A Juneteenth Celebration

Boston Landmarks Orchestra

Boston Landmarks Orchestra builds community through great music. Landmarks produces free concerts and musical events across the greater Boston area. Increasing access to music for everyone is at the core of all its programming. Between 2018 and 2023, 70% of the repertoire Landmarks performed was written by composers of color or women. The orchestra intentionally promotes artists and targets audiences that have been historically excluded from orchestral music. Landmarks was founded in 2001 and began its signature summer concert series at the DCR Hatch Memorial in 2007. The orchestra also performs community concerts at local venues in neighborhoods such as Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain.

CHRISTOPHER WILKINS was appointed Music Director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in the spring of 2011. Since then, he has expanded the orchestra’s mission of making great music accessible to the whole community. He has also helped develop the orchestra’s Breaking Down Barriers initiative, making accessibility a priority in all aspects of the orchestra’s activities.

Mr. Wilkins also serves as Music Director of the Akron Symphony. As a guest conductor, Mr. Wilkins has appeared with many of the leading orchestras of the United States, including those of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. Previously, Mr. Wilkins served as Music Director of the Orlando Philharmonic, the San Antonio Symphony, and the Colorado Springs Symphony.

He has served as associate conductor of the Utah Symphony, assisting Joseph Silverstein; assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnányi; conducting assistant with the Oregon Symphony under James DePreist; and was a conducting fellow at Tanglewood. He was winner of the Seaver/NEA Award in 1992.

Born in Boston, Mr. Wilkins earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1978. He received his master of music degree at Yale University in 1981, and in 1979 attended the Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin as a recipient of the John Knowles Paine traveling fellowship. As an oboist, he performed with many ensembles in the Boston area, including the Berkshire Music Center Orchestra at Tanglewood, and the Boston Philharmonic under Benjamin Zander.

Violin I

Greg Vitale, Concertmaster

Alice Hallstrom

Heidi Braun-Hill

Mitsuru Yonezaki

Violin II

Paula Oakes, Principal

Rose Drucker

Yixiang Wang

Viola

Abigail Cross, Acting Principal

Don Krishnaswami

Cello

Steven Laven, Acting Principal

Javier Caballero

Bass

Robert Lynam, Principal

Personnel Manager

Christopher Ruigomez

Librarian

Andrés Almirall

Cassian Ramos

Arranger

David Kempers

Guest Artists

Sphinx Performance Academy (SPA) is a full-scholarship intensive summer chamber music and solo performance program. SPA transforms lives by providing private lessons, masterclasses, recitals, career enrichment sessions, and mentorship. SPA offers a chamber orchestra and solo repertoire focus for violin, viola, cello, and bass.

SPA is a program of the Sphinx Organization, which is dedicated to transforming lives through the power of the arts and has reached more than 100 million people worldwide.

Focused on increasing representation in classical music and celebrating excellence, Sphinx programs serve beginner students, seasoned classical music professionals, cultural entrepreneurs, and artistic administrators by addressing the systemic lack of access within Black and Latino communities.

Based in Detroit, Michigan, with global reach, Sphinx envisions a day where every young person has the opportunity to express themselves and learn classical music, where audiences reflect the people we see on our streets, and where leadership – on stage and off – includes all deserving voices. We are working toward a future in which our art form reflects our greater society.

Ambassador Program

Started in 2022, the Ambassador Program aims to seasonally employ enthusiastic, music-loving folks from a variety of backgrounds, representing the diversity of Boston’s neighborhoods. With 54% of our Ambassadors speaking more than one language—including Spanish, Portuguese, and French—they help spread the word of Boston Landmarks Orchestra to a vast number of Boston communities, including Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, East Boston and more. From promoting our concerts in their own neighborhoods, to helping patrons both new and familiar navigate the Esplanade, our Ambassadors are here to engage as many people as possible, promoting Boston Landmarks Orchestra’s mission of building community through great music.

THANK YOU
to our many donors and supporters.

Click here for current list of donors

Special thanks to Directors, Advisors, Musicians and Staff who make our work possible.

Click here for a list of Board Members

Share With Us!

Tag us @LandmarksOrch

Use the hashtags #LandmarksOrchestra #Landmarks2026

Treemonisha Overture	Scott Joplin (1868-1917) arranged by Jannina Norpoth
Sonata para Cordas: “O Burrico de Pau” (The Wooden Donkey)	Carlos Gomes (1836-1896)
Prelude for Strings	Julia Perry (1924-1979) arranged by Roger Zahab
Andante moderato from String Quartet No. 1	Florence Price (1887-1953)
Students from the Sphinx Performance Academy
Strum	Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)
Students from the Sphinx Performance Academy
Delights and Dances	Michael Abels (b. 1962)
Students from the Sphinx Performance Academy
Serenade for Strings: Finale (Tema Russo)	Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Students from the Sphinx Performance Academy

Run Time

Boston Landmarks Orchestra

Guest Artists

Ambassador Program

THANK YOU to our many donors and supporters.

THANK YOU
to our many donors and supporters.