Valley News: Boston Symphony Plays the Streets [Thomas Wilkins, Conductor]

In this Oct. 1, 2017 photo released by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Wilkins, the BSO's youth and family concerts conductor, directs the symphony during a free outdoor concert in Franklin Park, Boston's largest green space. The Orchestra is reaching out to the city's more diverse urban neighborhoods to get a better grasp of their cultural roots and needs. (Aram Boghosian/Boston Symphony Orchestra via AP)

Valley News

 

By William j. Kole
Associated Press

Sunday, Oct. 8

Boston — Wander Boston’s more diverse neighborhoods and you’re more likely to 
hear Beyonce than Brahms or Drake than Dvorak.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra says that’s about to change.
Starting this month, the renowned orchestra is reaching out to Jamaica Plain, 
Roxbury and Dorchester — culturally vibrant corners of the city that haven’t fully 
embraced classical music — to get a better grasp of their musical roots and needs.

Thomas Wilkins, the BSO’s youth and family concerts conductor, said the goal is “to build deep and meaningful relationships with people ... alongside the rich cultural 

offerings of their unique neighborhoods.”

“We must share this amazing music that touches so many of us with those who

 may not otherwise be able to experience it,” said Wilkins, the 136-year-old 

orchestra’s first black conductor. “It’s the right thing to do.”

It’s part of a growing trend of U.S. symphonies taking it to the streets. Florida’s 

Jacksonville Symphony, New Jersey’s Newark Symphony, the Detroit Symphony 

Orchestra and others are bringing the classics to audiences whose musical 

traditions have favored other genres.

The “BSO in Residence” initiative kicked off last weekend in Jamaica Plain with a free outdoor concert in Franklin Park, the city’s largest green space, followed by a question-

and-answer session at Margarita Muniz Academy, a dual English-Spanish 

language high school.

Next up: appearances and workshops at other schools to give young Bostonians 

of color a chance to meet and play with key orchestra members.

For years, the Boston Symphony and its sister orchestra — the Boston Pops — have worked to expose residents of the city’s ethnic neighborhoods to classical music.

But those efforts mostly have involved bringing people to Symphony Hall 

or to the orchestra’s summer home at Tanglewood in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.

“ ‘Maybe we shouldn’t ask them to come to us — maybe we should go to them’ 

is a good concept,” said David France, executive director of Revolution of Hope,

 a world-class youth orchestra in Roxbury.

France, a classical violinist who’s performed with Quincy Jones and John Legend but also plays in the subway, said he’s learned the value of bringing music to places 

• In this Oct. 1, 2017 photo released by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the BSO plays a free outdoor concert in Franklin Park, Boston's largest green space. The Orchestra is reaching out to the city's more diverse urban neighborhoods to get a better grasp of their cultural roots and needs. (Aram Boghosian/Boston Symphony Orchestra via AP)