2026/27 Season

Rounding out SPM’s year-long musical commemoration of America’s 250 th is a program full of delightful and varied works. We open with the world premiere of an SPM-commissioned work by our resident composer, Arson Fahim. He has written a 10-minute work paying tribute to his last five years studying music in the US. It’s titled “An Afghan in Boston” and features a solo cello, performed by our conductor, Mark Churchill, with the composer on the podium. Any references to last May’s “An American in Paris” are coincidental! The spirited Symphony No. 2 by American musical pioneer Charles Ives follows with dozens of patriotic and hymn tunes woven into its fabric of Brahmsian textures. The program’s second half includes favorite patriotic works and features the acclaimed Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums in full regalia. With SPM they’ll perform Evan Meier’s “Liberty: From the Ashes of Tyranny,” a work written for them which they recently performed with the Boston Pops on July 4!

Arson Fahim. An Afghan in Boston

Ives. Symphony No. 2

Samuel A. Ward/arr. Phillip Rothman. America the Beautiful

Victor Herbert. American Fantasie

Leroy Anderson. Buglers’ Holiday

Evan Meier. Liberty: From the Ashes of Tyranny

Sousa. Stars and Strips Forever

‍

For SPM’s second concert of the 2026-2027 season we celebrate the mighty grand piano in both romantic and more modern roles with the beloved Concerto No. 3 by Rachmaninoff and Leonard Bernstein’s compelling Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety,” often referred to as a piano concerto as much as a symphony. The brilliant young pianist Dmitry Yudin is our celebrated soloist. A prizewinner in numerous competitions in his native Russia and the US and Europe, he has been hailed for his technical mastery, musical artistry, youthful imagination, and intellectual depth. His most recent accolade was as one of the winners of an Avery Fischer Career Grant, given to the most promising rising stars in classical music each year. In addition to our fetê du piano, our concert will open with the profoundly touching “Chrysanthemums” for strings by Puccini.

Puccini. I crisantemi

Bernstein. Symphony No. 2. The Age of Anxiety

Rachmaninoff. Piano Concerto No. 3

‍

“It is music coming from another world, it is coming from eternity” declared conductor Herbert van Karajan of Gustav Mahler’s last completed symphony. For composer Arnold Schoenberg, Mahler “hardly speaks as an individual any longer. It almost seems as though this work must have a concealed author who used Mahler merely as his spokesman, as his mouthpiece.” With the 9 th Symphony SPM continues our biannual Mahler cycle. Those who have heard SPM’s recent performances of his 6th and 3rd symphonies will know the expressiveness, artistry and commanding skill that the players will bring to this work. Prepared to be deeply moved by the last movement, which is clearly Mahler’s farewell to the world and his anticipation of heavenly life. The concert will open with a work featuring our distinguished string section: Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C Minor.

Mozart. Adagio and Fugue in C Minor

Mahler. Symphony No. 9

Two works of Spanish flare and heartfelt sentiment will end our season in high spirits! Emmanual de Falla’s Three Dances and Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez for solo guitar and orchestra are works that never fail to captivate and uplift. We are thrilled to have rising star guitarist Hoa Wang join us for the concerto. An enchanting player of the highest musicality and skills, Ms. Wang will make you love the classical guitar! The program begins with Englishman Gustav Holst’s exuberant tribute to America’s 19th century poet Walt Whitman of whom Ezra Pound said, he is “America’s poet....He is America.” Inspired by the words and music of American revolutionary period, composer William Billings, 20th century American composer William Schumann’s New England Triptych reflects Billings’ “spirit of sinewy ruggedness, deep religiosity, and patriotic fervor.” A concert not to be missed!

Barber.  Adagio for Strings

Holst Walt Whitman Overture

Schumann. New England Triptych

Rodrigo. Guitar Concerto

De Falla. Three Dances

‍