Isn’t it time we rethink Thanksgiving?  That’s the question on the table when four politically correct performers get together to create a new take on the traditional holiday pageant.  Good intentions turn into outright tension as the group struggles to re-envision history, all without ruffling any feathers.  Rambunctious, wild, and fearless, The Thanksgiving Play serves up history and humor with a steaming side dish of uniquely American hypocrisy.  Are you ready to eat your words?

EPSG:4326

The Thanksgiving Play

Harvard University

Ready or Not Revisited celebrates the groundbreaking visions of women, queer, trans, and nonbinary composers from the medieval period to the present day. This program builds on the concept of Palaver’s 2022 album Ready or Not, which “blew the tent flap open to embrace new contemporary classical fans” (Midwest Record) and left BBC Music Magazine “wanting more.” Repertoire includes wide-ranging selections by Jessie Montgomery, Hildegard von Bingen, inti figgis-vizueta, Tanner Porter, Sato Matsui, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Pétalo Seslar and Lili Boulanger. Ready or Not Revisited disrupts our expectations, challenges our narratives, and uplifts a multitude of voices who have always been here, whether the concert hall was ready or not.

Palaver Strings | Ready or Not Revisited | Ensemble-in-Residence

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Seeking students of all abilities and all levels of experience to join in making a play for our community. Student performers, actors, singers, dancers, musicians, athletes, stagehands, assistant stage managers, assistant directors, and production team members are all invited to be a part of the MIT Theater 2024 fall production by taking the 21T.100: Theater Arts Production course. MIT students will receive 12 credits, HASS-A.

La Vida es Sueño/Life is a Dream

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All works on the program are world premieres, never-before-performed music composed and completed this year, written by and performed by Longy artists.

New Music by Longy Composers

Join us for back-to-back performances by students from Longy’s Jazz and Contemporary Music department.

JCM Soiree | Harmolodic and Neo Roots Ensembles

Join the students of the class “Dichterliebe: Song Cycles of Robert Schumann” for a semi-staged production of Schumann song cycles in Edward M. Pickman Hall.

Dichterliebe: Song Cycles of Robert Schumann | Staged Performance

Radius’s second performance of the season begins in the heady Parisian atmosphere the ensemble evoked in its season opener with a charming Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon by the Frenchman and Le six member Georges Auric. From the salon, Radius roams widely, encountering Mary Kouyoumdjian’s chilling tribute to the composer and Armenian Genocide survivor Komitas Vardapet—a nightmarish whirlwind for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano titled Dzov Yerku Kooynov (Sea of Two Colors). Then the ensemble wanders from the Caucasus to the Korean peninsula for the quirky viola solo Froggy, Froggy by Jean Ahn, drawing bits of melody from traditional Korean folk song for its meanderings. To close, our trek brings us back to Europe with fresh ears for one of Clara Schumann’s most celebrated masterpieces, the Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17.

Radius Ensemble | Roam | Ensemble-in-Residence

Join the students of the class “Dichterliebe: Song Cycles of Robert Schumann” for a concert presentation of the Opus 39 Song Cycle in Recital Room N-1.

Dichterliebe: Song Cycles of Robert Schumann | Class Concert Presentation

Lo Moon

Music Hall of Williamsburg

The Atrium

The Modern Times ensemble performs a new and collaboratively created film score for the now classic 1989 silent film, Sidewalk Stories.

Jazz and Contemporary Music | Modern Times

Students of Neil Olmstead will perform works from the classical and jazz repertoires in a solo piano recital.

Students of Neil Olmstead Fall 2024

Oliver Colvin Recital Hall

Auditioned student vocalists join forces with Voice Professor Peter Eldridge. Each student develops an arrangement or original composition specifically designed for this performance. Vocalists will showcase with full rhythm section, including Eldridge on piano.

Eldridge Variety Show Fall 2024

The Be-Bop Guitars(Opens in a new window) is a student guitar ensemble featuring some of the better guitarists at Berklee. The music is from the jazz/Latin/blues genres. The music features five guitarists and rhythm section playing intricate arrangements that feature the individuals as well as the ensemble. 

Guitar Artist Ensemble: Be-Bop Guitars Fall 2024

Students from Peter Eldridge's Vocal Perspectives of Songwriting class perform original songs and co-writes developed during the fall semester.

Eldridge Songwriters Fall 2024

Led by faculty guitarist Mark White, this group performs contemporary jazz for five guitars and rhythm section.

The Eclectic Electrics Fall 2024

One of Blue Heron’s most beloved programs, presented for the first time since 2018. Music for Christmas and New Year’s by Guillaume Du Fay, Nicolas Grenon, Johannes Ciconia, Johannes Regis, Jacob Obrecht, Antoine Brumel, Josquin Desprez, Adrian Willaert, and others. Featuring a nave lit by candles, according to Blue Heron tradition.

Christmas in 15th-Century France & Burgundy

First Church in Cambridge

Pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, a Chopin Competition gold medalist with a flourishing career throughout Europe, makes her eagerly anticipated Celebrity Series debut, offering a bold and audacious program. Avdeeva performs Liszt’s daring, convention-defying keyboard compositions, each piece a captivating narrative of moods—from brooding and introspective to frenzied and impassioned—before plunging into Beethoven’s mighty Hammerklavier sonata. A towering masterpiece that has served as a proving ground for generations of brilliant pianists, the work embodies a profound fusion of rigorous structure and deep feeling, and the intricacies of a multi-voiced fugue. 

Yulianna Avdeeva, piano

Groton Hill Music Center

Journalist Jad Abumrad, creator and former co-host of NPR’s Radiolab, returns to Celebrity Series with his latest project, How to Talk to a Human, an innovative, lively, and timely presentation about the art and science of interviews and tough conversations. 

Jad Abumrad 

Regis’s Mass based on the song L’homme armé is one of the very first in a series of L’homme armé works stretching across musical generations – and the only one whose origins are clearly understood. Written for the celebration of the feast of St. Michael at Cambrai Cathedral in 1462, the Mass is a tour de force setting multiple plainchant cantus firmi and featuring Regis’s brilliant and unique sense of sonority.

The Armed Archangel: Johannes Regis, Missa L’homme armé

Through solos and duos, Steph Davis and Maria Finkelmeier with Angela Shankar explore the resonance and timbral spectrum of the marimba with clarinet. From moving spirituals to contemporary classical explorations, the artists share the ways in which the instruments can embody and express many voices and histories.

Events in Cambridge, MA

The Thanksgiving Play

Moonbox Productions

Palaver Strings | Ready o...

Longy School of Music of Bard College

La Vida es Sueño/Life is ...

MIT Music and Theater Arts

New Music by Longy Compos...

Longy School of Music of Bard College

JCM Soiree | Harmolodic a...

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Dichterliebe: Song Cycles...

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Radius Ensemble | Roam | ...

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Dichterliebe: Song Cycles...

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Lo Moon

The Bowery Presents

Jazz and Contemporary Mus...

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Students of Neil Olmstead...

Berklee College of Music

Eldridge Variety Show Fal...

Berklee College of Music

Guitar Artist Ensemble: B...

Berklee College of Music

Eldridge Songwriters Fall...

Berklee College of Music

The Eclectic Electrics Fa...

Berklee College of Music

Christmas in 15th-Century...

Blue Heron

Yulianna Avdeeva, piano

Celebrity Series of Boston

Jad Abumrad

Celebrity Series of Boston

The Armed Archangel: Joha...

Blue Heron

Steph Davis and Maria Fin...

Celebrity Series of Boston