Boston Orchestra Book Club Presents: Sounds of the City

Sun. May. 18, 2025 at 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm

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The city of Boston has been home to a rich musical tradition for centuries. Come join the Orchestra Book Club as we celebrate generations of the city’s musical history.

George Chadwick was a founder of the Second New England School and achieved acclaim as both a composer and a composition pedagogue. His rarely-played tone poem Aphrodite is a pinnacle of fin-de-siècle American Romanticism.

The music of Somerville-born Armenian-American composer Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee is deeply inspired by the folk music of her Armenian heritage. Her first piano sonata was commissioned by the Rivers Music School in Weston, and was later orchestrated by her son, composer David Rahbee.

We are elated to be giving the world premiere of this orchestration. Composer Yvette Janine Jackson blends acoustic writing with electronics inspired by her experience as a theater sound designer. Her work Hello, Tomorrow! for orchestra and tape, commissioned by the American Composer’s Orchestra, takes inspiration from the George Lefferts story of the same name and is a science-fiction meditation on the harms of human (in)action to the world around us and how we might bring about positive change.

Come join us for a discussion and performance of these incredible works!

Orchestra Book Club events are always free to all. We rely on your donations to keep presenting exciting and fresh programming, so please consider donating if you are able: www.orchestrabookclub.org/donate

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• Performance Hall