Arts District

BSO Debuts Innovative, ‘Dream’ Program to Celebrate 100th Anniversary

Music Director Marin Alsop reflects on orchestra's centennial

It begins with celebrated American composers—including lauded violinist Joshua Bell’s updated take on West Side Story—continues with the groundbreaking sounds of the present, and ends with the future—Ravel’s iconic work Boléro, featuring the young musicians of OrchKids and the Baltimore Youth Symphony Orchestras.

For the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s milestone 100th anniversary concert, “we wanted to bring you what you know, but not exactly how you’re expecting to hear it,” says music director Marin Alsop. “It’s one of those dream programs you can really only do on a special occasion.”

Alsop says she, symphony president Paul Meecham, and the orchestra musicians were hoping to surprise, as well as entertain, when they designed the program for Thursday night’s concert. Along with a world premiere commissioned by the BSO for the occasion by composer Kristin Kuster, the night will also feature the contemporary work Mothership that includes a cigar box guitar—not exactly the instrument you would expect to hear from the stage of the Meyerhoff.

It all is part of telling the BSO’s story, Alsop says, and showcase how amazing the orchestra is, and how approachable. “Baltimore so represents cities that have world-class symphonies but without a lot of the pretense.”

The BSO is one of only 25 of the 800 or so U.S. orchestras to have reached 100 years. (Read our story on the BSO’s 100th anniversary here.) And, in classic fashion, the night will end with a champagne toast to ring in a new century.

“The orchestra is outstanding,” Alsop says, “and it’s a moment to celebrate that Baltimore really has something so special.”