Spring Pops Week 3

Keith Lockhart is the second longest-tenured conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. He took over as conductor in 1995, following John Williams’s 13-year tenure from 1980 to 1993; Mr. Williams succeeded the legendary Arthur Fiedler, who was at the helm of the orchestra for nearly 50 years. Keith Lockhart, who occupies the Julian and Eunice Cohen Boston Pops Conductor chair, has conducted more than 2,000 Boston Pops concerts and annual Boston Pops appearances at Tanglewood, as well as 45 national tours and 4 international tours to Japan and Korea. The annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular conducted by Mr. Lockhart draws a live audience of over half a million to the Charles River Esplanade and millions more who view it on television or live webcast. He has led eight albums on RCA Victor/BMG Classics; recent releases on Boston Pops Recordings include A Boston Pops Christmas–Live from Symphony Hall, The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, and Lights, Camera…Music! Six Decades of John Williams. The list of nearly 300 guest artists with whom Keith Lockhart has collaborated represents performers from virtually every corner of the entertainment world. Having recently completed an 8-year tenure as principal conductor, he is now chief guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London; he is also artistic director of the Brevard Music Center summer institute and festival in North Carolina. Prior to his BBC appointment, he spent 11 years as music director of the Utah Symphony. He has appeared as a guest conductor with virtually every major symphonic ensemble in North America and many in Asia and Europe. Before coming to Boston, he was the associate conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops orchestras, as well as music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

Read Keith Lockhart’s full biography

View the Boston Pops roster and musician bios

For more than 135 years, the Boston Pops has entertained audiences in Boston and beyond, with Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart leading the orchestra since 1995. It all began in 1885, thanks to the vision of Civil War veteran Henry Lee Higginson. Four years earlier, in 1881, he founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra, calling its establishment "the dream of my life." From the start he intended to present, in the warmer months, concerts of light classics and the popular music of the day. From a practical perspective, Higginson realized that these "lighter" performances would provide year-round employment for his musicians. The "Promenade Concerts," as they were originally called, were soon informally known as "Popular Concerts," which eventually became shortened to "Pops," the name officially adopted in 1900. The following year the orchestra performed for the first time in its new home, Symphony Hall. Not only is this performance space acoustically outstanding, it was also designed, at Higginson's insistence, so that the rows of seats for Boston Symphony concerts could be replaced by tables and chairs for Pops concerts. To this day, patrons sitting at the cabaret-style tables can enjoy food and drink along with the kind of musical entertainment only the Boston Pops can provide.

There were 17 Pops conductors, beginning with the German Adolf Neuendorff, that preceded Arthur Fiedler, the first American-born musician to lead the orchestra. In Fiedler’s nearly 50-year tenure as Pops Conductor (1930-1979), he established the Boston Pops as a national icon. When John Williams (1980-1993) succeeded Arthur Fiedler, he was the most highly acclaimed composer in Hollywood, and today, with 52 Academy Award nominations, he is the most-nominated living person in Academy history. Mr. Williams continued the Boston Pops Orchestra's prolific recording tradition with a series of best-selling recordings for the Philips and Sony Classical labels, broadened and updated the Pops repertoire, and entertained audiences with live orchestral accompaniment to clips of memorable movie scenes, many featuring iconic music from his own film scores.

Having led over 2,000 Boston Pops concerts in his tenure to date, Keith Lockhart (1995-present) has created programs that reach out to a broader and younger audience by presenting artists—both established performers and rising stars—from virtually every corner of the entertainment world, all the while maintaining the Pops' core appeal. He has made 83 television shows, led 45 national and four overseas tours with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, led the Pops at several high-profile sports events, and recorded 14 albums. Mr. Lockhart's tenure has been marked by a dramatic increase in touring, the orchestra's first Grammy nominations, the first major network national broadcast of the July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular from the Esplanade, and the release of the Boston Pops' first self-produced and self-distributed recordings.

James (Jim) Norman Gwin, drummer of the Boston Pops Orchestra, died peacefully on Tuesday, December 28, 2021, at 64 years old.

Statement from Keith Lockhart

At the Boston Pops, we pride ourselves on playing all sorts of music…classical, of course, but also jazz, rock, pop, world music, and beyond. For much of that repertoire, the steady heartbeat that allows an orchestra to play with spectacular clarity and tight ensemble is provided, not by the conductor on the podium, but by the drummer.

Playing the drumset for a large symphony orchestra is an extraordinarily difficult task. Knowledge of styles of play…being able to sound like Ringo Starr, or Gene Krupa, or Charlie Watts…is a must. So is an ability to read a conductor’s intentions, to hear how the orchestra is responding, and to justify those two things into a rock-solid, but flexible, foundation.

I have never worked with a better orchestral drummer than Jim Gwin. He was a superb drummer, but even more a superb musician. He was also one of the nicest…self-effacing, generous, and very funny…people I have ever shared a stage with. When he was suddenly taken ill in December this year, he wrote me an apologetic note, in which he reminded me that these concerts were the first he had missed since he became the regular Pops drummer in 2004. That means I must have done at least 1500 concerts with him. Every one of them was better because he was backing the band.

I will miss Jim as a friend and as a colleague, and as someone who just made every musical situation, and the players around him, better. My recurring image of him, which I have been unable to get out of my mind since hearing of his passing, is of running into him in the halls under the Symphony Hall stage. He has his head bent to the side, because he was extremely tall and the basement ceilings extremely low, and he was one of those tall folk who always looked like they were trying to be shorter. And he passes, with a grin, and says “Hey, Chief!”

The great thing about being in the performing arts is getting to know really talented, extraordinary people extremely well. The awful thing is having to say goodbye.

Steve Colby, Sound Designer | Pamela Smith, Lighting Designer

The Boston Pops Orchestra may be heard on Boston Pops Recordings, RCA Victor, Sony Classical, and Philips Records.

Concertmaster Tamara Smirnova 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.

Steinway & Sons Pianos, selected exclusively for Symphony Hall.

The BSO’s Steinway & Sons pianos were purchased through a generous gift from Gabriella and Leo Beranek.

Special thanks to American Airlines and Fairmont Copley Plaza.

New arrangements and works for the Boston Pops are generously supported by the Cecile Higginson Murphy Pops Programming Fund.

Broadcasts of the Boston Pops are heard on 99.5 WCRB.

Programs and artists subject to change.

The BSO’s 2021-22 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.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Board of Trustees | Board of Advisors | Staff and Administration

This season the Boston Pops honors the 90th birthday of John Williams, the George and Roberta Berry Boston Pops Conductor Laureate, with film-in-concert performances of both Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone™ and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. In the same spirit, we present Harlow Robinson’s tribute to the composer, originally printed in the program for the premiere of John Williams’s Violin Concerto No. 2 at Tanglewood in 2021. Happy birthday, Maestro!

Read John Williams's full biography

When legendary Hollywood film composer Dmitri Tiomkin accepted the Oscar for best film score in 1955 (for The High and the Mighty), he mischievously thanked Brahms, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Wagner, Beethoven, and Rimsky-Korsakov. John Williams, now the most honored film composer of all time, has a similar respect for the traditions of classical music upon which he has drawn in creating scores for more than 100 feature films. That includes, of course, all nine movies (to date) in the Star Wars series. Even though Williams claims he doesn’t know Wagner’s Ring operas well, he has admitted that Wagner’s music influenced his work on Star Wars. This makes sense, since some have called this epic cinematic cycle of exploration, conquest, and self-discovery a “space opera.”

“Wagner lives with us here—you can’t escape it. I have been in the big river swimming with all of them,” he told New Yorker music critic Alex Ross. For Williams, the work of his predecessors in film and concert music provides “the shoulders we stand on,” as he said in a recent CBS interview filmed at Tanglewood.

But Williams, now 90, has developed impressive shoulders himself. Nominated for fifty-two Academy Awards (the most of any living person and second only to Walt Disney all-time) over the amazing span of seven decades, he has won five, for Fiddler on the Roof (adaptation and original song score), Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and Schindler’s List (all for best original film score). He has worked with many of the leading directors of his time: Stephen Spielberg (on twenty-eight films), Oliver Stone, Herbert Ross, Norman Jewison, Robert Altman, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sydney Pollack (to name only a few).

Most of the films Williams has scored have achieved both critical and popular success not only in America, but around the world. Although best known for his work in the realm of fantasy, he has also proven his ability to score seminal films of hard-hitting historical realism: Schindler’s List, JFK, Lincoln. His music for the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises has entered deep into global popular culture. You can even download a recording of the iconic five-note theme Williams created for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the code for communication between aliens and earthlings) to use as a ringtone on your mobile phone. And the two-note ostinato figure for double bass he devised for the attacking shark in Jaws has become synonymous with impending danger. (Spielberg later admitted that these two notes “played a crucial role in that movie’s colossal success.”) No question about it: the guy has an amazing talent for coming up with a catchy tune (or motif) that suits the film’s message and dramatic atmosphere. In order to cut through the powerful visual medium, the music needs to be direct and mostly tonal, he says, and “the tunes need to speak probably in a matter of seconds—five or six seconds.”

Williams grew up around music and musicians. When he was a teenager, his family moved from New York to Los Angeles, where his father, a percussionist, played for movie soundtracks by such masters of the form as Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, Vertigo, Spellbound). These connections proved useful as Williams began his own career as a pianist living in Hollywood, in close proximity to “the industry.” “I can’t say I was ‘mentored’ by people like Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman. But in retrospect they befriended me; they would ask me to their homes for dinner and I didn’t think about any of it. I worked as a pianist for these composers and some of them would begin to ask me to orchestrate things, which I could do, and eventually write scores for television shows.”

Williams denies, however, that being a film composer was a goal he was consciously striving for. Today, universities and conservatories offer academic training in the craft of film scoring, but when he was starting out in the early 1950s the necessary skills were learned on the job through experience—and practice, practice, practice. “I don’t think I can say it was something I always wanted to do; it was just part of an evolution, a series of good luck turns. But it was not part of a plan or an ambition of mine. I simply put one foot in front of the other.”

Probably because he grew up in Hollywood around the movie business, Williams did not come to the profession with the prejudice that composing for film was something you did only for money and only if you couldn’t make it as a “serious” composer. He shared the view of Bernard Herrmann and other luminaries of film music in Hollywood’s Golden Age—Dmitri Tiomkin, Erich Korngold, Miklos Rozsa—that there was “no essential distinction to be drawn between composing for films and composing for other media,” as Christopher Palmer writes in The Composer in Hollywood. Film composing, Williams has said, “isn’t a sometime thing. It’s a fulltime thing.” (That has not kept him, however, from also creating a significant body of frequently heard concert works.)

Williams’s scores also build upon, and sometimes even imitate, models provided by his Hollywood and non-Hollywood predecessors. Bernard Herrmann’s influence reverberates in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, especially during the sequences while Roy and Jillian are driving across Wyoming. What Williams writes here closely resembles the agitated, anticipatory, highly rhythmic music written for Marion as she drives towards the Bates Motel in the rain in Psycho. And numerous critics have pointed out the similarity between the main fanfare-like theme from Star Wars and the theme Korngold wrote for Sam Woods’s 1942 feature Kings Row.

One also hears echoes of the music of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) at several crucial moments. Significantly, when Prokofiev was already a well-established “serious” classical composer, he wrote masterful scores for two films by Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein, including Alexander Nevsky. In that film’s famous “Battle on the Ice” sequence, a two-note ostinato figure occurs just before the combat begins; it seems to directly prefigure the two-note ostinato figure at a similar dramatic moment in Jaws, the only difference being that in Nevsky the figure moves downward, and in Jaws, upward.

The beloved yet sinister “Imperial March” from Star Wars offers another reference to Prokofiev. Its similarity to the menacing number “Montagues and Capulets” from the ballet Romeo and Juliet is so strong that the brass section of one orchestra recently pranked their conductor by interrupting their performance of that moment from the Prokofiev score with Williams’s March. But imitation is the highest form of flattery, and as Igor Stravinsky (who lived for decades in Los Angeles but never managed to complete a film score despite several attempts) once allegedly observed: “Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.”

One of the constants in Williams’s long, varied, and amazingly productive creative life has been his close relationship with Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony, and the Boston Pops. He has been coming from his home in Los Angeles to spend the summer in the Berkshires for many years now. “The effect of Tanglewood on me is very spiritual and exciting,” he said when interviewed here in 2019. “I have written so much music—and so many film scores—in this place. It provides the perfect antidote to the Hollywood activities I do the rest of the year. It keeps me fresh.”

—Harlow Robinson

Harlow Robinson is an author, lecturer and Matthews Distinguished University Professor of History, Emeritus, at Northeastern University. His books include Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography and Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood’s Russians. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Cineaste, and Opera News, and he has written program notes for the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and Metropolitan Opera.

Thursday, June 2, at 7pm
Friday, June 3, at 7pm
Saturday, June 4, at 1pm

BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRA
Keith Lockhart conducting

SEASON SPONSORED BY FIDELITY INVESTMENTS

John Williams
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Feature Film with Orchestra

There will be one intermission

Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts in association with 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm Ltd., and Warner/Chappell Music. All rights reserved.

Star Wars Film Concert Series
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Starring
Mark Hamill
Harrison Ford
Carrie Fisher
Billy Dee Williams
Anthony Daniels

Co-Starring
David Prowse as Darth Vader
Kenny Baker as R2-D2
Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca
Frank Oz as Yoda

Directed by
Irvin Kershner

Produced by
Gary Kurtz

Screenplay by
Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan

Story by
George Lucas

Executive Producer
George Lucas

Music by
John Williams

Original Motion Picture available at Disneymusicemporium.com

Star Wars Film Concert Series Production Credits

President, Disney Music Group
Ken Bunt

SVP/GM, Disney Concerts
Chip McLean

Supervising Technical Director
Alex Levy – Epilogue Media

Film Preparation
Ramiro Belgardt

Business Affairs, Lucasfilm
Rhonda Hjort
Chris Holm

For Booking Inquires:
Emily.Yoon@ICMPartners.com

Fairmont Copley Plaza is proud to support the June 2 concert as the Official Hotel of the Boston Pops

June 2: Vertex Pharmaceuticals is proud to support the Boston Pops as a BSO Business Partner.
The Boston Pops welcomes Harvard Outings & Innings, Peak Group Travel, and Winchester High School.

June 3: Arthur J. Hurley Company is proud to support the Boston Pops as a BSO Business Partner.
The Boston Pops welcomes Harvard Outings & Innings, MIT Activities Committee, Joseph Warren-Soley Lodge F. & A.M., and Winnacunnet High School.

June 4: Adage Capital is proud to support the Boston Pops as a BSO Business Partner.
The Boston Pops welcomes Gates Middle School, Harvard Outings & Innings, and The Hundred Club of Massachusetts, Inc.

BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRA
Keith Lockhart conducting

SEASON SPONSORED BY FIDELITY INVESTMENTS

Overture to Candide
Bernstein

Harlem
Ellington-Henderson/Mauceri

STEVEN HUANG (Harvard '95) conducting

Radcliffe, We Rise to Greet Thee
Coolidge

Fair Harvard
Gilman-Bodge/Hayman

Double Concerto in A minor, third movement (Vivace non troppo)
Brahms
AYANO NINOMIAYA, violin (Harvard ’01); STEPHEN CHO, cello (Harvard ’97)

INTERMISSION

Bitter Sweet Symphony
Ashcroft-Freeman

Echo Train and Two-Hop from Whistler Waves
Mallonee
JULIA TOM (Harvard ’97), cello
Composed by CAROLINE MALLONEE (Harvard ’97)

Two pieces from the musical Unknown Soldier
My Husband Takes Care of Things
I Give Away Children
CAPRICE CORONA (Harvard ’97), vocalist
Composed by MICHAEL FRIEDMAN (1975-2017) (Harvard ’97)

Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter
Williams

Cantina Band from Star Wars: A New Hope
Williams-Ramin

Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Williams

Steven Huang (BA ’95) has conducted orchestras and operas across the United States and throughout the world, including recurring guest conductor of the Ohio Valley Symphony, National Philharomonic of Moldova, and l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Ste. Trinité, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At the age of twenty-one, he served as Music Director of the Bach Society Orchestra of Harvard University, where he received his undergraduate degree, as well as the Lowell House Opera, the oldest continuously running opera company in New England. From 2004-2020, he served on faculty as Director of Orchestral Activities at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He is currently the Music Director of the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra.

Since 2000, Steven has visited Haiti numerous times to work with musicians as a conductor, pianist, cellist, and teacher. As faculty at L'Ecole de Musique Ste. Trinité, he has attended summer music camps in Leogâne, Port-au-Prince, Petionville, and Cange; in addition to guest conducting regular season concerts. He has also participated as faculty with L’Ecole de Musique Dessaix-Baptiste in Jacmel. As a faculty member at Ohio University, he has supported several Haitian musicians’ sabbatical education in the United States.

Steven’s conducting experience is worldwide. He has held the position of Music Director of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Central Illinois Youth Symphony, the Gilbert and Sullivan Players of Chicago, and the Bradley University Orchestra. He has guest conducted programs with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Brasov Philharmonic, the New Symphony Orchestra of Bulgaria; the Attergau Kultursommer Orchestra in Austria, in conjunction with the Salzburg Festival; the Jeunesses Musicales Festival Orchestra, and Pitesti Philharmonic in Romania; and the “Regina Vioara” International Violin Festival Orchestra in Moldova.

Mr. Huang earned the Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan as a student of Kenneth Kiesler. He twice received the Herbert von Karajan Fellowship for Young Conductors for study at the Salzburg Festival, and the Fulbright Fellowship for study at the National University of Music in Bucharest, where he was the student of Dumitru Goia.

Equally at home as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Ayano Ninomiya has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to recent performances at Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, and Merkin Hall, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 with the Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Recent performances include solos with A Far Cry and the Jacksonville Symphony, as well as recitals at the Music Mountain Festival, the Sembrich Opera Museum, and the Moab Festival. She has won numerous awards, including the Naumburg International Violin Competition, Tibor Varga International Competition, Astral Artists National Auditions, and Young Performer’s Career Advancement Award (APAP). As a recording artist, Ayano has released several albums including a solo album of works for violin by Larry Bell and, more recently, three albums as the first violinist of the Ying Quartet: an album of the complete quartets by Robert Schumann, an album of the complete quartets by Anton Arensky, and “American Anthem” (Sono Luminus), featuring works by Randall Thompson, Samuel Barber, and Howard Hanson.

She is a founding member of the conductorless string orchestra ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), which is composed of soloists and leaders of quartets and orchestras from around the United States. Because of her own experience beginning the violin in a public school program in Boston at the age of 7, Ayano has given numerous programs for children across the U.S.

Ayano, whose principal teachers and mentors include Miriam Fried, Robert Mann, Eszter Perenyi, Michele Auclair, and Robert Levin, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. She graduated with her master’s degree from the Juilliard School and then went on to study at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary. From 2010-2015, Ayano was first violinist of the renowned Ying Quartet and Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music. In the fall of 2015 she joined the faculty of New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She has been a volunteer tutor for at-risk high school students at the East Harlem Justice Center and volunteer at the Lighthouse Music School (NYC). In her spare time, she loves to paint and practice aikido.

In Steve’s distant youth, he was a prolific performer, appearing as a recitalist and concerto soloist on four different continents, in venues ranging from the national theaters of Belize, Costa Rica, South Korea, and Malaysia to Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. His principal teachers were Francess Rowell, Colin Carr, André Emelianoff, and Channing Robbins (the latter two, his instructors during his five years at the Juilliard School). At Harvard, Steve served as the principal cellist of the Bach Society Orchestra and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and collaborated in numerous ensemble performances with many spectacularly talented fellow students, including Joseph Lin ’99 (Juilliard String Quartet), Melinda Lee Masur ’99 (Boston University, Tanglewood), Ayano Ninomiya ’01 (New England Conservatory), Raman Ramakrishnan ’98 (Bard Conservatory, Boston Chamber Music Society), Tim Summers ’95 (Mahler Chamber Orchestra, UdK Berlin), Janet Sung ’94 (DePaul University, Meadowmount), Akiko Tarumoto ’98 (Los Angeles Philharmonic), and of course, his classmates and collaborators tonight, Salley Koo and Jonathan Yates.

After graduating from Harvard, Steve worked in the finance and technology industries in New York City but continued to actively perform as a member of the acclaimed professional chamber orchestra known as the “Jupiter Symphony,” occasionally as principal cellist. Later, as an MBA student at the University of Oxford, Steve founded the Proteus Ensemble, a chamber ensemble in residence at the Holywell Music Room, Europe’s oldest purpose-built concert hall. As a law student at the University of Chicago, though, he largely stopped his cellistic pursuits, with his only memorable performance there being a pickup basketball win against a team led by a young law professor named Barack Obama, HLS ’91.

Upon returning to New York to begin his legal career in 2006, Steve found that he’d missed performing, and after a chance meeting with Jonathan Yates at a concert at Carnegie Hall, they together founded the community orchestra now known as Camerata Notturna (orchestra.nyc). Camerata Notturna, which counts numerous Harvard alumni among its current and historical membership (including five former Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra concertmasters), is now one of the leading chamber orchestras in New York City, regularly collaborating with musical luminaries such as Anthony McGill, Susanna Phillips, Jamie Barton, Cho-Liang Lin, Gilbert Kalish, and Kim Kashkashian, and presenting world or regional premieres of works by leading composers of our time, including Elliott Carter, Unsuk Chin, Huang Ruo, and Augusta Read Thomas. Currently helmed by conductor David Chan ’95 (concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Camerata Notturna frequently collaborates with many of the world’s most in-demand conductors as well, including Gemma New (who served as Camerata’s music director for three years), Paul Watkins, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s assistant conductor Earl Lee.

Steve lives in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City with his wife, Dr. Kar-mun Woo ’01, and their two children. He is a proud member of the legal department at Morgan Stanley.

Born and raised in California, Julia Tom received a bachelor’s degree in English literature at Harvard University while studying cello at the Juilliard School of Music.

As a performer criss-crossing the globe, Julia has distinguished herself as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. She has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras in America and Europe, including the San Francisco Symphony and Harvard’s Bach Society Orchestra. She was also principal cellist of the Bremer Philharmoniker and, from 2010 to 2020, a member of the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Julia was awarded the Prix de Salon by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2016. Her prizewinning CD Origins was released by Etcetera Records in fall 2019.

The question of how to improve performance skill while reducing muscular tension and injury has occupied much of Julia’s attention in recent years. In 2019 Julia received her teaching certification in Dispokinesis, a method for jointly improving performance skill and physical health. Julia has taught this technique to numerous colleagues at the Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as to visiting guest artists, including the eminent conductor Myung-whun Chung.

Julia currently teaches at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music and is pursuing a PhD in kinesiology from the same institution. Through her joint teaching and research, she aims to create new pedagogical and clinical tools to train musicians and fine-motor practitioners across all walks of life.

The music of American composer Caroline Mallonee (b. 1975) has been programmed across the United States at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, Bargemusic, Tenri Cultural Center, Town Hall, Roulette, Tonic and National Sawdust in New York City, as well as further afield at the Long Leaf Opera Festival (NC), Carlsbad Music Festival (CA), Bennington Chamber Music Conference (VT), the Corcoran Gallery (Washington, DC), and Jordan Hall (Boston).

Inspired by scientific phenomena, visual art, and musical puzzles, Mallonee has been commissioned to write new works for ensembles across the country, including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Spektral Quartet, Firebird Ensemble, Present Music, Wet Ink Ensemble, Antares, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, ANA Trio, Ciompi Quartet, Ethos Percussion, and the Buffalo Chamber Players. Her music has been played by soloists including pianists Eric Huebner, Steven Beck, Stephen Gosling, and John McDonald, as well as Haruka Fujii (percussion), Natasha Farny (cello), Miranda Cuckson (violin), Amy Glidden (violin), Feng Hew (cello), Janz Castelo (viola), and Kimberly Sparr (viola). The New York Philharmonic included her music on its CONTACT! new music series in 2015 and commissioned a new work in 2019.

Mallonee has been recognized through commissions and awards from the Fromm Foundation, Meet The Composer, the Jerome Fund for New Music, and ASCAP, from which she received a Morton Gould Young Composers Award. She studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (Fulbright Fellowship, 2005), Scott Lindroth and Stephen Jaffe at Duke University (PhD 2006), Joseph Schwantner and Evan Ziporyn at the Yale School of Music (MM 2000), and Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky at Harvard University (AB 1997). For more information, please visit www.carolinemallonee.com.

Mexican American soprano Caprice Corona has been recognized for her performances in the operas of Mozart, Verdi, Britten, and contemporary American composers, appearing with companies such as Santa Fe Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Amarillo Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera, and the Bronx Opera. She also enjoys the repertoire of more intimate concert works and chamber music, and has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, Ravinia Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, the New Gallery Concert Series in Boston, the Aldeburgh Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a strong advocate of contemporary music and can be heard as the soprano soloist on Albany Records’ recording of James Yannatos’s Symphonies Sacred and Secular.

Ms. Corona is the recipient of numerous awards including prizes from the Lee Schaenen Foundation, the Liederkranz Vocal Competition, Opera Index, Inc., the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation, the Connecticut Alliance for Music, the Contemporary Opera Competition, and Fort Worth Opera, among others.

More recently, she can be found homeschooling her three children, ages 14, 12, and 10, in collaboration with her husband, heldentenor Erik Nelson Werner.

Michael Friedman (Harvard ’97) was an Obie Award-winning composer/lyricist. He was best known as the co-creator of the critically acclaimed musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which premiered in New York at the Public Theater and subsequently transferred to Broadway. Other credits include the musical The Fortress of Solitude, based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Lethem; Unknown Soldier, which premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; and Love’s Labour’s Lost, which premiered at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Michael was a founding associate artist of The Civilians, the acclaimed investigative theater company. His work with The Civilians included Gone Missing, In the Footprint, The Great Immensity, Paris Commune (co-written with The Civilians’ artistic director, Steve Cosson), (I Am) Nobody’s Lunch, and This Beautiful City, as well as the score for Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play. His latest collaboration with Cosson, The Abominables, opened at Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis in September 2017.

In the months leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Michael traveled the country creating a series of songs based on interviews he conducted. Those songs became his “State of the Union Songbook,” which was presented by The New Yorker Radio Hour.

Michael received a MacDowell Fellowship, a Princeton Hodder Fellowship, and a Meet the Composer Fellowship, and he was a Barron Visiting Professor at the Princeton Environmental Institute in 2009. At the time of his death, he was the artist in residence and director of the Public Forum at the Public Theater, and was also the artistic director of City Center Encores! Off-Center.

In 2018 Michael received a star on the Playwrights’ Sidewalk at the Lucille Lortel Theater.

Whistler Waves is a four-movement concerto for cello and orchestra. Whistler waves are audible frequencies produced in the atmosphere after a bolt of lightning; the music of the concerto aims to imitate these waves and translate them into an orchestral language. There are four types of whistler waves, and the four movements of the piece correspond to these: Pure Note, Diffuse, Echo Train, and Two-Hop. Whistler Waves for cello and orchestra was commissioned by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta, music director, and was premiered in Buffalo in 2015 with soloist Feng Hew.

—Caroline Mallonee

In the building of his new symphony for Boston, the BSO’s founder and first benefactor, Henry Lee Higginson, knew that ticket revenues could never fully cover the costs of running a great orchestra. From 1881 to 1918, Higginson covered the orchestra’s annual deficits 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 is $1 million or more with the designation of Great Benefactor. 

List reflects giving as of April 12, 2022 
‡ indicates a deceased donor 

TEN MILLION AND ABOVE
Julian Cohen ‡
Fidelity Investments
Barbara and Amos Hostetter
Linde Family Foundation
Maria and Ray Stata
Anonymous (3)

SEVEN AND ONE HALF MILLION
Bank of America
Mr. and Mrs. George D. Behrakis
Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser
John F. Cogan, Jr. ‡ and Mary L. Cornille
Cynthia and Oliver Curme / The Lost & Foundation, Inc.
EMC Corporation
The O'Block Family

FIVE MILLION
Eleanor L. ‡ and Levin H. Campbell
Alan J. ‡ and Suzanne W. Dworsky
Fairmont Copley Plaza
Germeshausen Foundation
Ted and Debbie Kelly
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Cecile Higginson Murphy ‡
William and Lia Poorvu
NEC Corporation
Carol ‡ and Joe Reich
UBS
Stephen and Dorothy Weber
Samantha and John Williams

TWO AND ONE HALF MILLION
Arbella Insurance Foundation and Arbella Insurance Group
American Airlines
Mary ‡ and J.P. Barger
Gabriella and Leo ‡ Beranek
Roberta and George Berry ‡
Bloomberg
Peter and Anne Brooke ‡
Chiles Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Congleton ‡
Mara E. Dole ‡
Eaton Vance Corporation
Thomas and Winifred Faust
Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick ‡
Nathan and Marilyn Hayward
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
Carmine A. and Beth V. Martignetti
Kate and Al Merck ‡
Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Montrone
National Endowment for the Arts
Mrs. Mischa Nieland ‡ and Dr. Michael L. Nieland
Plimpton-Shattuck Fund
Cynthia and John S. Reed
Kristin and Roger Servison
Miriam Shaw Fund
State Street Corporation and State Street Foundation
Thomas G. Stemberg ‡
Miriam and Sidney Stoneman ‡
Elizabeth B. Storer ‡
Caroline and James Taylor
Anonymous (3)

ONE MILLION
Alli and Bill Achtmeyer
Helaine B. Allen ‡
Lois and Harlan Anderson ‡
The Harlan and Lois Anderson Family Foundation
Mariann Berg (Hundahl) Appley
Dorothy and David B. Arnold, Jr. ‡
AT&T
Liliana and Hillel Bachrach
Caroline Dwight Bain ‡
William I. Bernell ‡
Estate of Marion Bianchi
BNY Mellon
The Boston Foundation
Lorraine D. and Alan S. ‡ Bressler
Jan Brett and Joseph Hearne
Gregory E. Bulger Foundation / Gregory Bulger & Richard Dix
Ronald G. and Ronni J. ‡ Casty
Citizens Bank
James and Tina Collias ‡
Commonwealth Worldwide Executive Transportation
William F. 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
Deborah and Philip Edmundson
William ‡ and Deborah Elfers
Elizabeth B. Ely ‡
Nancy S. and John P. Eustis II ‡
Shirley and Richard ‡ Fennell
Anna E. Finnerty ‡
John and Cyndy Fish
Fromm Music Foundation
The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation
Marie L. Gillet ‡
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
Francis Lee Higginson ‡
John Hitchcock ‡
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
Josh and Jessica Lutzker
Vera M. and John D. MacDonald ‡
Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation
Jane B. and Robert J. Mayer, M.D.
The McGrath Family
Joseph C. McNay, The New England Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Messinger Family
Henrietta N. Meyer ‡
Mr. and Mrs. Nathan R. Miller ‡
Richard P. and Claire W. Morse Foundation
William Inglis Morse Trust
Mary S. Newman ‡
Mr. ‡ and Mrs. Norio Ohga
P&G Gillette
Peter Palandjian and Eliza Dushku-Palandjian/ Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation
Perles Family Foundation
Polly and Dan ‡ Pierce
Claudio and Penny Pincus
The Pryor Family
Mary G. and Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. ‡
Susan and Dan Rothenberg ‡
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 ‡
Solange 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 ‡
Dorothy and John L. Thorndike ‡
Diana O. Tottenham
The Wallace Foundation
Edwin S. Webster Foundation
Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner
Drs. Christoph and Sylvia Westphal
The Helen F. Whitaker Fund
Robert ‡ and Roberta Winters
Helen and Josef Zimbler ‡
Brooks and Linda Zug
Anonymous (11)

The Boston Pops salutes its friends, old and new, for their generosity. Fiedler Society members generously contribute annual gifts that fund Pops performances, education and outreach programs, and free Pops concerts throughout the community.

The BSO gratefully acknowledges the following Pops Annual Fund donors who, as of May 4, 2022, are current members at the following levels. For more information about becoming a Fiedler Society member, please contact the Friends Office at 617-638-9276 or friendsofthepops@bso.org.

‡ symbol denotes a deceased donor

FIEDLER ENCORE $25,000 AND ABOVE
Barbara and Amos Hostetter
Cecile Higginson Murphy Charitable Foundation
The O'Block Family
Mitch J. Pomerance
Mr. Nicholas Vantzelfde and Ms. Lauren Erb

FIEDLER CONDUCTOR $10,000 - $24,999
Boston Seed Capital, LLC, Nicole Maria Stata
Richard and Nancy Heath
The High Pointe Foundation
Kathleen and Ronald Jackson
Mr. Mark Legan
Dr. and Mrs. Frederick H. Lovejoy, Jr.
The McDonald Family in honor of Patricia McDonald
Joseph C. McNay, The New England Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Peter C. McKay
Stuart Miller, in memory of Rocco DiIorio
Paul & Joyce Mucci Family Foundation
Richard and Jolene O'Brien
Bob and Laura Reynolds
Katherine Chapman Stemberg
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick J. Sullivan
Richard and Bonnie Sullivan
Jean C. Tempel
Scott and Catherine Webster
Sidney and Deanna Wolk

FIEDLER BACKSTAGE $5,000 - $9,999
Mr. Daniel Brownell and Ms. Kelley Laurel
James Bunt
Camille Carlstrom
The Cavanagh Family
Yumin and Amy Choi
Jim and Shirley Curvey
Mr. and Mrs. James Davis
Mary Dunbrack
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas W. Emond
John W. Henry Family Foundation
Lisa Hillenbrand
Thomas F. Knight
Peter and Connie Lacaillade
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Linton
Mr. Patrick MeLampy and Rev. Priscilla Lawrence
Carmichael Roberts and Sandra Park
Carol Searle and Andrew Ley ‡
Peter and Barbara Sidel
Maggie and Jack Skenyon
Sandra A. Urie and Frank F. Herron
Tony and Martha Vorlicek
Howard and Karen Wilcox
Ed and Judi Zuker
Anonymous (2)

FIEDLER SOCIETY $3,000 - $4,999
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene F. Barnes III
Mr. and Mrs. Eliot Beal
Edward S. W. Boesel
John and Trish Brennan
Franklyn Caine
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cella
Mr. David S. Coffey
Mr. Mark Condon and Ms. Jean Hynes
Charles L. and Nancy T. Donahue
Catherine and Richard L. Evans
Loretta H. and Gregory J. Gailius
Dr. and Mrs. Richard Gillis
Kim and Jim Goldinger
Jonathan and Ruth Goode
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel A. Grady
Margaret Lytle Griner
Mr. and Mrs. Paul A. Guarracino
Mr. and Mrs. Blair E. Hendrix
Mary Hines
Miss Isabel B. Hooker
Peter Hornstra
Alan and Wendy Issokson
John and Nancy Kendall
John A. Lechner IV and Mary F. Higgins
Thomas Lewis and Ailene Robinson
Betty W. Locke
Keith and Emiley Lockhart
James F. Lynch
Emily and Malcolm MacNaught
Erin and Craig Majernik
Bernhard Metzger, in memory of Karen Zander
Jeffrey Moore
Jennifer and Brad Moyer
Slocumb H. and E. Lee Perry
Doug and Karen Pettingell
Mr. and Mrs. Dwight Poler
Frederick J. and Bonnie M.‡ Rich
Margaret and Fred Richardson
Mr. Kevin Rollins
Dr. William D. and Laura Shea
Mr. and Mrs. William G. Walker
Susan Sprague Walters and Richard Walters
Dr. Mary Witkowski
Dr. Xuqiong Wu

The operating support from the following generous donors enables the Boston Symphony Orchestra to maintain an unparalleled level of artistic excellence, to keep ticket prices at accessible levels, and to support extensive education and community engagement programs throughout the greater Boston area and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The BSO gratefully acknowledges these contributors for their philanthropic support during fiscal year 2021 through major corporate sponsorships and events, BSO and Tanglewood Business Partners, and foundation and government grants.

$500,000 AND ABOVE
American Rescue Act - Shuttered Venue Operators Grant
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Eaton Vance
Fidelity Investments
Anonymous

$250,000 - $499,999
Arbella Insurance Foundation
Bank of America
Massachusetts Cultural Council

$100,000 - $249,999
Miriam Shaw Fund
The Nancy Foss Heath and Richard B. Heath Educational, Cultural and Environmental Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

$50,000 - $99,999
American Airlines
Bayberry Financial Services
Brightcove Inc.
Fairmont Copley Plaza
Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton
Kingsbury Road Charitable Foundation
Sagner Family Foundation
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Foundation
WuXi AppTec

$25,000 - $49,999
The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation
Berkshire Bank
Berkshire Medical Center, Inc.
Charina Endowment Fund
Edwin S. Webster Foundation
Eisai Inc.
Elizabeth Taylor Fessenden Foundation
EMD Serono Inc.
Farley White Interests
Fromm Music Foundation
The Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation
Goodwin
Grew Family Charitable Foundation
Gurnet Point Capital
Hemenway & Barnes LLP
Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation
LEK Consulting
Mill Town Capital
New Balance Foundation
Putnam Investments
The Richard and Ann J. Prouty Foundation
Roger and Myrna Landay Charitable Foundation
Margery and Lewis Steinberg
UniFirst Corporation
Anonymous (2)

$15,000 - $24,999
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.
The Alice Ward Fund of The Rhode Island Foundation
Arthur J. Hurley Company, Inc.
Biogen Idec Foundation
Boston Duck Tours
Boston Seed Capital, LLC, Nicole Maria Stata
Citizens Bank
Connell Limited Partnership
Dick and Ann Marie Connolly
Mr. and Mrs. J. Christopher Eagan
Steve and Betty Gannon
Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin
Barbara and Amos Hostetter
J.P. Marvel Investment Advisors
Darlene and Jerry Jordan
The Keel Foundation
The Kraft Group/New England Patriots Charitable Foundation
Liberty Mutual Insurance
The McGrath Family
Joseph C. McNay, The New England Foundation
Medical Information Technology, Inc.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Needham Bank
People's United Bank
Andrew and Suzanne Plump
Ruane Family Foundation
Saquish Foundation
Waters Corporation
Wave Life Sciences

$10,000 - $14,999
5AM Venture Management, LLC
Abrams Capital
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Anne Wojcicki Foundation
Billy Rose Foundation
CLA Accounting
Cabot Corporation
Cambridge Trust Company
Canyon Ranch in Lenox
Consigli
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Elliott Management Corporation
Eversource Energy
Goldman Sachs
Ironshore
John Hancock Financial
Locke Lord LLP
Lucia B. Morrill Charitable Foundation
Wilmington Trust, part of M&T Bank Family
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
Mr. and Mrs. Donald H. McCree
The Miss Wallace M. Leonard Foundation
Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation
The Red Lion Inn
Maria and Ray Stata
The TJX Companies, Inc.
Wheatleigh Hotel & Restaurant

$5,000 - $9,999
Abbot and Dorothy H. Stevens Foundation
Accenture
Ms. Nancy Adams
Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C.
Allegrone Companies
Amgen
The Amphion Foundation, Inc.
Amuleto Mexican Table
Apple Tree Inn
Aqueduct Technologies, Inc.
Barrington Associates Realty Trust
Berkshire Eagle
Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America, a Guardian Company
Blantyre
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Mr. and Mrs. Steven Browne
Canna Provisions, Inc.
CIBC Private Wealth Management
Cohen Kinne Valicenti & Cook LLP
Commonwealth Worldwide Executive Transportation
Diddy and John Cullinane
Demoulas Foundation
Dresser-Hull Company
Edward A. Taft Trust
Foresite Capital Management, LLC
The Fuller Foundation
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.,
Gaston Dufresne Foundation
GBH
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Dr. and Mrs. Leon Harris
Susan and Raymond Held
History of Toys Gallery
Holland & Knight LLP
Iredale Mineral Cosmetics, Ltd.
Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation
Jack Madden Ford
Michael Renzi Painting Co.
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Morrison & Foerster LLP
Myriad Productions
Prince Lobel Tye LLP
PwC
Riemer & Braunstein LLP
Roam: A Xtina Parks Gallery
Rubin & Ulrich, LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Sacks
Mr. Bill Sibold
Stetson Whitcher Fund
The Summer Fund
Jodi and Paul Tartell
Thomas A. and Georgina T. Russo Family Fund
Vacovec, Mayotte & Singer LLC
Walsh Brothers, Inc.
WB Wood
WilmerHale
Wing Press Incorporated
Wyndhurst Manor & Club
Anonymous

$2,500 - $4,999
Alex. Brown, a Division of Raymond James
Alice Willard Dorr Foundation
Berkshire Hathaway Barnbrook Realty, Inc.
Berkshire Partners LLC
Bicon
Biener Audi
Big Y Supermarkets
Blue Spark Financial
Brookline Youth Concerts Fund
Burack Investments
Cambridge Community Foundation
Chubb
Clarke Living
Mrs. Mimi Cohen
Corvus Insurance Holdings
Ms. Catherine Curtin
Leslie and Richard Daspin
Elizabeth Grant Fund
Elizabeth Grant Trust
Fiduciary Trust Company
Fire Equipment, Inc.
Garden Gables Inn
Gateways Inn & Restaurant
Greylock Federal Credit Union
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Haber
Health Professional Coaching
J. Mark Albertson, D.M.D., P.A.
J.H. Maxymillian, Inc.
Katharine L.W. and Winthrop M. Crane, 3D Charitable Foundation
Mr. John L. Klinck, Jr.
Linda Leffert J.D. ret.
Navigator Management
Norbella, Inc.
Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston
Oxford Fund
Peter D. Whitehead Builder, LLC
Pignatelli Electric
PureTech Health
Republic Services
Rockland Trust
Dr. Robert and Esther Rosenthal
Sametz Blackstone Associates
Security Self Storage
Stifel
Mr. and Mrs. Brian Thompson
True Tickets
Verrill
Welch & Forbes, LLC
Anonymous