Boston Landmarks Orchestra

CONTACT:

168 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-520-2207
landmarksorchestra.org

Virginia Hecker, General Manger

DESCRIPTION:

Here is a beautifully conceived “private initiative for public good, focusing on quality of life”—nicely connecting untapped resources, unfulfilled needs, and unrealized opportunities, to create a new niche of its own, with strategic, long-term potential to enhance Greater Boston’s cultural life and philanthropy. The dots are: 1) While Boston supports a vibrant musical life from September through May, most groups do not perform here during summers. 2) Musicians in principal orchestras—Pops, Ballet, Lyric Opera, etc.—are thus available. 3) Summer is our prime tourist season, with millions of national and international visitors. 4) They are here to see our world-renowned historic landmarks. 5) Classical music needs to build audiences, 6) especially among diverse racial, ethnic, and lower-income groups, but also 7) children and youth—the audiences of tomorrow. Now enter, in 1997, the philanthropist-catalyst: Charles Ansbacher, for 20 years conductor of the Colorado Springs Symphony, currently principal guest conductor of orchestras in Eastern Europe, including Moscow. Considering how he might contribute as a newcomer to our extremely crowded world-class music scene, he connected the dots, and in 2000-’01 conceived and created the LO—to promote classical music among diverse audiences and especially children, building community, enhancing the cultural life of Greater Boston (not everyone goes to the Cape or Maine), as well as Boston’s cultural image in the world (through tourists) by offering free summer classical music concerts, employing excellent available musicians, on appropriate themes in historic neighborhoods, including special children’s concerts, commissioning new works by leading composers on recognizable themes (on the “Peter and the Wolf ” model wherein various instruments play the roles of individual characters, with narration by well-known guests). Results: in its first six years, 90 free concerts in two series: Neighborhood Concerts, and Concerts for Children, heard by over 100,000 attendees (including 5,000 children). One test of a good new idea is whether it leads to others; here the City and State recognized an opportunity when they saw it, so the MA Dept. of Conservation and Recreation has tapped the LO for a five-year agreement to produce a “Landmarks Festival at the Shell”—nine free classical performances Wednesday evenings from July through September—some by the LO, some in collaboration with other institutions. This first year’s audience totalled 40,000! And all because one man launched a “private initiative for public good, focusing on quality of life.” Here’s a winner you can join.

(2007: CULTURE: Arts: Performing: Music)