and his sense of theatrical timing, which seems to me unique” (January 12, 1958). Perhaps another reason that Barber was drawn to Menotti’s libretto was for the ambiguity lurking beneath its surface. Erika is Vanessa’s niece, but who is Erika’s mother? The libretto is silent on her parentage, an omission one could easily chalk up to dramatic expediency, but what if there were more to the story? Could Vanessa be Erika’s mother instead of her aunt? In this scenario, this exchange between the two women takes on new meaning: Erika: “You, too, were young / when you came back here.” Vanessa: “Oh, but that was different.” One can’t help but wonder, where did Vanessa go and why was it different? Did Vanessa run away to have the elder Anatol’s daughter in secret? If Vanessa gave birth out of wedlock, we can begin to understand why her mother, the Old
Program Notes | 27
Baroness, refuses to speak to her, and why, later in the opera, after learning of Erika’s pregnancy and miscarriage, the Baroness declines to speak with her as well. The possibility that Vanessa and the elder Anatol are Erika’s parents is deeply unsettling because it means that the relationship between Erika and the younger Anatol is incestuous. Perhaps for this reason, the libretto maintains its silence—some truths are too disturbing to name outright. The weeks leading up to Vanessa’s premiere were fraught with unambiguous anxiety due to unexpected changes in the casting of the title role. In early planning for the opera, there were hopes that Maria Callas would create the role of Vanessa, but negotiations broke down, mostly likely because Callas was loath to sing in English and she was not fond of performing contemporary opera. In March 1957, it was announced that the Austrian soprano Sena Jurinac had been contracted to sing the role, but only six weeks prior to the premiere, she was forced to pull out due to illness. According to Barber, “there was consternation in the opera house and talk of a year’s postponement,” but another soprano with intimate knowledge of his music, Eleanor Steber, came to the rescue. To everyone’s enormous relief, the impressive cast was set. The other singers at the premiere were Nicolai Gedda as Anatol, Rosalind Elias as Erika, Regina Resnik as the Old Baroness, and Giorgio Tozzi as the Old Doctor. The opera was conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos. Those listeners who know Barber exclusively via his Adagio for Strings, a piece rooted in lush romanticism, might be surprised by the considerable eclecticism and frequent dissonance woven into Vanessa’s score. The drama opens with an Overture that sounds as if it were plucked from a 1950s Alfred Hitchcock film, and throughout the opera, one can hear traces of Verdi, Puccini, and Tchaikovsky mixed in with Barber’s own individual style. Heyman describes the score as showcasing many of his “compositional strengths: metric flexibility that supports the natural rhythms of the text, a fluid use of harmonic color to underscore the bittersweet poetry, and an abundance of accessible melody.” Two arias have become famous in their own right: Erika’s “Must the Winter Come So Soon?” and Vanessa’s “Do Not Utter a Word,” both of which have gained popularity through recital performances and recordings by famous mezzos and sopranos including Leontyne Price, Renée Fleming, and Denyce Graves. Barber saved the biggest showstopper for the end of the opera, the final quintet, “To Leave, to Break,” which the New York Times described as “a full-blown set-piece that packs an emotional charge and that would be a credit to any composer anywhere today.” By all accounts, Vanessa was an unqualified success at its premiere on January 15, 1958, and when Barber took his bows, Newsweek reported that he was greeted with a “full-throated roar usually reserved for prima donnas.” Taubman was positively “giddy with pride,” celebrating what he described as “the best American opera ever presented at the stately theatre on Broadway and Thirty-ninth Street,” adding that “it is professional; it has atmosphere; it builds to a moving climax.” Later that year, Vanessa earned for the composer the first of his two Pulitzer Prizes and became the first American opera staged at the Salzburg Festival. The opera’s reception in Salzburg, however, was not as warm as it had been at the Met. Critics were dissatisfied with what they perceived as a European, “un-American” feel to the score. Disappointingly for Barber, Menotti, and
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The original Act IV, Scene 1, in which Anatol returns with an unconscious Erika, from the 1958 Metropolitan Opera premiere production (courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)
all who were hoping for a kindling of interest in American opera, excitement for the work dampened quickly and revivals became few and far between. Hoping for more performances, Barber revised the score in 1964 from four acts to a more concise threeact version, but the effect was minimal. Though Vanessa did not spark the American operatic revolution some had hoped for in the mid-1950s, time has been kind to Barber’s first opera. Recent revivals have revealed what early audiences at the Metropolitan Opera may have already sensed: that the work’s emotional depth, musical sophistication, and psychological complexity place it among the finest operas of the 20th century. Vanessa no longer needs to prove that American opera has “grown up.” It simply stands as evidence that it had. Hilary Poriss
Professor and Chair, Department of Music, Northeastern University, Hilary Poriss is the author of Changing the Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance and Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (both Oxford University Press).
Program Notes | 29
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Artists Jennifer Holloway (Vanessa) American soprano Jennifer Holloway makes her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in these concerts. In recent years, Holloway has established herself internationally as one of the leading sopranos in the youthful-dramatic repertoire and has reinforced her position with her Bayreuth debut as Sieglinde in Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre. Holloway begins the 2025-26 season in the title role of Richard Strauss’s Salome, one of her most successful roles to date, in concert performances of the opera with the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne and Bucharest. She sings Donna Elvira in Wolfgang Amadè Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, before taking on Elsa in a new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin (Michieletto/Martiotti) at Rome Opera. With her role debut as Barber’s Vanessa, she presents herself for the first time with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in concert performances of the opera of the same name. She joins the Vienna State Opera as Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal and Hamburg State Opera as Chrysothemis in Strauss’s Elektra. The Bayreuth Festival 2026 has engaged her as Adriano in the festival’s first-ever production of Wagner’s Rienzi. Highlights of recent seasons include her role debut as Kundry at Oper Frankfurt; her house debut at the Zurich Opera as Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio; Salome at the state operas of Vienna and Berlin as well as at Deutsche Oper Berlin; Chrysothemis, Elisabeth (Wagner’s Tannhäuser), and role debuts as Sieglinde, Senta (Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman), Leonore, and Ellen Orford (Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes) at Hamburg State Opera; Senta at Semperoper Dresden and Bavarian State Opera; Cassandre (Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens); and Sieglinde in a concert performance with the Orchestre de Paris under Jaap van Zweden and in the Vienna Konzerthaus under Joana Mallwitz. Holloway began her career as a mezzosoprano with the great mezzo roles of Mozart and Handel such as Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro), Idamante in Idomeneo, and Irene in Tamerlano at houses such as Teatro Real Madrid and Los Angeles Opera. In concert, she has appeared in Alexander Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and in Mozart’s Mass in C minor under Bertrand de Billy in Dresden, as well as several times in Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.
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Mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey makes her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut this week. Highlights of Hankey’s 2025-26 season include house debuts with Berlin State Opera, where she sings the role of La muse/Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann. She appears in four productions with Vienna State Opera, performing as Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and The Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in Vienna. She reprises the role of The Composer at Glyndebourne Festival to close her opera season. In recital, she appears at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, and in two performances with pianist Myra Huang: with the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, and in her Cal Performances debut in Berkeley, California. In recent seasons, Hankey made debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in Mozart’s Idomeneo, at New National Theatre Tokyo in the title role of Carmen, at London’s Royal Opera House as Dorabella in Così fan tutte; at Detroit Opera as the Fox in Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen; and in a role debut as Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. She returned to Zurich Opera House for Così fan tutte, performed as a featured soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and appeared in recital at Antwerp LiedFest. She also sang Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera, made her role and house debuts as Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande in Netia Jones’s production at Santa Fe Opera, performed as Federico García Lorca in Golijov’s Ainadamar at Scottish Opera, and made her house debut as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel at Lyric Opera of Chicago. On the concert stage, she has performed at the Bard Festival and Carnegie Hall, in solo recital at Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hankey co-developed the lead roles in David Herzberg’s The Rose Elf and The Wake World, both of which received considerable praise and CD recordings. She has also premiered new works with Opera Philadelphia and the Metropolitan Opera. Hankey’s career includes numerous awards in national and international competitions. In 2018, she won both first prize and the media prize at the inaugural Glyndebourne Cup, multiple prizes at the Operalia Competition, and grants from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. She was a 2017 grand finals winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council, took first prize in the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, and received a Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship in the foundation’s final year. Hankey is a graduate of Juilliard, where she received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. A native of Massachusetts, she embraced her passion for music from an early age and pursued pre-college vocal training at the Longy School of Music and the New England Conservatory.
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Daniel Welch
Samantha Hankey (Erika)
Anne Sofie von Otter Boasting an unrivaled, multi-award-winning discography, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter has collaborated with legendary artists ranging from Carlos Kleiber, Claudio Abbado, and Giuseppe Sinopoli to Elvis Costello, Brad Mehldau, and Rufus Wainwright. Her ever-evolving repertoire has sustained her international profile, from her early acclaim as the superlative Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier to her creation of Leonora in the world premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel at the Salzburg Festival and Royal Ballet & Opera. Recent highlights include Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des Carmélites) at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Marcellina (The Marriage of Figaro) at Bayerische Staatsoper, L’Opinion Publique (Orphée aux Enfers) at Salzburg Festival, and Mérope (Oedipe) at Opéra National de Paris. In recent seasons she has made role debuts as the Countess (Pique Dame) at La Monnaie and Adelaide (Arabella) at Teatro Real. Von Otter has been the muse and inspiration for several contemporary composers, in particular Mikael Karlsson whose song cycle, So We Will Vanish, is dedicated to her and presented last season with Danish National Symphony Orchestra and with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra both conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste. She created the role of Gaby in the 2023 world premiere of his opera Melancholia at Royal Swedish Opera and that of Justine in Fanny and Alexander, given its world premiere at La Monnaie last season. Equally celebrated as a concert and recital singer, von Otter has appeared worldwide in works by Mahler, Berlioz, Bach, and Kurt Weill. Her expansive Lieder recordings span Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, and Mahler, as well as lesser-known composers such as Cécile Chaminade, Korngold, Peterson-Bergen, and Stenhammar. In the 2025-26 season, von Otter tours North America with pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout performing Schubert’s Schwanengesang, and to Japan and Hong Kong with a festive trio program. She reprises So We Will Vanish with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Helsinki Philharmonic under Pekka Kuusisto. Operatic engagements include Cornelia (Giulio Cesare) at Zurich Opera House, Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande) at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and Ottavia in Christoph Marthaler’s staging of L’incoronazione di Poppea for Royal Danish Opera. Von Otter is one of today’s most recorded artists with an incomparable catalogue built across a career now spanning more than four decades at the top of her profession. A lengthy and exclusive relationship with Deutsche Grammophon produced a wealth of acclaimed recordings including the Grammy-winning Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Claudio Abbado, Handel’s Ariodante, Giulio Cesare, and Hercules with Marc Minkowski, and a collaboration with pop legend Elvis Costello on For the Stars. Anne Sofie von Otter made her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in November 1994 in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, BSO audiences later hearing her as Judith in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle in Boston and at Carnegie Hall in November 2006, and as Dido in Berlioz’s Les Troyens in April/May 2008 at Symphony Hall and July 2008 at Tanglewood. Her most recent BSO performances were in 2013 as soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, in March at Symphony Hall, April at Carnegie Hall, and July at Tanglewood.
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Ewa-Marie Rundquist
(The Old Baroness)
Pavel Černoch (Anatol) One of the leading tenors today, Pavel Černoch regularly appears on the most important opera stages including Teatro alla Scala, Vienna, Paris, Dutch National Opera, Royal Ballet and Opera, and the Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals. A hugely versatile artist, he is particularly acclaimed for his interpretations of the Czech and Slavic repertoire but is equally at home in French and Italian roles. He works frequently with the world’s most acclaimed conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Kirill Petrenko, Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, John Eliot Gardiner, Charles Dutoit, and Semyon Bychkov. Černoch’s 2025-26 season includes his company debut with the Fondazione Lirico Sinfonica Petruzzelli e Teatri di Bari in his anticipated return to the title role in Don Carlo, Albert Gregor in The Makropulos Affair at Vienna State Opera, the Prince in Rusalka at Bavarian State Opera, and Jeník in Laurent Pelly’s new production of The Bartered Bride at Teatro Real. On the concert stage, appears in Bruckner’s Mass No. 3 with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano, Martinů’s Christmas Cantata with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, Verdi’s Requiem with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and the title role in Faust et Hélène with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. As much at home on the concert platform, he appears regularly with leading orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Bamberg Symphony. Notable performances include the title role of La Damnation de Faust with the Norwegian National Opera under the baton of Edward Gardner, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Gewandhausorchester, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Prague Philharmonic, Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Verdi’s Requiem at the Bergen Festival. Černoch made his professional debut in his native city of Brno with The Magic Flute, followed by appearances in Prague, Riga, Cagliari, Athens, Graz, and the Wiener Volksoper. He studied at the Janáček Academy in Brno and continued his vocal studies in Italy with Paolo de Napoli, who remains his mentor today. Pavel Černoch made his BSO debut in November 2014 in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells under Andris Nelsons’ direction.
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Long recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time, American baritone Thomas Hampson has received countless international honors for his singular artistry and cultural leadership. His operatic repertoire comprises more than 80 roles, and his discography includes more than 170 albums, with multiple Grammy, Edison, and Grand Prix du Disque awards. In the 2025-26 season, Hampson sings the title role in Adams’s Nixon in China at the Paris Opera under Kent Nagano, returning later to perform excerpts from the opera with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons at Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Tanglewood. He concludes 2025 with a star-studded Christmas Night Opera Gala at Carnegie Hall with Francesco Lanzillotta. Additional engagements include Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Ryan Bancroft, Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi, and appearances with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Essen Philharmonic led by Daniel Hope. Following a highly successful tour last season, Hampson returns to Europe for a second tour of Schubert’s Winterreise with accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, performing at Verbier Festival, Bergen Festival, Kings Place London, and Tonhalle Zürich. He resumes his collaboration with pianist Wolfram Rieger for a program of Mahler’s Lieder on tour in China at the Shenzhen Belt Road Festival, the Macau Festival, and Changsha Concert Hall; the duo also performs Winterreise at Baden-Baden Festspielhaus. Later in the season, Hampson appears at Aspen Music Festival for an all-American program. Last season, Hampson directed and sang Don Alfonso in a concert performance of Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He starred in Barber’s Vanessa with the National Symphony Orchestra, joined a special concert celebrating American works with Renée Fleming and Denyce Graves, and appeared as Bishop Edward Vergerus in Mikael Karlsson’s new opera based on Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander at La Monnaie. His concert schedule featured collaborations with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Baden-Baden Philharmonic, and Würth Philharmonic Orchestra. Hampson is an honorary professor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and an honorary member of London’s Royal Academy of Music. He holds several honorary doctorates and titles, including Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera and Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. He co-founded the Lied Academy Heidelberg and the Hampsong Foundation, promoting intercultural dialogue through song. His master classes are available via Medici.tv, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Hampsong Foundation livestream channel. He also serves as an Advisor for Opera for Peace. Thomas Hampson made his Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood debuts in July 1991, in concerts with both the BSO and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra given in memory of Leonard Bernstein. He has since appeared with the BSO numerous times in Boston and at Tanglewood, also appearing at Tanglewood on several occasions in recital. His most recent appearances with the BSO were at Tanglewood in August 2018 in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and at Symphony Hall in October 2016 in Brahms’s A German Requiem.
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Jimmy Donelan
Thomas Hampson (The Old Doctor)
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Wei Wu (Major Domo/Footman) Making his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut this week, Grammy Award-winning bass Wei Wu trained at Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artist Program, the People’s University of China, Beijing, and the University of Colorado at Boulder, which recently presented him with the Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Graduate Award. Among his 2025-26 season engagements, he returns to the role of Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Opera San Antonio and rejoins San Francisco Opera for Huang Ruo’s Monkey King, covering Lord Laozi. Future seasons include his debut with the Finnish National Opera. Wu’s 2024-25 season included exciting returns, as he began the season with Los Angeles Opera, singing both Frère Laurent in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and The Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. He then sang with Austin Opera for Verdi’s Requiem, debuted with the Shanghai Symphony as Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and brought his celebrated portrayal of Kōbun in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs to Washington National Opera. Wu closed the season with the North Carolina Symphony in performances of Mozart’s Requiem, and at Bard SummerScape singing Benes in Smetana’s Dalibor. Recent engagements include his debut with Los Angeles Opera as Angelotti in Puccini’s Tosca; Frère Laurent at Central City Opera; Sparafucile in Rigoletto with Opera Philadelphia; Hunding in Act 1 of Wagner’s Die Walküre with New Orleans Opera; Marv Carson in the world premiere of Kristin Kuster’s A Thousand Acres and Snug the Joiner in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both for Des Moines Metro Opera; and performances of Kōbun with Calgary Opera, Utah Opera, Austin Opera, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Wei Wu sang Kōbun in the world premiere performances of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Santa Fe Opera. He appears on the cast live recording, which was released by Pentatone and won Best Opera Recording at the 2019 Grammy Awards. His notable operatic engagements include Sarastro, Don Basilio (Rossini’s The Barber of Seville), Colline (Puccini’s La bohème), and Lodovico (Verdi’s Otello) with Washington National Opera; Arnold “Chick” Gandil in the world premiere of Joel Puckett’s The Fix with Minnesota Opera; the Four Villains (Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann), Don Basilio and the Old Hebrew (Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila) at the NCPA Beijing, Timur (Puccini’s Turandot) and Father Trulove (Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress) with Pittsburgh Opera, the Nephew in Garrett Fisher’s Blood Moon with the PROTOTYPE Festival, and Phanuel (Massenet’s Hérodiade) and the Ghost of Nino (Rossini’s Semiramide) with Washington Concert Opera. On the symphonic stage, he has sung Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck, Mozart’s Requiem with the Kansas City Symphony under Michael Stern, and Verdi’s Requiem with both The Orchestra Now and the West Virginia Symphony.
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Alexandra Dietrich, staging coordinator
Hilary Scott
Alexandra Dietrich, originally from Freeport, Maine, is a Puerto Rican American stage director. At Boston Lyric Opera, Dietrich was the intimacy director for The Seasons as well as the assistant stage director for both Mitridate and The Seasons. Notable works include directing Glory Denied at Opera Company of Middlebury, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Little Women, The Broadway Musical at Marblehead Little Theatre, The Little Prince at both the Longy School of Music of Bard and NEMPAC Opera, and La tragédie de Carmen at Boston Opera Collaborative. Recently, she was assistant director to Loretta Greco for The Light in the Piazza at the Huntington Theatre, and to James Robinson for Awakenings at Odyssey Opera. She served on the voice faculty at the University of Southern Maine Osher School of Music as an artist faculty in voice from 2019 to 2025. With the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Dietrich was an associate artistic producer on the Grammy-nominated recording of Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.
Tanglewood Festival Chorus Originally formed under the joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC) was established in 1970 by its founding conductor, the late John Oliver, who stepped down from his leadership position with the TFC at the end of the 2015 Tanglewood season. His successor, James Burton, was appointed to the newly created position of BSO Choral Director in 2017 and concluded his tenure with the TFC in August 2025. In the 2025-26 season, the TFC performs with the BSO and Andris Nelsons in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Symphony Hall, Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and in music from John Adams’s opera Nixon in China; under Thomas Wilkins in David Lang’s poor hymnal; under Herbert Blomstedt in Brahms’s Nänie and
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2025/26 SEASON Get Tickets & Learn More: BLO.ORG/SEASON
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Schicksalslied, and with Dima Slobodeniouk in John Adams’s Harmonium and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The chorus will also join Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops for the holiday and spring Pops seasons. First established for performances at the BSO’s summer home, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus plays a major role in the BSO’s subscription season as well as in BSO concerts at Carnegie Hall. Considered one of the world’s leading symphonic choruses, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is made up of volunteer singers who share their time and talents, performing year-round with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. The TFC also records frequently with the BSO and the Boston Pops. Its most recent BSO recordings were Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies 2, 3, and 13 conducted by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, released in October 2023, and the composer’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, included in orchestra’s box set of Shostakovich’s orchestral music released in spring 2025. The chorus has also recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under conductors Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Leonard Bernstein, and Sir Colin Davis and with the Boston Pops under Keith Lockhart and John Williams. The TFC can be heard on several film soundtracks, including Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. The chorus has sung with the Boston Pops for Boston Red Sox and Celtics games and the National Anthem prior to an American League Championship Series game at Fenway Park in October 2021. The TFC has sung the world and American premieres of many BSO-commissioned works for chorus and orchestra, including John Harbison’s Requiem and Koussevitzky Said:, William Bolcom’s Eighth Symphony, Eriks Ešenvalds’ Lakes Awake at Dawn, and Elena Langer’s The Dong with a Luminous Nose. In the 2024-25 season, the chorus appeared in BSO performances including Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Mozart’s Requiem, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and the world premiere of Aleksandra Vrebalov’s Love Canticles, a BSO commission. In summer 2025 at Tanglewood, the chorus performed Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil in its annual Prelude Concert in Seiji Ozawa Hall and with the BSO in Puccini’s Tosca, Poulenc’s Gloria, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the BSO, and the world premiere of Words and Prayers of My Fathers, a BSO-commissioned a cappella work by Carlos Simon.
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Tanglewood Festival Chorus In the following list, * denotes membership of 40 years or more, # denotes membership of 35-39 years, and + denotes membership of 25-34 years. SOPRANOS Alicia Donlon • Rachael Foster • Alyssa Hensel • Shinhee Kim • Judy Stafford • Jessica Toupin • Elizabeth Woodard
ALTOS Janet L. Buecker + • Mara Goldberg • Susan Harris • Eleanor Mears • Roslyn Pedlar # • Sarah Robinson Seeber # • Dagny von Mering
TENORS Brad W. Amidon # • Stephen Chrzan + • Cicera DeFrancesco • Len Giambrone + • Timothy O. Jarrett • Dwight E. Porter * • Arend Sluis
BASSES James W. Courtemanche + • Jack MacPherson • Greg Mancusi-Ungaro * • Yen Kuei (Peter) Tu • Henry Wright
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Marco Borggreve
Jana Hieber, Manager of Choral Activities
Betsy Burleigh is the Thomas R. Kasdorf Professor of Choral Conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she was chair of the choral conducting department from 2013 to 2024. Equally at home in the professional world and in academia, Burleigh served as music director of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh for 10 years. She led the Mendelssohn in performances of Brahms’s A German Requiem, Bach’s B minor Mass, Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, and Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor, and prepared the choir for numerous performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and Manfred Honeck. As a guest conductor, Burleigh has led the PSO, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Canton Symphony, and Handel Society of Dartmouth College. In 2016, she prepared the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons, and, in 2012, she prepared the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus for performances at the World Choir Games with the Cincinnati Pops. Burleigh spent four years as chorus master for Cleveland Opera, where she served as music director for A Little Night Music. She also conducted the Cleveland Public Theater’s production of Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Burleigh has served as assistant director of choruses for the Cleveland Orchestra, where she prepared the chorus for all summer performances at the Blossom Festival, coached German and French diction, and oversaw the chorus for the Deutsche Grammophon recording sessions of Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette, Pierre Boulez conductor. Other positions have included directing Boston’s Chorus pro Musica, the Providence Singers (RI), Akron Symphony Chorus, Canton Symphony Chorus (OH), and the Mastersingers of Lexington (MA). She has taught at Tufts University, Clark University, Longy School of Music, Southeastern Massachusetts University (now University of Massachusetts Dartmouth), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as Cleveland State University, where she achieved the rank of full professor. She won the 2000 Northern Ohio Live Achievement Award for best classical/opera performance for Der Kaiser von Atlantis and conducted the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus on an Emmy Award-winning concert for the 9/11 Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Burleigh earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree with distinction from Indiana University, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting degree with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a doctorate in choral conducting from Indiana University.
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Sarah J. Slover
Betsy Burleigh, guest choral conductor
Boston Lyric Opera Now in its 49th season, Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) is dedicated to creating compelling operatic experiences that welcome new audiences, break new ground, and enrich community life. Since its founding in 1976, BLO has produced world and U.S. premieres, Pulitzer Prize-winning operas, and notable co-productions that celebrate opera’s rich history while promoting adventurousness. Each year, BLO employs over 800 artists and creative professionals in over 150 public performances, including mainstage programming and free community and education offerings, welcoming over 25,000 audience members. These programs are enhanced by partnerships with local cultural organizations including the Boston Public Library, Boston Public Schools, and many more. The company is proud to play a significant and meaningful role in Boston’s vibrant arts community. For more information, visit www.blo.org.
Boston Lyric Opera Chorus Brett Hodgdon, BLO Chorus Director Sopranos Alisa Cassola • Melynda Davis • Carley DeFranco • Josie Larsen • Marie McCarville • Laura Santamaria
Altos Margretta Beaty • Juliette Kaoudji • Jaime Korkos • Mary Kray • Arielle Rogers-Wilkey • Elena Snow
Tenors Ethan Bremner • Frank Levar • Chris Maher • Fausto Miro • Thomas Oesterling • Patrick Starke
Basses Junhan Choi • Benedict Hensley • Jacob O’Shea • Devon Russo • Zizhao Wang • Ron Williams Ji Yung Lee, rehearsal pianist
The appearance of the Boston Lyric Opera Chorus is supported in part by Peter and Suzanne Read. Boston Lyric Opera’s 2025/26 season is supported in part by the Barr Foundation, The HarborOne Foundation, the Lincoln and Therese Filene Foundation, the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation, Cabot Family Charitable Trust, Miss Wallace Minot Leonard Foundation, the Poduska Family Foundation, BPS Arts Expansion at EdVestors, the Paul & Edith Babson Foundation, Hamilton Company Charitable Foundation, OPERA America, the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, and Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Corporate sponsors include HarborOne Bank, MEDITECH, Analog Devices Inc., Polaris Capital Management, Gilbane Building Company, and Flansburgh Architects. Boston Lyric Opera also acknowledges the incredible support of its Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, and other donors and patrons.
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Brett Hodgdon Brett Hodgdon is Chorus Director and Head of Music at Boston Lyric Opera, where he has collaborated with Music Director David Angus on the company’s music staff since 2011. Hodgdon was a member of the first class of Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artists in the 2011-12 season. Hodgdon serves on the full-time opera faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music. Additionally, he teaches courses including diction and vocal repertoire at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. In addition to his work at BLO and as an educator, Hodgdon has been a rehearsal pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival Chorus since 2008, having rehearsed and coached vocal programs for Music Director Andris Nelsons and many guest conductors, including performances at Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, and Carnegie Hall. He has also been rehearsal pianist and coach for the Emmanuel Music Bach Cantata Series since 2006. Hodgdon spends his summers as Head of Music at Si Parla, Si Canta! in Arona, Italy, and serves on the coaching faculty of the Boston Wagner Institute. He received a D.M.A. in collaborative piano from the New England Conservatory and holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Carolyn Abbate Carolyn Abbate, Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard University, writes about and teaches classes centered on opera as it has evolved over the past four centuries, with special emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Her work ranges widely, drawing from disciplines including linguistics and semiotics, philosophy, film sound and music, and the history of science. Outside academia, she has worked as a dramaturge and director, and as a translator. Forthcoming projects include essays on microphonics in past historical eras, on musical efficacy, and on Richard Wagner’s entanglements with nineteenth-century organic chemistry.
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Explore For a complete BSO performance history of any piece on the program, readers are encouraged to visit the BSO Archives’ online database, “HENRY,” named for BSO founder Henry Lee Higginson, at archives.bso.org. Samuel Barber Books Nathan Broder, Samuel Barber (G. Schirmer) Peter Dickinson, Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute (Eastman Studies in Music/University of Rochester Press) Barbara B. Heyman, Samuel Barber: The Composer and his Music (Oxford University Press) The Barber article in the New Grove Dictionary is by Barbara Heyman.
Marco Borggreve
Recordings (alphabetically by conductor) Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Eleanor Steber (Vanessa)/Nicolai Gedda (Anatol)/Dimitri Mitropoulos (original 4-act version) Vienna Philharmonic/Chorus of the Vienna State Opera/Steber/Gedda/Mitropoulos National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine/Capella Dumka/Ellen Chickering/Ray Bauwens/ Gil Rose (revised 1964 version) BBC Symphony Orchestra/BBC Singers/Susan Graham/William Burden/Leonard Slatkin The 2018 Glyndebourne performance is available on DVD and Blu-ray: London Philharmonic Orchestra/Glyndebourne Chorus/Emma Bell/Edgaras Montvidas/Jakub Hrůša (revised 1964 version)
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HISTORICAL EXHIBITS
In the Cabot-Cahners Room and Online The Cabot-Cahners Room, circa 1930s. Photograph by John Sanromá, courtesy of the Boston Public Library, from the John B. Sanromá Photograph Collection.
Visit the Cabot-Cahners Room on the first balcony level to enjoy a special exhibit celebrating the 125th anniversary of Symphony Hall. Learn more about the building of the Hall, the first concert, the history of Pops concerts made possible by the removable flooring, and the eclectic use of the building through external rentals (including reproductions of advertisements and programs). SPECIAL CONTENT EXCLUSIVE TO THIS SEASON Building a New Hall Learn about the making of the new Hall at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Huntington Avenue. The Inaugural Concert The first concert at Symphony Hall featured Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, performed by the BSO and the Cecilia Society. A Removable Floor: Pops Concerts in Symphony Hall Symphony Hall was specifically designed with two different styles of seating in mind: a sloped floor for regular Symphony concerts that could convert into a flat floor to accommodate the cabaret-style tables and chairs of a Pops concert. For 125 years, audiences have enjoyed food, drinks, and a little light music at Symphony Hall. Symphony Hall for Everyone: Celebrating 125 Years of Cultural and Civic Uses From squash tournaments to charity balls, lectures, recitals, celebratory dinners, and more, learn about the many different uses of Symphony Hall.
Sketch of Symphony Hall under construction, 1899. Sketch by Vernon Howe Bailey, gift of Margo Miller.
Autographed program and ticket for the inaugural concert in Symphony Hall on October 15, 1900.
Table setting for Pops concert, ca. 1975. Photograph by Michael Peirce.
The Cabot-Cahners Room is open during BSO and Pops concerts, as well as for special events and tours. 48
Content is also available online by scanning this QR code or by visiting bso.org.
Boston Saxophone Orchestra posing on stage in Symphony Hall in 1926, with conductor Abdon Laus (BSO bassoonist and sometimes saxophone player). Photograph by Central Studios, Boston.
BSO News BSO Earns Four Grammy Nominations The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s latest recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon (DG) label— Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie, Shostakovich: The Cello Concertos, Shostakovich: The Piano Concertos, and Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District—garnered a total of four Grammy nominations in November 2025, and three for BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons. It is the most nominations this year for a single orchestra. These nominations follow on the recent success of the orchestra’s acclaimed traversal of the complete symphonies of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, which had already earned four Grammy Awards; the BSO has won thus far a total of 11 Grammy Awards during its distinguished history. The 68th Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 1. Captured at Symphony Hall in April 2024, the BSO’s DG recording of Messiaen’s monumental Turangalîla-Symphonie received a Grammy nomination under the category of Best Orchestral Performance. Andris Nelsons and the BSO were joined by pianist and exclusive DG artist Yuja Wang and by Cécile Lartigau, one of today’s rare ondes Martenot players. The recording was released on December 6, 2024, marking the 75th anniversary of the world premiere given by the BSO and Leonard Bernstein on December 2, 1949. The work was commissioned by then-Music Director Serge Koussevitzky. On March 26, 2025, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death, DG released the BSO’s comprehensive 19-disc Shostakovich anthology, containing all 15 symphonies, key incidental works, as well as new recordings of the complete concertos and the first commercial audio release in over 20 years of the composer’s landmark opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The recordings of the piano and cello concertos, featuring Yuja Wang and Yo-Yo Ma, respectively, were issued as standalone recordings, both receiving Grammy nominations for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. All the BSO’s recent DG Shostakovich recordings were recorded by a team headed by legendary Hollywood producer Shawn Murphy and BSO Lead Recording Engineer Nick Squire. This year, along with mastering engineer Tim Martyn, they received Grammy nominations for Best Engineered Album, Classical, for Lady Macbeth. (In 2019, the same team won Grammys for the BSO’s recording of Shostakovich’s Symphonies nos. 4 and 11.)
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Boston Symphony Chamber Players 2025-26 season The third concert of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players’ four-concert series at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall takes place Sunday, January 18, at 3pm. The group, made up of first-chair players from the BSO’s string and wind sections, perform the Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Opus 25; Valerie Coleman’s Rubispheres for flute, clarinet, and bassoon; and the world premiere of the Gardner Suite, a new, Boston Symphony Orchestra-commissioned work by Carlos Simon inspired by the art and atmosphere of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Simon is the BSO’s Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair. The Chamber Players are joined by superstar pianist Seong-Jin Cho.
The outstanding violinist Augustin Hadelich is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Artist in Residence for the 2025-2026 season. This past fall, he played John Adams’s Violin Concerto with the BSO and Andris Nelsons (October 16-18) and gave a recital of music by J.S. Bach, Paganini, Perkinson, Telemann, and Ysaÿe at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston (October 19). In the new year he performs Thomas Adès’s violin concerto Concentric Paths with the BSO conducted by the composer; a recital based on his album American Road Trip with pianist Orion Weiss at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s new Thomas Tull Concert Hall, and in a concert with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and pianist Marc-André Hamelin at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall.
Suxiao Yang
2025-26 BSO Artist in Residence Augustin Hadelich
BSO Broadcasts on CRB BSO concerts are heard on the radio at 99.5 CRB and online at classicalwcrb.org. Saturday-night concerts are broadcast live at 8pm with host Brian McCreath, and encore broadcasts are aired on Monday nights at 8pm. In addition, interviews with and features on guest conductors, soloists, and BSO musicians are available online at classicalwcrb. org/bso. Current and upcoming broadcasts include the following concerts, all part of the BSO’s E Pluribus Unum festival and led by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons. Jan. 10 & 19: In a partnership with Boston Lyric Opera, Nelsons and the BSO present Samuel Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Vanessa with guest vocalists including Jennifer Holloway, Samantha Hankey, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Pavel Černoch and both the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Boston Lyric Opera Chorus. Jan. 17 & 26: BSO Principal Flute Lorna McGhee is soloist in Allison Loggins-Hull’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Joni, a new BSO co-commissioned work for flute and orchestra; the Tanglewood Festival Chorus joins for Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms; and superstar pianist Seong-Jin Cho returns for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Jan. 24 & Feb. 2: The BSO celebrates John Williams, a treasured longtime member of the BSO family, with an allWilliams program featuring the composer’s concert works and film music. Emanuel Ax is soloist in Williams’s recent Piano Concerto, written for Ax, who premiered it at Tanglewood in 2025. Violinist Gil Shaham plays TreeSong, which Williams wrote for him and which he premiered at Tanglewood in 2000. 50
Thank You! We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all who generously sustain our mission of service through music. Thanks to the support of more than 15,000 donors, the Boston Symphony Orchestra welcomes an audience of 1,000,000 to hundreds of concerts, educational experiences, and humanities programs each season. From Symphony Hall, throughout Boston, and beyond, you help us to uplift the artistry of our musicians and broaden the impact of our art form while building community through music for all. Thank you.
The production of Vanessa is generously supported in part by the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation. Saturday evening’s concert is generously supported by the Gregory E. Bulger Foundation / Gregory Bulger and Richard Dix. Steinway & Sons Pianos, selected exclusively for Symphony Hall. The Friday concert series is sponsored by the Brooke Family. The program books for the Friday series are given in loving memory of Mrs. Hugh Bancroft by her daughters, the late Mrs. A. Werk Cook and the late Mrs. William C. Cox. Special thanks to Arbella Insurance Foundation, BSO Supporting Sponsor, and Fairmont Copley Plaza, Official Hotel of the BSO. Broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra are heard on 99.5 WCRB.
The BSO’s 2025-26 season is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives support from the State of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Concert Thursday, January 8, 2026 This Thursday evening’s performance is supported by a generous gift from Great Benefactors Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser. Elected a BSO Advisor in 1998 and Trustee in 2000, Paul was elevated to Life Trustee in 2017. He served as President of the Board of Trustees from 2014 to 2017 and a Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees from 2010 to 2013. Paul’s interest in music began at a young age, when he studied piano, violin, clarinet, and conducting as a child and teenager. Together, Paul and Katie developed their lifelong love of music, and they have attended the BSO’s performances at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood for more than 60 years. The Buttenwiesers have generously supported numerous BSO initiatives, including BSO commissions of new works, guest artist appearances at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, and Opening Nights at Symphony and Tanglewood. They also endowed a BSO First Violin Chair, currently held by Jennie Shames. Paul and Katie, who have served on many gala committees, chaired Opening Night at Symphony for the 2008-2009 season. Paul was a member of the Search Committee recommending the appointment of Andris Nelsons as the BSO’s Ray and Maria Stata Music Director. The Buttenwiesers support many arts organizations in Boston, and they are deeply involved with the community and social justice. In 2014, Paul stepped down as chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, after a decade of leading the Board of Trustees. He is a trustee and former chair of the American Repertory Theater and received the A.R.T. Angel Award in 2018. He is also a trustee of Partners in Health, honorary trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A former overseer of Harvard University, he was awarded the Harvard Medal for service in 2010. In 1988, Paul and Katie founded the Family-to-Family Project, an agency that works with homeless families in Eastern Massachusetts. Katie, who is a social worker, spent most of her career in early child development before moving into hospice and bereavement work. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Boston University School of Social Work. Paul is a psychiatrist who specializes in children and adolescents, as well as a novelist. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. On May 14, 2014, Paul had the honor of performing as pianist in Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A, Opus 69, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, with Yo-Yo Ma.
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The Great Benefactors The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s first benefactor, Henry Lee Higginson, took a deep personal interest in the orchestra he founded. Recognizing that ticket revenues could never fully cover the costs of running a great orchestra, from 1881 to 1918, Higginson met the orchestra’s annual shortfall with personal contributions that exceeded $1 million. The Boston Symphony Orchestra now honors each of the following generous donors whose cumulative giving to the BSO, Tanglewood, and Boston Pops is $1 million or more with the designation of Great Benefactor. List reflects giving as of September 3, 2025
TEN MILLION AND ABOVE Bank of America Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Julian Cohen
Cynthia and Oliver Curme Fidelity Investments Barbara and Amos Hostetter Joyce Linde
Linde Family Foundation Maria and Ray Stata Anonymous (3)
SEVEN AND ONE HALF MILLION Mr. and Mrs. George D. Behrakis John F. Cogan, Jr. and Mary L. Cornille
Dell Technologies The O’Block Family
FIVE MILLION Bloomberg Philanthropies Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Fairmont Copley Plaza Germeshausen Foundation Nathan and Marilyn Hayward
Ted and Debbie Kelly Mass Cultural Council Cecile Higginson Murphy NEC Corporation Plimpton Shattuck Fund William and Lia Poorvu
Carol and Joe Reich Caroline and James Taylor UBS Stephen and Dorothy Weber Samantha and John Williams Anonymous (2)
TWO AND ONE HALF MILLION American Airlines Arbella Insurance Foundation and Arbella Insurance Group Mary and J.P. Barger Gabriella and Leo Beranek Roberta and George Berry Peter and Anne Brooke Gregory E. Bulger Foundation / Gregory Bulger and Richard Dix Chiles Foundation Mr. and Mrs. William H. Congleton Mara E. Dole Deborah and Philip Edmundson Eaton Vance Corporation Thomas and Winifred Faust Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick Jan Brett and Joseph Hearne
Susan Morse Hilles Charlie and Dorothy Jenkins / The Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation Stephen B. Kay and Lisbeth L. Tarlow / The Aquidneck Foundation The Kresge Foundation Lizbeth and George Krupp Liberty Mutual Foundation, Inc. Nancy and Richard Lubin Diane Holmes Lupean Josh and Jessica Lutzker Carmine A. and Beth V. Martignetti Kate and Al Merck Paul and Sandra Montrone Family Richard P. and Claire W. Morse Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts Mrs. Mischa Nieland and Dr. Michael L. Nieland William and Helen Pounds Cynthia and John S. Reed Patti B. Saris and Arthur I. Segel Kristin and Roger Servison Miriam Shaw Fund Solange Skinner State Street Corporation and State Street Foundation Thomas G. Stemberg Miriam and Sidney Stoneman Elizabeth B. Storer Dorothy Dudley and John Lowell Thorndike Brooks and Linda Zug Anonymous (3)
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ONE MILLION Alli and Bill Achtmeyer Helaine B. Allen Harlan E. and Lois J. Anderson Family Foundation Lois and Harlan Anderson Mariann Berg (Hundahl) Appley Dorothy and David B. Arnold, Jr. AT&T Lloyd Axelrod, M.D. Liliana and Hillel Bachrach Caroline Dwight Bain Linda J. L. Becker William I. Bernell Estate of Marion Bianchi BNY Mellon The Boston Foundation Jane Braus Lorraine D. and Alan S. Bressler Ronald G. and Ronni J. Casty Citizens Bank Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta L. Cohn James and Tina Collias Commonwealth Worldwide Executive Transportation Margot C. Connell and Family Dick and Ann Marie Connolly Country Curtains Diddy and John Cullinane Edith L. and Lewis S. Dabney Elisabeth K. and Stanton W. Davis Mary Deland R. de Beaumont Delta Air Lines Bob and Happy Doran Hermine Drezner and Jan Winkler Alan and Lisa Dynner and Akiko Dynner William and Deborah Elfers Elizabeth B. Ely Nancy S. and John P. Eustis II Shirley and Richard Fennell Dr. Emily Fine Anna E. Finnerty John and Cyndy Fish Fromm Music Foundation Merwin Geffen, M.D. and Norman Solomon, M.D.
Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Richard and Joy Gilbert Marie L. Gillet Goodwin Sophia and Bernard Gordon Elizabeth and Phill Gross Mrs. Francis W. Hatch Mrs. Donald C. Heath The Nancy Foss Heath and Richard B. Heath Educational, Cultural, and Environmental Foundation Ricki Tigert Helfer and Michael S. Helfer Francis Lee Higginson John Hitchcock Silka Hook Edith C. Howie John Hancock Financial Muriel E. and Richard L. Kaye Nancy D. and George H. Kidder Kingsbury Road Charitable Foundation Audrey Noreen Koller Farla and Harvey Chet Krentzman Barbara and Bill Leith Elizabeth W. and John M. Loder Vera M. and John D. MacDonald Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation Jane B. and Robert J. Mayer, M.D. The McGrath Family / The Highland Street Foundation Joseph C. and Paula B. McNay, The New England Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Messinger Family Henrietta N. Meyer Mr. and Mrs. Nathan R. Miller William Inglis Morse Trust Cecile Higginson Murphy Charitable Foundation Mary S. Newman Mr. and Mrs. Norio Ohga
P&G Gillette Peter Palandjian and Eliza Dushku-Palandjian/ Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation Perles Family Foundation May and Daniel Pierce Claudio and Penny Pincus The Pryor Family Mary G. and Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. Susan and Dan Rothenberg Arnold Roy Carole and Edward I. Rudman Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation Wilhelmina C. (Hannaford) Sandwen Hannah H. and Dr. Raymond Schneider Carl Schoenhof Family The Schwedel Family Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Marian Skinner Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation / Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Carol and Irv Smokler Sony Corporation of America Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited Dr. Nathan B. and Anne P. Talbot Diana O. Tottenham The Wallace Foundation Edwin S. Webster Foundation Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner Dr. Christoph Westphal MD PhD and Dr. Sylvia Westphal PhD The Helen F. Whitaker Fund Robert and Roberta Winters Marillyn Tufte Zacharis Helen and Josef Zimbler Anonymous (11)
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The Conductors Circle The Conductors Circle, created in January 2025, salutes the generosity of donors who have made leadership commitments to support the full breadth of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s mission. Their exemplary investments in musical excellence, innovation, and service to our community resonate in every aspect of the BSO’s work. The Conductors Circle encompasses all donors who have made combined contributions of $25,000 or more in fiscal year 2025 or fiscal year 2026 to the Boston Annual Fund, Pops Annual Fund, Tanglewood Annual Fund, or special operating projects. For further information on the Conductors Circle, please contact the Development Office at 617-638-9276. List reflects giving as of December 7, 2025 ‡ indicates a deceased donor
FOUNDERS $100,000 AND ABOVE Noubar and Anna Afeyan Josh and Anita Bekenstein Berry Drew Family Foundation Gregory E. Bulger Foundation/ Gregory Bulger and Richard Dix Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Bihua Chen and Jackson J. Loomis, Ph.D. Cynthia and Oliver Curme Deborah and Philip Edmundson Thomas and Winifred Faust
Beth and Richard Fentin Michael L. Gordon Barbara and Amos Hostetter Charlie and Dorothy Jenkins/ The Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey M. Leiden Peter Li and Jean Qiu Joyce Linde ‡ Nancy and Richard Lubin Josh and Jessica Lutzker
Cecile H. Murphy Charitable Foundation Rabbi Rex Perlmeter and Rabbi Rachel Hertzman Plimpton Shattuck Fund Caroline and James Taylor Dr. Christoph Westphal MD PhD and Dr. Sylvia Westphal PhD Marillyn Tufte Zacharis Anonymous (2)
VIRTUOSO $50,000 – $99,999 Lloyd Axelrod, M.D. Liliana and Hillel Bachrach Linda J.L. Becker Matthew and Beverly Brown and Family Bonnie and Terry Burman Ronald G. Casty R. Martin Chavez Mary L. Cornille Drs. Anna L. and Peter B. Davol Alan and Lisa Dynner Eitan and Malka Evan Nancy and Peter Finn Dr. Fredric C. Friedman and Mrs. Cathy Demain Mann Martha and Todd Golub The Grossman Family Charitable Foundation Richard and Nancy Heath
Drs. James and Eleanor Herzog Albert A. Holman III and Susan P. Stickells King-White Family Foundation Drs. Prudence P Kline and Paul L Kimmel Meg and Joseph Koerner Tom Kuo and Alexandra DeLaite Elizabeth W. and John M. Loder Carmine A. and Beth V. Martignetti Jane B. and Robert J. Mayer, M.D. Paul and Sandra Montrone Family Jerry and Mary ‡ Nelson Nancy and Jay Nichols Dana Leff Niedzielska and Lukasz Niedzielski Cecilia O’Keefe
Claudio and Penny Pincus Janet and Irv Plotkin Andrew and Suzanne Plump Jim Pollin Mitch and Hilary Pomerance Seán Rush and Carol C. McMullen Dr. Kenan E. Sahin and Andrea TN Sahin Boston Seed Capital, LLC, Nicole Maria Stata Blair Trippe and David Harding Antoine and Emily van Agtmael Stephen ‡ and Dorothy Weber Jenny Williams Brooks and Linda Zug Anonymous (5)
Harlan E. and Lois J. Anderson Family Foundation Judith and Harry ‡ Barr
Chris and Darcey Bartel Ted Berk and Naomi Weinberg Clark and Susana Bernard
SPONSOR $25,000 – $49,999 Amy and David Abrams Bob and Pam Adams Jim and Virginia ‡ Aisner
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Jim and Nancy Bildner Joan and John ‡ Bok Molly and Nick Booth Carol and Bob Braun Lorraine Bressler Jan Brett and Joseph Hearne C. Thomas Brown BSO Members’ Association Drs. Andrea and Brad Buchbinder Arthur Clarke and Susan Sloan Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta L. Cohn Lynn Dale and Frank Wisneski Chester and Joy Douglass Joanne and Jerry ‡ Dreher Hermine Drezner and Jan ‡ Winkler Terry B. Eastman Ginger and George Elvin Douglas and Christine Emond Fred and Sylvia Fogel Rabbi Daniel Freelander and Rabbi Elyse Frishman Adaline H. Frelinghuysen The Frelinghuysen Foundation Dr. David Fromm Joy S. Gilbert Patricia Romeo-Gilbert and Paul B. Gilbert ‡ Elizabeth T. and Roberto S. Goizueta Paul Gompers and Jody Dushay Mr. Harold Grinspoon and Ms. Diane Troderman Carol B. Grossman Deborah Elfers Haffenreffer and Mark Haffenreffer Scott and Ellen Hand Jeanne Hayden and Andrew Szajlai
Nathan and Marilyn Hayward Alexander Healy Ricki Tigert Helfer and Michael S. Helfer Minnie and Brent Henry Valerie Ann and Allen I Hyman MD Carol and George Jacobstein The Jameson Family Foundation Margery and Everett Jassy Leslie and Stephen Jerome Prof. Paul L. Joskow and Dr. Barbara Chasen Joskow The Kandell Fund, in memory of Florence and Leonard S. Kandell Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, Inc. Stephen B. Kay and Lisbeth L. Tarlow Steve Kidder and Judy Malone Seth A. and Beth S. Klarman Roger and Myrna Landay Catherine Lang and Andre Girard Anne R. Lovett and Stephen G. Woodsum Dr. and Mrs. Frederick H. Lovejoy, Jr. Sally and Tod MacKenzie Jay and Shirley Marks ‡ Linda A. Mason and Roger H. Brown Joseph and Paula McNay, The New England Foundation Rebecca Gold and Nathan ‡ Milikowsky Joan G. Monts Michael and Jia Monts Sandra Moose and Eric Birch ‡ In Loving Memory of Richard O’Brien
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Paresky Perles Family Foundation May and Daniel ‡ Pierce Eduardo Plantilla, M.D. and Lina Plantilla, M.D. William and Lia Poorvu William ‡ and Helen Pounds Rabb Family Foundation Nancy S. Raphael Susan M. Richardson Graham Robinson and Jeanne Yu Lawrence Rosenthal in memory of Bette Sue Rosenthal Marc A. Rubenstein and Jill I. Hai Suzanne and Burton ‡ Rubin Karen and Kert Sabbath In loving memory of Howard A. Scarrow Kristin and Roger Servison Arlene and Donald Shapiro Barbara and Peter Sidel Stanley and Nancy Singer Carol and Irv Smokler Bridget and Nathan Somogie Katherine Chapman Stemberg Theresa M. and Charles F. Stone III Ann and Michael Strem Fund Mr. and Mrs. Patrick J. Sullivan Susan and Jim Swartz Jacqueline and Albert Togut Jonathan and Shari Turell Mr. Nicholas Vantzelfde and Ms. Lauren Erb Edward and Linda ‡ Wacks Linda and Daniel Waintrup June and Jeffrey Wolf Anonymous (6)
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Society Giving The members of the Higginson Society carry forward the enduring legacy of the BSO’s founder and first benefactor, Henry Lee Higginson. We appreciate our members’ deep commitment to sustaining the mission and musical excellence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The following list recognizes the generosity of donors who have given $3,000-$24,999 to the Symphony Annual Fund. For further information on becoming a member of the Higginson Society, please contact the Friends Office at 617-638-9276. Generous donors who have made combined contributions of $25,000 or more in fiscal year 2025 or fiscal year 2026 to the Boston Annual Fund, Pops Annual Fund, Tanglewood Annual Fund, or Special Operating Projects are now listed as part of the Conductors Circle. List reflects giving as of December 7, 2025 ‡ indicates a deceased donor
CHORUS $15,000 – $24,999 Fred and Joanne Barber Kristen and Brian Barbetta Ann Bitetti Thomas Burger Judith Clark Sally Currier and Saul Pannell Ernest Cravalho ‡ and Ruth Tuomala Suki and Miguel de Bragança Alan J. ‡ and Suzanne W. Dworsky
Myrna H. Freedman Dr. Dana M. Gordon Raymond and Joan Green Robert and Annette Hanson Susan Johnston Mr. and Mrs. ‡ David S. Lee Hinda and Arthur (+) Marcus Foundation Kyra and Jean ‡ Montagu Anne M. Morgan Pam Peedin and Paul Rebuck
Slocumb H. and E. Lee ‡ Perry Randy and Stephanie Pierce Mr. Michel Plantevin Louise C. Riemer Arthur and Linda Schwartz Betsy and Will Shields Drs. Roger and Jillian Tung Harvey and Joëlle Wartosky Drs. John Mordes and Regina Yando
Maura and William Haney William Hawes and Mieko Komagata ‡ Deborah Elfers Haffenreffer and Mark Haffenreffer The Karp Family Foundation Peter and Ann Lambertus Robert A. ‡ and Patricia P. Lawrence Howard Liang Gabriel and Julie Ling Thomas and Adrienne Linnell Ann Merrifield and Wayne Davis Jo Frances Meyer and Carl M. Herbert Dale and Robert Mnookin
John F. O’Leary and Sarah G. Britton Jane and Neil Pappalardo Mr. Deepak Parayanken Jean Park and Jacob Taylor Ann M. Philbin Steven Pittman and Jenifer Handy Geoffrey and Sarah Raux Judith and Robert L. Rosbe, Jr. Dr. Michael and Patricia Rosenblatt Sally Rubin and Arthur Applbaum Cynthia and Grant Schaumburg Marilyn and Michael Scheffler Lynda Anne Schubert
ENSEMBLE $10,000 – $14,999 Deborah Allinson Mrs. Hope Lincoln Baker Roz and Wally Bernheimer Mark and Linda Borden Julie and Kevin Callaghan Diddy and John Cullinane Joan P. and Ronald C. Curhan Gene and Lloyd Dahmen Mark Houston Dalzell Phyllis Dohanian Jeffrey and Karen Dunn Eran and Yukiko Egozy Mr. and Mrs. Steven S. Fischman Dr. Dana M. Gordon Dr. Richard Gran and Ms. Jean Frova GranRay and Gloria White-Hammond
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Eileen Shapiro and Reuben Eaves Anne-Marie Soullière and Lindsey C.Y. Kiang Maria and Ray Stata Mr. Campbell Steward
Mr. ‡ and Mrs. W. Nicholas Thorndike Marc and Nadia Ullman Christopher and Alison Viehbacher Eric and Sarah Ward
Vita L. Weir and Edward Brice, Jr. Kevin M. Wertheim and Ann L. Kibbie Howard and Karen Wilcox Anonymous (4)
Lawrence ‡ and Dorothy Damon Carol Davis and Milton Davis, MD ‡ Deborah B. Davis Rohit Deshpandé Stephen and Charlotte Diamond Relly and Brent Dibner JoAnne Dickinson and John Dickinson Richard Dixon and Douglas Rendell Nina L. and Eugene B. Doggett Robert Donaldson and Judith Ober Douglas Drachman MD and Erica Mayer MD Mr. David L. Driscoll Joan J. Eddy Mark Epstein and Amoretta Hoeber Suzanne Courtright Ezekiel Deborah and Ron Feinstein Judith Feldman MD and Norman Spack MD Barbie and Reg Foster Felice Frankel Tamar and Ken Frieze Nicki Nichols Gamble Jim and Becky Garrett David and Karen Gaylin Diane Gipson Richard and Anna Goettle Alfred and Joan Goldberg Jennifer and Mark Goodman Mr. Herbert H. Gowen II Stephen Graves and Dr. Caroline Marten-Ellis Dr. Sylvie Grégoire and Dr. John Alam Marjorie and Nicholas Greville The Rt. Rev. and Mrs. J. Clark Grew Janice Guilbault Elizabeth M. Hagopian Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hamilton III Joseph Hammer and Margery Hamlen John and Ellen Harris Daphne and George ‡ Hatsopoulos
Drs. John and Tessa HedleyWhyte Mr. and Mrs. ‡ Ulf B. Heide Anneliese M. Henderson Carol and Robert ‡ Henderson Gardner C. Hendrie and Karen J. Johansen ‡ John and Catherine Henn Ernie and Kathy Herrman Connie and Barry Hershey Mr. and Mrs. Brian Hickox Pat and Paul Hogan David and Charisse Howse Bob and Laura Kay Hughes Joanie V. Ingraham Dr. John Y.C. Jao Mimi and George Jigarjian Susan L. Johnson and Robert Wallace Saj-nicole A. Joni Thomas A. and Carrie L. Kenney Paul L. King Ms. Alessandra H. Kingsford Wendy and Philip Kistler Marilyn Bone Kloss Jason Knutson and Eleena Zhelezov Susan G. Kohn Kate and Tom Kush Ms. Kathryn Lange and Mr. Dennis Sonifer In Loving Memory of Joan Whittle McClane Leftwich Mr. and Mrs. Francis V. Lloyd III The John F and Dorothy H Magee Foundation Martha Maguire and Oleg Simanovsky Michele Mandrioli Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Martin Janice Harrington and John Matthews Vincent Mayer and Dana Lee Drake and Karen McFeely N. W. McKelvy Beth Nathan and George Mellman The Janet G. Michaels Charitable Fund
MEMBER $5,000 – $9,999 Thomas and Hannah Abe Nathaniel Adams and Sarah Grandfield Lenecia Anderson Nancy Andrews Dr. and Mrs. Richard M. Arnold Marjorie Arons-Barron and James H. Barron Lisa G. Arrowood and Philip D. O’Neill, Jr. Marian Ashraf Diane M. Austin and Aaron J. Nurick Linda and Neil Ayer Sandy and David Bakalar Dr. Peter A. Banks Donald P. Barker, M.D. Dr. William H. Barth, Jr. Hanna and James (+) Bartlett Lucille Batal Leonard and Jane Bernstein Mrs. Linda Cabot Black Neil and Margery Blacklow Winifred and Robert Blacklow Carolyn Boday Richard and Sandra Boyatzis George and Connie Bradley Traudy (+) and Stephen Bradley Catherine Brigham David and Jane Brigham Gail and Peter Brown Ellen and Ronald Brown Marshall and Jane Brown Matthew Budd and Rosalind Gorin Ms. Samantha N. Bueno Joanne and Timothy Burke Jane Carr and Andy Hertig Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Chin Mr. and Mrs. Dan Ciampa Fred Clifford, in memory of Barbara Clifford Mrs. I.W. Colburn Marlies Comjean Victor Constantiner Peggy Reiser and Charles Cooney Mrs. Albert M. Creighton, Jr. Robert and Sarah Croce Ruth (+) and Bob Crocker Joanna Inches Cunningham Alice Cutler
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Rick and Laurel Miller Wendy and Jonathan Mishara Dr. and Mrs. Bruce H. Mitlak Betty Morningstar and Jeanette Kruger Robert and Jane Morse Cornelia G. Nichols Sharon Nolan and James Rosenfeld Kathleen and Richard Norman Mrs. Lawrence A. Norton Christine Olsen and Robert Small Drs. Roslyn W. and Stuart H. Orkin David and Stephanie Osser Patricia Palmer Deborah Papps Peter Parker and Susan Clare Joyce F. ‡ and Bruce M. Pastor, MD Kitty Pechet Katharine and Anthony Pell Joan Perera Drs. James and Ellen Perrin Susan Pharr Wendy Philbrick Mr. Daniel A. Phillips ‡ and Rev. Diana W. Phillips Pizzicato Fund Mr. James Post and Mrs. Jeannette A. Chirico-Post Elizabeth F. Potter and Joseph L. Bower Dr. Tina Young Poussaint and Dr. Alvin Poussaint
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Michael C.J. Putnam and Kenneth Gaulin Dr. Herbert Rakatansky and Mrs. Barbara Sokoloff Peter and Suzanne Read Dr. Douglas Reeves Sharon and Howard Rich Mrs. Nancy Riegel Diana Rowan Rockefeller Judy and David Rosenthal Thomas and Bonnie Rosse Debora and Alan Rottenberg William and Kathleen Rousseau Michael Walsh and Susan Ruf Christopher P. Salvadore in loving memory of Ann and Joseph Salvadore Joanne Zervas Sattley Mary and William Schmidt David W. Scudder Carol Searle and Andrew Ley ‡ Mr. John Sedivy and Ms. Alison DeLong Stephen and Peg Senturia Mr. Wilfred M. Sheehan Drs. Margaret and Michael Simon Maggie and Jack Skenyon Ms. Nancy F. Smith Scott R. Sparvero Mrs. Lee T. Sprague Valerie C. Stelling
George and Janie Stephenson John Stevens and Virginia McIntyre Liza Ketchum and Dr. John H. Straus Glenn and Katherine Strehle Jeanne and John Talbourdet Mr. Wheeler M. Thackston Diana O. Tottenham Jack Turner and Tee Taggart Mary A. Valerio Feldman Michele May and David Walt Donald and Susan Ware Matthew and Susan Weatherbie Mr. and Mrs. David Weinstein Dr. and Mrs. Sidney S. Weinstein Ellen B. Widmer Dudley H. Willis and Sally S. Willis ‡ John C. Willis, Jr. Thomas E. Wilson and Julie Boatright Wilson Pete Wishnok and Judith Chaffee Ms. Barbara S. Wood Leonard Wood Dr. Xuqiong Wu Drs. Richard ‡ and Judith Wurtman Anonymous (14)
MUNCH SOCIETY $3,000 – $4,999 Constantine Alexander and Linda S. Reinfeld Ms. Patricia Altschuller Paul Armstrong and Beverly Haviland John and Molly Beard Mrs. Assunta Cha Joanne and Larry Cheng Marjorie B. and Martin Cohn Joanne Cordeiro Tamara P. and Charles H. Davis II John Kenneth Felter, Esq. and Mrs. Linda Felter Mr. Nathaniel Gardiner and Mrs. Nancy Gardiner Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Gilling Eric C. Green Ms. Mary J. Greer Louis Grossman and Amy Gerson James H. Hammons, Jr Miss Ann S. Higgins Patricia ‡ and Galen Ho Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle
John Iappini and Carole Mathieson Terence Janericco Ms. Nancy L. Keating Elizabeth Kent Mr. Peter Krysa Drs. Maydee G. and Nelson P. Lande Robert A. ‡ and Patricia P. Lawrence Dr. Robert Levine and Dr. Rebecca Kadish Mr. Charles S. Maier Mr. and Mrs. John E. Marshall III Beth Maynard and Mark Dirksen Maureen and James Mellowes Ann and Mike Menzie Peter Ambler and Lindsay Miller Richard S. Milstein, Esq. David and Deborah Odeh Stephen and Liz Pardo Mr. Edward Perry and Ms. Cynthia Wood
Josh Posner and Eileen Rudden Dr. Jane M. Rabb Barbara Reade Mr. Frank L. Reis, Jr. Frederick J. and Bonnie M.‡ Rich Mr. Norman R. Robertson Mary Ann Serra Mr. and Mrs. Ross E. Sherbrooke Christopher Smallhorn Harold Stahler Tricia Swift Richard S. Taylor Ann B. Teixeira Lorraine Vekens Chuck and Sarah Will Laura and Gregory Yanchenko Xiaohua Zhang Henry Steinway Ziegler and Jourdan Arpelle-Ziegler Anonymous (2)
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ELEVATE
your love OF THE BSO THROUGH THE HIGGINSON SOCIETY This group of leadership donors are passionate about embracing, preserving, and sharing music in Boston and beyond. Starting at $5,000, your support can elevate your season with donor-exclusive benefits, including special invitations to behind-the-scenes events and access to our members-only lounge. Donate and become a Society member today at bso.org/elevate
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Administration Chad Smith, Eunice and Julian Cohen President and Chief Executive Officer, endowed in perpetuity Lauren Budding, Chief Development Officer Anthony Fogg, William I. Bernell Vice President, Artistic Planning Ed Gazouleas, Director of the Tanglewood Music Center, endowed in honor of Edward H. Linde by Alan S. Bressler and Edward I. Rudman, fully funded in perpetuity Josué González, Helaine B. Allen Vice President, Education and External Engagement P. Eric Krauss, Senior Vice President of Operations Jesse Needleman, Thomas G. Stemberg Vice President, Marketing, Sales, and Communications Tyler Rand, General Manager Sok Cheng Soh, Jane B. and Robert J. Mayer M.D. Chief Financial Officer Sandra St Fleur Wright, Chief Human Resources and Equity Officer Lisa Swain, Chief of Staff Gaia Liotta, Executive Assistant to the President & CEO
Artistic Bridget P. Carr, Blanche and George Jones Director of Archives and Digital Collections • Sarah Funke Donovan, Assistant Director, Archives & Digital Collections Archivist • Jana Hieber, Manager of Choral Activities • Ellyn Kusmin, Associate Director of Artistic Services • Daniel Mallampalli, Assistant Vice President of Artistic Planning • Peppino V. Natale, Chauffeur/Valet • Jackson Reed, Digitization Project Archivist • Eric Valliere, Artistic Administrator Boston Pops Michael Nock, Interim Director of Artistic Planning • Rubi Yan, Artist Liaison
Concert Production Cole Barbour, Recording and Audio Engineer Assistant • Jackie Bartling-John, Coordinator, Orchestra Personnel • James Campbell, Stage Video Technician • Catherine Cooper, Stage Technician • John Demick, Stage Manager • Angelina DeSocio, Production Manager • Dana Filloon, Live Audio Engineer • Sophie Heeden, Operations Manager • Tuaha Khan, Assistant Stage Manager • Becca Mansfield, Coordinator, Orchestra Management • Patrick Meloveck, Stage Lighting Technician • Jake Moerschel, Vice President of Production • John Morin, Stage Manager, Seiji Ozawa Hall and Linde Center for Music and Learning • Emily W. Siders, Senior Manager, Operations and Tours • Nick Squire, Lead Recording Engineer • Nolan Welch, Director of Orchestra Personnel, Patricia Romeo-Gilbert and Paul B. Gilbert chair
Development Maria Antifonario, Director of Development Communications • Stephanie Baker, Director of Development Analytics • Hanna Bové, Membership Coordinator • Gabrielle Clutter, Donor Relations and Ticketing Associate • Olivia Coniglio, Associate Director, Donor Relations • Emily Diaz, Assistant Manager, Gift Processing • Ruth Dinerman, Assistant Director, Foundation Relations • Courtney Forrester, Senior Director of Special Events • Benjamin Gammerman, Assistant Director of Development Communications • Colleen Geary, Individual Giving Officer, Tanglewood Focus • Rachel Gebeloff, Manager, Society Programs • Megan Guzman, Director of Planned Giving • Susan Harrison, Senior Philanthropy Officer • Rachel Ice, Individual Giving Officer • Joan Jolley, Director of Corporate Partnerships • Joseph Kamay, Director of Board Engagement • Johnathan Kindall, Corporate Relations Associate • Joey Kuykendall, Associate Director of BSO Business Partners • Heather Laplante, Associate Director of Development Information Systems • Samuel Y. Liu, Associate Director, Corporate Sponsor Relations • Ryan Losey, Senior Director for Institutional Giving Sabrina Lower, Assistant Manager of Individual Giving • Melissa Markstein, Prospect Research Analyst • Laurence E. Oberwager, Director of Tanglewood Business Partners • Kara O’Keefe, Director of Leadership Giving and Senior Philanthropy Officer • Dave Paek, Vice President of Development and Campaign Planning • Erik Privert, Senior Director of Donor Relations and Special Projects • Samantha Salloway, Assistant Director of Development Events-Annual Fund and Board Engagement Events • Caitlin Sarantopoulos, Manager of Donor Relations and Ticketing • Peter Schlaht, Associate Director of Membership and Insights • Alex Scott, Development and Board Relations Associate • Cate Sheehan, Prospect Research Analyst • Phoebe Slanetz, Senior Director of Prospect Strategy and Development • Gina Tranfaglia, Senior Philanthropy Officer and Assistant Director, Patron Giving • Blandine Van de Velde, Assistant Vice President for Individual Philanthropy and Planned Giving • Anne Marie Zawacki, Annual Fund Officer
Administration Program | 63
Facilities Symphony Hall Operations Jim Boudreau, Lead Electrician • Edward Burrows, HVAC Technician Charles F. Cassell, Jr., Facilities Compliance and Training Coordinator • Casimir Deronette, Director of Public Safety • Marcus Germain, Facilities Operations Manager • Martin Marchaud, Carpenter/Painter • Joseph Nichols, Director of Symphony Hall Facilities • Adam Twiss, Electrician Tanglewood Operations Guy Boos, Associate Superintendent of Campus Facilities • Fallyn Davis, Senior Operations Manager of Tanglewood Facilities • Richard Drumm, Jr., Mechanic • Gina Guachione, Senior Facilities Operations Specialist • Doug Heppleston, Tanglewood Public Safety and Security Manager • Ross Jolly, William E. Briggs Tanglewood Facilities Manager • Robert Lahart, Director of Tanglewood Facilities • Tom Leahy, Tanglewood Grounds Manager • Ronald Paul, Plumber/ HVAC Technician • Dale Romeo, Tanglewood Electrician/MEP Systems & Project Coordinator
Finance Office Michelle Bourbeau, Payroll Administrator • Renee Brick, Director of Financial Planning and Analysis • Aidan Cullen, Senior Financial Analyst • Kat Decelles, Vice President of Finance • Sean Deegan, Staff Accountant • Stephen Leonardo, Accounting Manager • Lauren Reissfelder, Senior Staff Accountant • Sheryl Sandler, Senior Endowment Accountant • Pauline Sims, Payroll Administrator • Mahi Taye, Accounts Payable Specialist
Human Resources Emma Ledoux, Human Resources Specialist • Rodolfo Muñoz, Jr., Human Resources Information Systems Workday Specialist • Erin Sutton, Human Resources Director • Karla Woodward, Talent Acquisition Manager
Information Technology Andrew Cordero, IT Services Analyst • Gregory Vigeant, IT Services and Infrastructure Lead • Timothy James, Director of Information Technology • James Nugent, IT Services Analyst • Julie Schwartz, Senior IT Project Manager
Marketing, Sales, and Communications Amanda Beaudoin, Associate Art Director • Christina Dioguardi, Associate Director of Communications Operations • Paul Ginocchio, Retail Operations Manager • Victoria K.M. Kohnstam, Project Management Coordinator • Michael Moore, Associate Director, Revenue Strategy and Analytics • Megan Mullaly, Graphic Designer • Ben Pitt, Web Manager • Leah Reber, Digital Engagement Manager • Sofia Sallaway, Marketing Specialist • Julia Serino, Graphic Designer • Lindsay Sheridan, Associate Director of Growth Marketing • Maya Shwayder, Senior Contributing Editor and Copywriter • Alex Speir, Director of Marketing and Audience Development • Marc Stachurski, Director of Retail Strategy and Merchandising • Courtenay Terrell, Retail Buyer • Kevin Toler, Director of Creative Services • Graham Wright, Director of Content and Digital Services Venue and Event Services Adam Cameron, Events Services Specialist • Caleb Duffy, Venue and Event Services Administrator • Jason Leonhard, Venue and Event Manager • John Stanton, Director of Venue and Event Services • Erin Tessier, Senior Manager, Tanglewood Venue and Event Services Patron Services Amy Aldrich, Senior Director of Patron Experience • Patrick Alves, Front of House Associate Manager • Erin Asbury, Director of Volunteer Services • Callie Carmosino, Front of House Supervisor • Nick Duffin, Senior Manager of Customer Experience and Insights • John Fernandes, Group Sales Manager • Melissa Lange, Ticketing Services Associate Manager • Jason Lyon, Director of Front of House • Brady Maroni, Ticketing Services Associate • Daniel Mayotte, Ticketing Services Associate Supervisor • Devin Orr, Associate Group Sales Manager • Lily Ouillette, Box Office Assistant Manager • Benjamin Ruesch, Ticketing Services Associate • Sam Sanders, Ticketing Services Associate • Robert Sistare, Senior Subscriptions Representative • Emma Staudacher, Box Office Manager • Nicholas Vincent, Associate Director of Ticketing Services • David Chandler Winn, Tessitura Liaison and Associate Director of Tanglewood Ticketing • Evan Xenakis, Box Office Administrator Public Relations Rena Cohen, Publicist • Jan Devereux, Senior Director, Public Relations and Communications • Matthew Erikson, Senior Publicist and Media Relations Lead Publications James T. Connolly, Program Publications Specialist and Pops Program Editor • Robert Kirzinger, Director of Program Publications
Tanglewood Music Center and Learning Tanglewood Learning Institute Mark Rulison, Artistic Administrator, TLI and Humanities Tanglewood Music Center Relyn Myrthil, TMC Manager of Artists and Community • Samantha Price, TMC Administrative Coordinator • Matthew Szymanski, Associate Director and Dean of Fellows • Gary Wallen, Associate Director for Scheduling and Production Education and External Engagement Maisha Grant, Director of Education • Erica Lindamood, Program Manager, Education • Zoe Murphy, Program Manager, External Engagement
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Boston Symphony Association of Volunteers Executive Committee Chair, Howie Arkans Vice-Chair, Boston, Carol Brown Vice-Chair, Tanglewood, Peter Geller Secretary, Lisa Mafrici Co-Chairs, Boston Education, John Halpin • Volunteer and Community Engagement, Giovanna Franchi • Patron Experience, Elizabeth Michalak Co-Chairs, Tanglewood Education, Len Sigal • Volunteer and Community Engagement, Susan Murawczyk • Patron Experience, Margot Lee Usher Liaison, Norma d’Oliveira
Boston Project Leads 2025–26
Winslow Townson
Archives, Cathy Mazza • Community Chamber Music Series, Debee Slater • Décor/Flowers, Stephanie Henry, Kevin Montague, and Virginia Grant • Guides’ Guide, Audley Fuller • Hosts, Yoojin Chung • Instrument Playgrounds, Caroline Wittschen • Quarter Notes Newsletter, Cassandra Gordon • Social Engagement, Sue O’Neill and Michael Scotto • Tour Guides, Barbara Petroulis • Volunteer Emeritus, Sybil Williams
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2025-26 CHAMBER MUSIC SEASON
Julianne Lee, Lucia Lin, – violins, Rebecca Gitter – viola, Jonathan Miller – cello
Transcendence Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Opus 10 Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Opus 132
Friday, March 6 at 8:00 at Hamilton Hall in Salem Sunday, March 8 at 3:00 at St. Paul’s Church in Brookline Tickets & Information at BostonArtistsEnsemble.org
Please note Hamilton Hall is a Registered National Historic Landmark and not handicap accessible to the performance hall on the second floor.
Symphony Hall Information WELCOME! To ensure a comfortable experience while visiting Symphony Hall, here is some useful information while attending a performance. • Building Emergency: In the unlikely event of an emergency, guests will be notified by our emergency address system. Should the building need to be evacuated, please exit via the nearest door (see map on opposite page), or according to instructions. • Medical Emergencies: EMT staff is onsite during scheduled events and First Aid is available if needed. • Accessibility: For patrons with disabilities, elevator access to Symphony Hall is available at both the Massachusetts Avenue and Cohen Wing/Huntington Avenue entrances. For more information about accessible services at Symphony Hall please visit bso.org/access. • Lost and Found: Located at the security desk at the Stage Door on St. Stephen Street. 617-638-9333 • Restrooms: Located on both main corridors of the orchestra level, and first balcony, and in the Cohen Wing. There are no restrooms located on the second balcony level of the hall. • Concessions: Beverages and small snacks are available on the Orchestra and First Balcony levels. For up-to-date information about dining and refreshments at Symphony Hall, visit bso.org/dining. Please note that no food or beverages (except water) are permitted in the Symphony Hall auditorium. • No Smoking: Smoking and vaping are not permitted anywhere inside Symphony Hall. • Children: For BSO concerts, to minimize disruptions we request that children under the age of five do not attend. Families with younger children are encouraged to attend our BSO Family Concerts and family-friendly Boston Pops performances. • Safety: We take safety seriously; all guests will be screened upon entry into the Hall as a safety precaution. We hope you have an enjoyable time while in Symphony Hall. If you need any help while you are visiting with us, please reach out to our Front of House ushers for further assistance. Please silence all cell phones and electronic devices, and please keep them stored and unused throughout the performance so your fellow concertgoers may enjoy the concert without distraction. While photos and videos before the concert and during intermission are welcome (and encouraged!), photos, videos, and recording during the performance are prohibited. Thank you! Each ticket purchased from the Boston Symphony Orchestra constitutes a license from the BSO to the purchaser. The purchase price of a ticket is printed on its face. No ticket may be transferred or resold for any price above its face value. By accepting a ticket, you are agreeing to the terms of this license. If these terms are not acceptable, please promptly contact the Box Office at (617) 266-1200 or customerservice@bso.org in order to arrange for the return of the ticket(s). More of the BSO • Tickets: Tickets can be purchased online at www.bso.org, or by phone at 617-266-1200 or in person at our Box office. For hours please visit bso.org/contact. To obtain more information regarding BSO subscriptions, College, High School and Medical Card Programs, Rush tickets and other discounts with special ticketing opportunities please visit the BSO website. • Symphony Hall Rentals: For Symphony Hall rental information, please visit bso.org or email events@bso.org. • Boston Symphony Radio Broadcasts: Tune into 99.5 WCRB Classical Radio Boston on Saturday evenings to hear live broadcasts of BSO concerts. Learn more at classicalwcrb.org. • BSO Friends: For information on becoming a Friend of the BSO Annual Funds, please email friendsofthebso@bso.org or call the Friends Office at (617) 638-9276. • BSO Business Partners: The BSO Business Partners program makes it possible for businesses to participate in the life of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Benefits include corporate recognition in the BSO program book, access to the Beranek Room reception lounge, two-for-one ticket pricing, and advance ticket ordering. For further information, please visit bso.org, email bsobusinesspartners@bso.org, or call (617) 638-9275. www.bso.org Information | 67
Symphony Hall Exit Plan
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Hospitality, Home Grown TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GOURMET EVENTS, FOOD SERVICE MANAGEMENT AND CAREERS, SCAN THE QR CODE.
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C E LE B RATI N G 20 YEAR S O F C O M M U N ITY I M PACT