Embark on an enchanting musical journey at the New England Conservatory (NEC) this November and December, as the Boston Early Music Festival presents Telemann's 'Don Quichotte,' complemented by a rich tapestry of events, from collaborative recitals to insightful discussions on spirituality and artistry. Featuring top-tier musicians and educators, the NEC offers a series of events that promise to captivate and inspire both the seasoned aficionado and the curious newcomer. Don't miss this unique blend of historical and contemporary performances, designed to exhilarate the senses and ignite the imagination.

A Musical Odyssey: Telemann's Masterpiece and Beyond at the New England Conservatory

The graduate choral conductors in the studio of Erica J. Washburn conduct each other in a wide-ranging program of music from the 20th and 21st centuries.

EPSG:4326

Conductors' Choir

New England Conservatory

NEC's students meet one-on-one each week with a faculty artist to perfect their craft. As each one leaves NEC to make their mark in the performance world, they present a full, professional recital that is free and open to the public. It's your first look at the artists of tomorrow.  

Recital: Felicia He '25 MM, Piano

Daniel Slatch '24 studies Double Bass with Donald Palma.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “Performer Self-Stream” when prompted.

Recital: Daniel Slatch '24, Double Bass

NEC's students meet one-on-one each week with a faculty artist to perfect their craft. As each one leaves NEC to make their mark in the performance world, they present a full, professional recital that is free and open to the public. It's your first look at the artists of tomorrow. 

Recital: Lily Stern '25, Cello

In the course of completing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at New England Conservatory, performance majors present not just one, but three full-length recitals, for which they also write program notes.  It's an opportunity to observe multiple facets of an emerging artist.  

Recital: Luther Warren '25 DMA, Viola

Recital: Abigail Hope-Hull Michaels '25, MM, Oboe

Recital: Daeun Hong '24, Viola

Recital: KeXin Tian '24, Piano

The NEC Chamber Music Department presents the fruit of the semester's work in a free recital.  Led by NEC faculty member Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, student pairs perform individual movements of sonatas from Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Schnittke, Ives, Elgar, Fauré that demonstrate the equal partnering of string player and pianist.

Sonata Class recital

Piano Seminar: Discussion Session

NEC’s conducting students have ascended to some of the world’s most auspicious podiums, and here is your chance to see and hear them as they begin their careers.  Timothy Ren '25 MM and Jherrard Hardeman '25 GD conduct.=

NEC Lab Orchestra + Graduate Student Conductors

We will explore terms such as Collective Liberation, Identity Politics, and Intersectionality (Combahee River Collective, founded in Boston 1974) - and explore what radical love, and care for self and others looks like.

Intersectionality is a way of understanding how factors like geography, age, gender, and ethnicity interact with power structures to create and perpetuate discrimination, privilege, and power. Through story and discussion, we will explore the intersectionality of our own lives and the complexity of common socio-cultural issues that have intersectional implications.

CEB Dialogue Cafe: Radical Love

The Liederabend—literally, "evening of song"—dates back to the 1800s, when musicians and lovers of music would gather at someone's home, and one or more singers and a pianist would perform the songs of composers of the day. In the field of classical music, these songs are referred to as "art songs," and the German art songs are called "Lieder." In Germany, the great age of song came in the 19th century. German and Austrian composers had written music for voice with keyboard before this time, but it was with the flowering of German literature in the Classical and Romantic eras that composers found high inspiration in great poetry, sparking the genre known as the "Lied." 

Liederabend LXXV

Pianist Evren Ozel ('25 AD) joins the NEC Philharmonia and conductor Hugh Wolff for Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3.  The program opens with Schoenberg's Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene (Accompaniment to a Film Score) and closes with Mahler's Symphony No. 4, Jingdan Zhang ('26 AD), soprano soloist.

NEC Philharmonia + Hugh Wolff: Schoenberg, Bartók, Mahler

NEC's Jazz Composers' Workshop Orchestra features the music of NEC students performed by their peers, under the direction of Frank Carlberg. 

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “Performer Self-Stream” when prompted.

NEC Jazz Composers' Workshop Orchestra

In December, April, and May, New England Conservatory fills the air with the sounds of piano trios, string quartets, and more, both day and night. Performers include NEC's faculty of chamber music superstars, and the students coached by these great artists.

Chamber Music Gala

Inaugurated in Fall 2022, NEC's New Music Ensemble performs a program of diverse works. 

Tonight the New Music Ensemble, conducted by Stefan Asbury, performs Brett Dean's Carlo (1997), Binna Kim's Stacked Emotions (2019), Sarah Gibson's Soak Stain (2024), and Michael Gandolfi's The Nature of Light (2012).

NEC New Music Ensemble: Dean, Binna Kim, Gibson, Gandolfi

It's a holiday celebration at NEC! This family-friendly choral and winds concert features popular holiday tunes, seasonal sweaters, Santa hats, and a singalong.  Join us for a festive evening featuring the NEC Chamber Singers, NEC Symphonic Winds, and Navy Band Northeast, led by conductors Erica J. Washburn, William Drury, and Lt. David Harbuziuk.

NEC Chamber Singers, Symphonic Winds, Navy Band Northeast: Into the Holidays!

Recital: Sianna Monti '24, Mezzo-Soprano

Recital: Valerie Curd '26 GD, Bassoon

Your favorite holiday tradition returns! Revel in an evening of excitement and joy with soloists Maya Kherani, Avery Amereau, Omar Najmi, and Jesse Blumberg. Martin Pearlman’s interpretation of Handel’s beloved oratorio shines, telling a timeless story of redemption.=

Boston Baroque Presents: Handel's Messiah

Recital: Sarah McGuire '25 MM, Violin

Saturday, December 7, 2024 / 8:00pm

Music Director Jotaro Nakano leads the orchestra of Boston’s medical community in a sonic exploration of nature through time from emergence and growth in Tonya Wind Singer’s Creation, to the beauty of the Tasmanian wilderness in the US Premiere of Nigel Westlake’s Toward Takayna featuring acclaimed Australian guitar duo Ziggy & Miles, to the ancient majesty at the heart of Respighi’s Pines of Romes. This concert benefits LSO’s Community Partner Tunefoolery, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting music with mental health.

Longwood Symphony Orchestra Presents: Power Within Nature

Recital: Noah Silverman '25 MM, French horn

Recital: Caleb Schmale '24, Contemporary Musical Arts

Please reach out to the Celebrity Series of Boston Box Office with any questions regarding ticketing or programming details at boxoffice@celebrityseries.org.

Celebrity Series of Boston Presents: "What Makes It Great?" with Rob Kapilow: George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"

The acclaimed pianist and entrepreneur will discuss her work in music.

Piano Seminar: A Presentation by J.Y. Song

Recital: Max Zhenren Zhao '24, Cello

Recital: Isabella Butler '25, Percussion

NEC Symphonic Choir and Youth Chorale, with organist Thomas Handel, perform Maurice Duruflé's Requiem at the Church of the Covenant (67 Newbury Street).  Erica J. Washburn conducts.

NEC Symphonic Choir, NEC Youth Chorale + Erica J. Washburn: Duruflé Requiem

Church of the Covenant

Recital: Ssu-Hsuan Sandy Li '24 MM, Collaborative Piano

Join one of CPP's Holiday Ensembles for a seasonal program filled with holiday cheer!

This event is in partnership with the Boston Public Library's Never Too Late Series, one of the country’s oldest, continuously running groups for older adults. For over 60 years, it has provided a setting for older adults to gather together and enjoy with their friends a wide variety of unique programs that are entertaining and culturally enriching.

NEC at the Boston Public Library: Holiday Ensemble

Boston Public Library - Central Library

Join first year graduate students as they present two evenings of Handel arias and Shakespeare monologues.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

Opera Scenes: An Evening of Handel and Shakespeare

Recital: Hannah C. Kim '24 GD, Violin

Carriage House Violins

Are you a musician or music educator interested in a hands-on workshop to learn and practice creative music teaching techniques to engage infants, toddlers, preschoolers and early elementary students? Would you like to learn more about how music learning in early childhood fosters foundational musical skills and benefits the "whole child," including children's cognitive, social-emotional and motor development? Are you curious to learn more about the field of music teaching for early childhood, or develop your skills if you already teach this age? Join us for a lively, engaging session, combining research on music learning and children's developmental stages of play with interactive modeling of practical teaching techniques.

Welcome to the Music Circle: An Insiders' Guide to Music Teaching for Early Childhood

Recital: Connor Willits '25 MM, Percussion

This session will look at the role of spirituality and our beliefs in our socio-cultural perspectives. Through personal story, we will explore how religion and spirituality is engaged with in various contexts (such as in certain cultures, histories, or countries), and how spirituality has often played a role in social justice movements, in activism, and in personal artistry and the expression of this. This session welcomes NEC community members to share openly about their spiritual journeys and how this has impacted their artistry, and their current journey or questions being grappled with.

CEB Dialogue Cafe: Our Beliefs and Spirituality

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

Tuesday Night New Music, a student-run, faculty-supervised concert series, was founded in the early 90s by Lee Hyla.  It offers audiences the opportunity to hear the music of current New England Conservatory composition students, performed by their peers.  This year the series is directed by student composers Peter Butler ’26 and Stellan Connelly Bettany '25 under the supervision of composition chair Michael Gandolfi.

Tuesday Night New Music 4

Join us as we celebrate 40 years of First Mondays, curated by Artistic Director Laurence Lesser. Programs feature well-loved classics and new compositions, performed by some of the finest chamber musicians in the world, free and open to all. First Mondays are fresh and full of imaginative pairings of well-loved classics and new works, performed in one of the finest places on the planet to hear music of this caliber: NEC’s own Jordan Hall.

First Monday at Jordan Hall: December

Recital: Cynthia Chih-Yu Tseng '25 DMA, Collaborative Piano

Join the singers, dancers, instrumentalists, and directors of the GRAMMY-winning BEMF Chamber Opera Series for a special presentation of two masterworks by Telemann. Enjoy a rare staged performance of Telemann’s lovely serenata, Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho, which sees Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza stumble upon the wedding of wealthy sheep rancher Comacho to the beautiful Quiteria—but her childhood sweetheart Basilio is ready to disrupt the festivities even if it’s the last thing he ever does! Woven throughout the entertainment will be movements from Telemann’s delightful orchestral suite Burlesque de Don Quichotte, a work that uses strikingly evocative music to depict various episodes from the classic novel by Cervantes.

Boston Early Music Festival Presents: Telemann’s Don Quichotte

NEC's Saxophone Ensemble presents a concert, the culmination of this semester's rehearsals.  Kenneth Radnofsky directs.

NEC Saxophone Ensemble

Recital Postponed: Matthew Mihalko '24, Trumpet

Considered "simply the best there is" by The Boston Globe, the Borromeo String Quartet is one of the most sought-after string quartets in the world, each season performing more than one hundred concerts of classical and contemporary literature across three continents. Audiences and critics alike have championed the Borromeo Quartet's revealing explorations of the complete quartet cycles of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bartók, and its affinity for making challenging repertoire approachable.

Faculty Recital: Borromeo String Quartet

Recital: Adria Ye '24 GD, Piano

NEC's Undergraduate Opera Seminar (UGOS), under the direction of Michael Meraw, presents two performances of their scenes program.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

Undergraduate Opera Seminar: Opera Scenes

Celebrate the season with a festival of Contemporary Musical Arts Ensembles, featuring music, food, and dance all day long! You’ll hear performances by the Ted Reichman and Mark Zaleski Ensembles; Afro-Latin, Persian, Chorino, Irish, Early Jazz, West African ensembles; Songwriters’ Workshop; the Indie/Punk/Art Rock Ensemble, and more.

CMA Small Ensemble Festival

Celebrity Series of Boston Presents: Alisa Weilerstein, cello & Inon Barnatan, piano

Kenneth Radnofsky presents a recital, "A Question of Identity" with guest artists Carrie Cheron, mezzo-soprano; Adira Amram, narrator; Francine Trester, composer and violinist; David Amram, composer and pianist; and Ziang Yin ('25 MM), pianist.

Faculty Recital: Kenneth Radnofsky, Saxophone: "A Question of Identity"

Recital: Grace Clarke '25 MM, French horn

Recital: Phoebe Kuan '25 MM, Clarinet

Recital: Blake Hetherington '24, Soprano

Recital: Gustavo Barreda '25 MM, Percussion

Recital: Dongyang Li '24 MM, Soprano

Recital Postponed: Dong Eun Yoon '25 MM, Tenor

Recital: Yi-Chen Chang '24 DMA, Composition

"Gunther Schuller used the score to preserve, create and recreate from the unwritten as well as the written.  The composers, artists, authors, and poets represented here tonight -- layers and generations of history and creativity -- stood for those same principles which Gunther embodied and embraced. That is the Schuller Legacy: exploration, curiosity, preservation of the continuum and moving forward; honoring the past while both imagining and forging our future.

Gunther Schuller Legacy Concert: Every Day in the Forever Musical Life of Gunther Schuller

Recital: Joy Chen '24 MM, Piano

Recital: Max Ignas '25 DMA, Trumpet

Recordings by 12 celebrated jazz pianists. Listen and be amazed!

Piano Seminar: 12 Jazz Pianists

Guest conductor Joseph Higgins joins NEC's William Drury to lead the NEC Wind Ensemble and NEC Symphonic Winds in tonight's concert. 

The program repertory includes Giovanni Gabrieli's Canzon per Sonar Septimi Toni No. 2, "Profanation" from Bernstein's Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah", Copland's "Variations on a Shaker Melody" from Appalachian Spring,  Hailstork's American Guernica, Shaw's and the swallow, Grantham's Southern Harmony, and Gulda's Konzert für Violoncello und Blasorchester with Amit Peled '99, cello soloist.  Also on the program is Stellan Connolly Bettany's '25 arrangement of Charles Stanford's At the Abbey Gate, performed by the NEC Symphonic Winds and NEC Symphonic Choir with Johan Hartman '25 MM, baritone soloist.

NEC Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, & Symphonic Choir

Connections is NEC's latest chamber music series, bringing together - on stage - faculty and students from both the College and the Preparatory School. Each program also focuses on a theme, with the aim of illuminating the connections between different works of music.   

Connections Chamber Music 2

Immigration, Indigenous Nations, and Colonialism. This will be a time to share stories from international and Indigenous perspectives in the USA and explore the connection between these often marginalized groups. The international and Indigenous experience will be centered in this conversation through poetry, readings, and prompts. All are welcome to attend.

CEB Dialogue Cafe: Our Nationalities – The Act of Extending

NEC's Baroque Orchestra is part of the The Pratt Performance and Residency Series for Early Music, established by Harold I. and Frances G. Pratt at NEC in 2019, which seeks to invite and engage the NEC community with performers and scholars in the Historically Informed Performance field. Masterclasses, symposia, and performances by nationally- and internationally- recognized scholars and performers are funded through this endowment. In addition, the Performance and Residency Series aims to provide NEC students with the opportunity to study early music and historically-informed performance with experts in the field, as well as to expand the historical instrument collection at NEC.   

NEC Baroque Orchestra + Susanna Ogata

The Liederabend—literally, "evening of song"—dates back to the 1800s, when musicians and lovers of music would gather at someone's home, and one or more singers and a pianist would perform the songs of composers of the day. In the field of classical music, these songs are referred to as "art songs," and the German art songs are called "Lieder." In Germany, the great age of song came in the 19th century. German and Austrian composers had written music for voice with keyboard before this time, but it was with the flowering of German literature in the Classical and Romantic eras that composers found high inspiration in great poetry, sparking the genre known as the "Lied."  

Liederabend LXXIV

Recital No. 2: Patrick M'Gonigle '24 DMA, Contemporary Musical Arts

NEC Prep: Youth Symphony Fall Performance

Tuesday Night New Music 3

As First Associate Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2011, he was regularly featured as soloist at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl in repertoire spanning the 17th to the 21st centuries. Prior to this position, he was a member of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony. He has appeared as guest concertmaster with the orchestras of Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Houston, Ottawa, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon.

Nathan Cole Violin Master Class

NEC Prep: Youth Philharmonic Orchestra Fall Performance

In the course of completing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at New England Conservatory, performance majors present not just one, but three full-length recitals, for which they also write program notes.  It's an opportunity to observe multiple facets of an emerging artist.  

Patrick M'Gonigle ‘24 DMA studies Contemporary Musical Arts with Hankus Netsky.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “Performer Self-Stream” when prompted.

Recital No. 1: Patrick M'Gonigle '24 DMA, Contemporary Musical Arts

Please reach out to the Boston Symphony Orchestra Box Office with any questions regarding programming or ticketing details at 617-266-1200 or customerservice@bso.org.

Boston Symphony Orchestra Presents: Boston Symphony Chamber Players

New York City, 1932: Elaine plays piano while her husband ignores her. Jimmy is over the moon to see his first Broadway show. Estelle prepares for her first date since her husband’s death. 

Figures from five Edward Hopper paintings come to life through intimate vignettes as imagined by John Musto and Mark Campbell in this chamber opera, based on "Room in New York," "Hotel Window," "Hotel Room," "Two on the Aisle," and "Automat.” 

NEC Festival: Opera – Musto "Later the Same Evening"

Join us for a captivating evening of Italian opera and jazz. This grand premiere will feature an extraordinary collaboration of remarkable talents across jazz, gospel, and classical music. Presented by Marco Pignataro and the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Julius P. Williams, this concert is part of the Festival of Italian Creativity 2024, sponsored by the Italian Consulate of Boston.

Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra Presents: Va Pensiero – A Symphonic Jazz Exploration of Timeless Italian Arias

Join us for a captivating evening of Italian opera and jazz. This grand premiere will feature an extraordinary collaboration of remarkable talents across jazz, gospel, and classical music. Presented by Marco Pignataro and the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Julius P. Williams, this concert is part of the Festival of Italian Creativity 2024, sponsored by the Italian Consulate of Boston.

The Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra will perform alongside an extraordinary jazz quintet featuring legendary bassist Ron Carter, saxophone virtuoso Joe Lovano, the masterful pianist Kenny Werner, versatile drummer Ron Savage, and Italian saxophonist Marco Pignataro, the Artistic Director of Va Pensiero. The Reverence Gospel Choir, directed by Maestro Dennis Montgomery III, will add their powerful voices to this remarkable ensemble. Together, they will present innovative renditions of classic Italian arias, with brand new original arrangements by Andre Sudol, blending orchestral, gospel, and jazz elements. The program will also include the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra’s interpretation of Italian opera classics, breathing new life into these timeless works.


Recital: Shalun Li '25 GC, Collaborative Piano

NEC's newest piano faculty member will give a master class.

Master Class with Pianist Minsoo Sohn

This event will honor the remarkable legacy of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s "Diaphonic Suite I" presenting a variety of student interpretations inspired by its third movement. The NEC community is invited to join students from the Post-Tonal Theories and Practices in composing and improvising short pieces that reflect Crawford's groundbreaking techniques. If you are interested in performing at this event, please reach out to Professors Efstratios Minakakis and Katarina Miljkovic for more details. Join us in celebrating this innovative composer and her enduring influence on contemporary music!

NEC Festival: Exploring the Innovation in Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger: Diaphonic Suite I and Beyond

In this presentation, Xiaofeng Jiang ’22 MM, ’25 GD will discuss the profound influence of Charles Ives’s “The Unanswered Question” on John Adams’ composition “On the Transmigration of Souls.” The discussion will focus on the thematic connections between the two pivotal works, highlighting how Ives’s exploration of existential questions inspired Adams’s reflection on life, death, and the spiritual journey

NEC Festival Presentation: Echoes of Existence: Influence of Ives's Unanswered Question on Adam's "On the Transmigration of Souls"

Recital: Jialu Wang '25, Bassoon

Tonight's concert of chamber music features  Donald Weilerstein, violin, and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, piano, performing Ives' Third Violin Sonata and the NEC Chamber Singers, directed by Erica J. Washburn, singing Chant, 1930 by Ruth Crawford Seeger.  Additionally, Melissa Reardon, viola, will give the U.S. premiere of Kati Agóc’s Sun and Shield, and Trio Eris, the NEC Piano Trio in Residence, will perform Katherine Balch’s different gravities and Charles Ives’ Piano Trio.

NEC Festival: An Evening of Chamber Music

Charles Ives was actively composing at the same time that jazz was first recognized as a uniquely American music. And Ives's music shares many of the same influences, including marches, ragtime, and American popular songs. Ives was also an experienced improviser and often included multiple options in his scores, reflecting the multiple directions in which he could imagine his music going. Recordings of Ives playing his own compositions were often at odds with the notated score. Ives’s music will be analyzed along with treatments of his music by jazz

NEC Festival: Talk: "Ives in Jazz"

NEC's Jazz Studies department collaborates with NEC's Song Lab in a program exploring Charles Ives’s songs as originally scored, along with arrangements by Theo Bleckmann, explored during his residency with the Jazz Studies department in October 2024.

NEC Festival: NEC Jazz Studies and Song Lab, "Ives in Song"

Under the direction of NEC faculty pianist Pei-Shan Lee, Sonata Night is an evening of piano-instrumental masterworks featuring collaborative pianists in partnership with their instrumental colleagues. 

Sonata, a musical term of several meanings, is used here to signify a duo form of equal partnership. Sonata Night programming spans a wide range of musical styles and features the world's greatest duo works from the Baroque through the 20th century, including compositional forms such as multi-movement suites and character pieces. 

Sonata Night 53: Music for Cello and Piano

Student Life and Performance Center

Suzy and Eric Thompson have devoted their lives to the pursuit of weird and obscure old-time American music – warped fiddle tunes in odd tunings, cinematic ballads, country blues songs that contain mysterious metaphors, early Cajun music with incomprehensible French lyrics and backward chords. Using fiddle, mandolin, guitars, Cajun accordion, banjo (and the occasional odd instrument such as the ten-stringed cuatro), they bring these early 20th-century sounds right into the present day. This morning’s event begins with a workshop (bring your instruments!) followed by a lecture/demo with these two great artists.

NEC Festival: Workshop and Lecture/Demonstration with Suzy and Eric Thompson

Inaugurated in the fall of 2020, the Song and Verse recital series provides a platform for undergraduate singers at NEC to experience the unique and invigorating process of song preparation and performance—creating interpretations, building performance skills, and forging intellectual and musical connections with a wide literature. 

Song and Verse 1

This event is part of the 2024 NEC Festival — a weeklong series taking place from November 10-17 featuring performances, workshops, and more. Explore all of the festival's events here.

NEC Festival: CEB Panel Discussion, "Jazz and Gender Justice"

NEC Department of Composition Chair, Michael Gandolfi, and Composition Faculty Sid Richardson, offer a presentation on Ruth Crawford Seeger’s String Quartet and Suite for Wind Quintet, with live performances by student chamber music ensembles. 

This event is part of the 2024 NEC Festival — a weeklong series taking place from November 10-17 featuring performances, workshops, and more. Explore all of the festival's events here.

NEC Festival: Presentation on composer Ruth Crawford Seeger

The goal of the CEB Dialogue Cafe is to learn how to hold brave dialogue using story, through difficult topics while holding space for differing perspectives. We will use talking circle techniques that focus on storytelling with deep listening, and discussion techniques that embody compassion and courage. As part of the process, we will explore helpful ways to share our thoughts, interrupt harmful conversations with empathy, and courageously share our beliefs and questions. This is meant to be a trauma-informed and open space of zero judgment. Each session will start with poetry and specific prompts, lead into discussion and sharing of perspectives, and end with a calming moment of reflection or appreciation.

CEB Dialogue Cafe: When You Look at Me, What Do You See?

David Loebel and the NEC Symphony perform Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" and salute Charles Ives with a performance of his Symphony No. 2.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

NEC Festival: NEC Symphony + David Loebel: Dvořák, Ives

Caroline Davis (saxophone, electronics) and Sarah Elizabeth Charles (voice), will present a concert of their music and will hold an open Q&A with the NEC community.

This event is part of the 2024 NEC Festival — a weeklong series taking place from November 10-17 featuring performances, workshops, and more. Explore all of the festival's events here.

NEC Festival: Jazz Forum with Sarah Elizabeth Charles and Caroline Davis

One of the Borromeo's most-loved activities in their residency at the New England Conservatory is the audition process to select the Winners of the Guest Artist Awards. They greatly enjoy the week of collaboration in which every student who has entered the competition has a session playing and working together with the Quartet. Working with all of these students, and affording special recognition to those that are chosen as winners, is always an inspiring experience.

Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award Concert

Faculty members from Jazz Studies and Contemporary Musical Arts present a wide-ranging program that highlights the breadth and depth of the departments with a diverse range of music.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted

NEC Jazz/CMA Faculty Spotlight

Please reach out to the Celebrity Series Box Office with any questions regarding ticketing or programming details at boxoffice@celebrityseries.org.

Celebrity Series of Boston Presents: Jamie Barton, Matthew Lipman, and Tamar Sanikidze

NEC Philharmonia, led by conductor David Loebel, performs 56 Blows by Alvin Singleton, Mozart's Symphony No. 38, "Prague", and Mathis der Maler by Hindemith

NEC Philharmonia + David Loebel: Singleton, Mozart, Hindemith

Tuesday Night New Music, a student-run, faculty-supervised concert series, was founded in the early 90s by Lee Hyla.  It offers audiences the opportunity to hear the music of current New England Conservatory composition students, performed by their peers.  This year the series is directed by student composers Peter Butler ’26 and Stellan Connelly Bettany '25 under the supervision of composition chair Michael Gandolfi.


Tuesday Night New Music 5

Paul Biss conducts the NEC Symphony in a performance of Verdi's Overture to "La forza del destino". Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 "Italian", and a concerto whose soloist is the winner of a NEC concerto competition.

NEC Symphony + Paul Biss: Verdi, Mendelssohn

NEC Opera: Mozart "Così fan tutte"

Each year, NEC's Piano Department marks an anniversary or celebrates a composer known for piano works.  Students from the College and Preparatory School are then chosen to perform.  This year, there will be three concerts centering on the music of Gabriel Fauré and his students.  Tonight is the first of these performances.

NEC Piano Department: Fauré and His Students

Faculty Recital: Meng-Chieh Liu, Piano

NEC Jazz Composers' Workshop Orchestra Residency Concert

New England Conservatory of Music

The Liederabend—literally, "evening of song"—dates back to the 1800s, when musicians and lovers of music would gather at someone's home, and one or more singers and a pianist would perform the songs of composers of the day. In the field of classical music, these songs are referred to as "art songs," and the German art songs are called "Lieder." In Germany, the great age of song came in the 19th century. German and Austrian composers had written music for voice with keyboard before this time, but it was with the flowering of German literature in the Classical and Romantic eras that composers found high inspiration in great poetry, sparking the genre known as the "Lied."

Liederabend LXXVI

The NEC Chamber Orchestra was created to provide the students with an opportunity to apply the principals of chamber music in a small orchestral setting.  The participants are chosen by audition at the beginning of the academic year and remain together throughout. As the ensemble rehearses and performs without a conductor, leadership responsibilities are rotated for every work performed. This affords the students an opportunity to develop communication skills, take responsibility for musical decisions and broaden their aural and score reading capabilities. Participation in the program also allows them to explore a wide range of the incredibly rich chamber orchestra literature.

NEC Chamber Orchestra: Sowande, Perkinson

Under the direction of NEC faculty pianist Pei-Shan Lee, Sonata Night is an evening of piano-instrumental masterworks featuring collaborative pianists in partnership with their instrumental colleagues.

Sonata, a musical term of several meanings, is used here to signify a duo form of equal partnership. Sonata Night programming spans a wide range of musical styles and features the world's greatest duo works from the Baroque through the 20th century, including compositional forms such as multi-movement suites and character pieces.

Sonata Night 54

Guest conductor Andrew McMahan and William Drury, NEC's Conductor of Wind Ensembles, lead the NEC Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Winds in a program featuring Kurt Weill's Little Threepenny Music (Kleine Dreigroschenmusik), Husa's Smetana Fanfare, Omar Thomas' ('08 MM) Shenandoah, John Mackey's Aurora Awakes, and "Red Cape Tango" from Michael Daugherty's Metropolis Symphony.

NEC Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Winds + Andrew McMahan, William Drury

Celebrity Series of Boston Presents: Dover Quartet

The newest works from the next generation of composers.

Tuesday Night New Music, a student-run, faculty-supervised concert series, was founded in the early 90s by Lee Hyla.  It offers audiences the opportunity to hear the music of current New England Conservatory composition students, performed by their peers.  This year the series is directed by student composers Peter Butler ’26 and Stellan Connelly Bettany '25 under the supervision of composition chair Michael Gandolfi.


Tuesday Night New Music 6

Each year, NEC's Piano Department marks an anniversary or celebrates a composer known for piano works.  Students from the College and Preparatory School are then chosen to perform.  This year, there will be three concerts centering on the music of Gabriel Fauré and his students.  Tonight is the second of these performances.

NEC Contemporary Musical Arts Department: February

Please join us for an evening of music dedicated to the memory of NEC composition faculty member Arthur Berger.  Tonight's program is curated by Sid Richardson.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

Arthur Berger Memorial Concert

One of the most common ways of practicing teaching artistry is working with adult learners in a variety of settings. Given the rise of fields like creative aging, there are many opportunities available for working with adults and seniors. In this workshop, we will discuss some of the primary considerations to keep in mind that support a successful teaching artist practice when working with adults including, leadership and soft skills, trust-building, and a compassionate teaching lens.

Working with Adult Learners and Trust-Building in a Teaching Artistry Practice

NEC Jazz Orchestra + Ken Schaphorst: February

First Monday at Jordan Hall: March

Each year, NEC's Piano Department marks an anniversary or celebrates a composer known for piano works.  Students from the College and Preparatory School are then chosen to perform.  Tonight is the last of three programs centering on the music of Gabriel Fauré and his students.

Undergraduate Voice Showcase

Hugh Wolff and Timothy Ren ('25 MM) share the podium for an evening of Wagner and Elgar's Enigma Variations, as performed by NEC Symphony.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

NEC Symphony + Hugh Wolff, Timothy Ren '25 MM: Wagner, Elgar

To watch a live stream of this event, click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page.

New England Conservatory

Jan 21, 2025

Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award Concert

Jan 23, 2025

NEC Jazz/CMA Faculty Spotlight

Jan 25, 2025

Celebrity Series of Boston Presents: Jamie Barton, Matthew Lipman, and Tamar Sanikidze

Jan 27, 2025

NEC Philharmonia + David Loebel: Singleton, Mozart, Hindemith

Jan 28, 2025

Tuesday Night New Music 5

Dec 16, 2024

Conductors' Choir

Dec 15, 2024

Recital: Felicia He '25 MM, Piano

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