Harvard’s ARTS FIRST festival April 30-May 3 offers a dream lineup of classical music events, from the intricacies of baroque to the wackiness of kazoos. Many classical music presentations will take place during the free Performance Fair 1-5 PM, Saturday, May 2. You can find them
here. Below are highlights for larger classical music groups and major venues. For more information about all the arts during ARTS FIRST, visit
ofa.fas.harvard.edu/arts.
Friday, May 1
7:30 PM, Memorial Church, Harvard Yard: Harvard University Choir (Edward Elwyn Jones, Conductor) and Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra (Phoebe Carrai, Conductor) perform Handel’s stellar oratorio
Athalia. Free.
Saturday, May 2
11 AM, The Plaza: Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra plays Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor (Federico Cortese, Conductor, and Sasha Scolnik-Brower ’17, Soloist). Free.
8 PM, Sanders Theatre: “Memory’s Keeping: David Lang’s Battle Hymns” with Harvard Dance Project (Jill Johnson, Artistic Director), Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum (Andrew Clark, Conductor) and Boston Children’s Chorus (Anthony Trecek-King, Artistic Director); a new work from Harvard’s inaugural student choral composition competition: a setting of Oliver Wendell Holmes’
Hymn, written for Memorial Hall’s cornerstone laying ceremony in 1870; and other works.
Tickets required.
8 PM, Paine Hall: Bach Society Orchestra plays
Wenn Back Bienen Gezüchtet Hätte by Arvo Part and Violin Concerto in E Minor by Mendelssohn with (Stella Chan ’15, Soloist).
Tickets required.
Sunday, May 3
1-2:30 PM, The Plaza:
Spring Forward: Stories and Music for a New Season features The Sloth storytelling hour with a performance of
Appalachian Spring by the Eurydice Chamber Ensemble. Free.
2-4 PM, JBM Lounge, Vanderbilt Hall, Harvard Medical School: An afternoon of chamber music performed by Harvard Medical School students and colleagues. Free.
3 PM, Lowell House Courtyard, 10 Holyoke Place, entryway F: Tchaikovsky’s
1812 Overture performed with kazoos, cannons and bells. Free.
4 PM, Sanders Theatre: “A Heartrending Cry: Dona Nobis Pacem of Ralph Vaughan Williams” featuring Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus (Edward Elwyn Jones, Artistic Director) and William Schuman’s
A Free Song, recipient of the first Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1943.
Tickets required.
9 PM, Sanders Theatre:
Dudley House Orchestra Spring Concert with music by Dvořák, Messiaen and Schubert.
Produced by the Office for the Arts, Harvard's
ARTS FIRST festival presents 150+ free performances and artmaking activities for Harvard and Boston-Cambridge community members of all ages.
