Past Concerts

Saturday, April 25, 2026

11:00 AM

Arts Festival Main Tent at Boston College

Program Theme/Description: Dragons, Demons, and Dinosaurs

The Boston College Symphony Orchestra and University Wind Ensemble join forces at the annual BC Arts Festival to perform “pops” selections from favorite movies, including the recently-adapted-as-live-action film, How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic Park, and a co-commissioned new medley of songs from Kpop Demon Hunters, arranged by Nicholas Hersh. This event is particularly appropriate for families, as well as members of the local and campus communities.

Sunday, April 12, 2026

3:00 PM

Gasson 100 at Boston College

Repertoire:

Gioachino Rossini, Overture from William Tell
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Clarinet Concerto in A major, first movement
- Patrick Yulin Liu ‘29, Winner of the 2025 BCSO Concerto-Aria Competition
Ethan Behr ‘25, Watershed for String Orchestra
Gustav Holst, “Jupiter” from The Planets
John Williams, Theme from Jurassic Park

Program Theme/Description: Human Folly

"Life finds a way." This famous line from the 1993 film Jurassic Park points to the futility of human control in the face of nature, and urges humility over hubris when interacting with forces greater than ourselves. The Boston College Symphony Orchestra spring concert probes this tension between humility and hubris, exploring musical subjects from climate change to the cosmos to the Cretaceous Period. The concert features Rossini's heroic William Tell Overture, Mozart's operatic Clarinet Concerto in A major (Patrick Yulin Liu '29, clarinet soloist and winner of the 2025 Concerto-Aria Competition), "Jupiter" from Holst's The Planets, and Theme from Jurassic Park by John Williams. The program's emotional center is a world premiere performance of Watershed, a piece written for string orchestra by Boston College alumnus Ethan Behr '25, which chronicles the cataclysmic flooding in Vermont and offers music as a response for "addressing the climate crisis, fostering empathy, and inspiring action."
This program is part of the BCSO project to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the United States’ Declaration of Independence by performing American music on every concert program in the year 2026.

Saturday, February 7, 2026

8:00 PM

Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory (30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA)

Repertoire:

Chorale and Chamber Singers
- Frank Ticheli: Earth Song (Chamber Singers)
- Rosephanye Powell: The Word Was God
- Traditional Spiritual, arranged by Moses Hogan (1957-2003): We Shall Walk through the Valley in Peace
- Traditional, arrangement and additional lyrics by James L. Stevens: Nearer My God to Thee
University Wind Ensemble (UWE)
- Viet Cuong, Moth
- Kevin Day, Requiem for the Unarmed
BCSO
- Kevin Day, Fires Unquiet Within (co-commissioned; world premiere)
  - Sasha Callahan, violin soloist; Leo Eguchi, cello soloist
- Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring
- Combined Ensemble (Chorale, UWE, and BCSO)
  - Kevin Day, American Pastorale (excerpt)
    - Sebastian Bonaiuto, conductor

Program Theme/Description: A New American Day

The Boston College Symphony Orchestra, University Chorale, and University Wind Ensemble share the stage for an evening of American music at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. Over two hundred and fifty students will perform together, to reflect upon and commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the United States’ Declaration of Independence. A celebration of contemporary and historical composers, this program tells an important and polyglot story about American musical identities and aims to underscore the relationship between music and civic engagement within the unfinished and aspirational project of American democracy. The program features three works by composer Kevin Day, including a world premiere co-commissioned by the Boston College Symphony Orchestra and featuring Leo Eguchi, cello, and Sasha Callahan, violin, as the culmination of a week-long interdisciplinary artist residency with Dr. Day at Boston College. The concert is conducted by Riikka Pietilainen-Caffrey, Sebastian Bonaiuto, and Anna Wittstruck, and will be emceed by David Quigley, the Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Provost and Dean of Faculties at Boston College. The concert is generously supported by the Institute for the Liberal Arts, the Office of Student Initiatives, Robsham Theater Arts Center, The Music Department, and the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Deans’ Office.

Sunday, October 26, 2025

3:00 PM

Gasson 100 at Boston College

Repertoire:

Johannes Brahms, Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
- Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, first movement
- Jack Ferguson ‘28, violin soloist (Winner of the 2024 Concerto-Aria Competition)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony no. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Program Description:

The Boston College Symphony Orchestra fires off the season with classical canon. Enjoy beloved works by nineteenth-century European composers, featuring Jack Ferguson ‘28, Winner of the 2024 Concerto-Aria Competition.

2024-25 BCSO Highlights Reel