Commissions

Recognizing music’s beneficial effects on the young, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra began the Landmarks Concerts for Children in 2002. Over 6,000 children, ranging in age from 4 to 12, have attended these programs over the past ten years. For many young audience members, Landmarks Orchestra’s Concerts for Children may be their first exposure to live orchestral music. As part of these programs, the orchestra has undertaken important artistic and educational initiatives that have resulted in commissions of a new classical work for children, a project unique among orchestras. The structural format of these pieces resembles Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, where a narrator tells the story and various orchestral instruments represent different characters. The Landmarks Orchestra sees the need for new classical works composed especially for young people and champions the cause of creating music that speaks directly to them. In its relatively short history, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra has premiered 14 new works, including six for children.

Each new work for children is recorded at the end of the summer season, released on CD, and made available to the public for a nominal donation. Click here to see our selection of CDs.

2002 Two Tajik Sentiments by Tolib Shahidi

2002 MAMBO!!! by Thomas Oboe Lee

2002 Three Benjamin Franklin Dances and May We Live in Peace by Patricia Van Ness

2003 Make Way for Ducklings by Daniel Pinkham, text by Robert McCloskey

2004 The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Julian Wachner, text by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2005 Pluto by Thomas Oboe Lee

2005 The Journey of Phillis Wheatley by Nkeiru Okoye, text by Carolivia Herron

2005 Chamber Symphony by Michael Weinstein (joint project with New England Orchestra Consortium)

2006 Lifting the Curse: A Story of the Red Sox by Julian Wachner, text by Bill Littlefield

2006 Dance Suite for Orchestra by Jeremiah Klarman

2007 David and ‘Old Ironsides’ by Larry Thomas Bell, text by Constance Leeds

2007 Absolutely Fearless for Orchestra and Children’s Chorus by Stephen Feigenbaum

2008 John Adams: The Voice Heard ‘Round the World by Anthony DiLorenzo, text by Marion R. Carlson

2008 Speak, Sing, Whale by Stephen Feigenbaum

2009 The Story of Frederick Law Olmsted by Thomas Oboe Lee, text by Nancy Stevenson