The Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus will perform at a concert Monday in Symphony Hall to commemorate the Boston Marathon bombing victims and first responders. The concert is dedicated to BU student Lu Lingzi, who was killed in the April 15 marathon blasts last year.
“The spring concert is typically held in early April,” said College of Fine Arts Director of Communications Laurel Homer. “This year, with it being scheduled just two weeks before the 2014 Marathon, the concert takes on a special meaning.
Homer said CFA Dean Benjamin Juarez and professor Richard Cornell, director ad interim of BU’s School of Music, organized the concert to appreciate efforts to heal the city through art.
“The dean and professor Cornell recognized the opportunity to bring the BU community together to honor the many ties the University has to the tragedy that occurred in Boston last April, applaud the remarkable efforts to heal the city and celebrate the spirit of determination that unites Boston,” Homer said.
Professor of music Ann Howard Jones will conduct the concert, which features tenor vocalist Christopher Hutchinson, a student at the Opera Institute of BU.
“They will be performing Hector Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5, a piece known for its complex, large-scale, and often grandiose instrumentations and its ties to Boston’s Symphony Hall, recorded notably in Boston’s Symphony Hall in 1959,” Homer said.
School of Music Assistant Director of Production & Performance Casey Soward said Lingzi exemplified the right kind of member of the BU community.
“Lu was the embodiment of a modern-day Boston University student,” Soward said. “She was an excellent student, friend to many, and while working hard toward her chosen career path, maintained a genuine love and passion for the arts, which in her case was piano performance.”
Soward said though Lingzi did not major within CFA, she still took part in many of the arts programs offered at the college.
“Lu was one of many students who, while not a major at CFA, participated in our arts programs as a non-major by continuing her piano lessons,” Soward said. “I feel that CFA’s ability to offer BU students the opportunity to pursue their artistic passions regardless of their major is one of the greatest assets that CFA provides to the university as a whole”
The concert will also feature an exhibition of CFA sophomore Taylor Mortell’s Still Running project. Still Running is a Boston community art project showcasing art of various media that Mortell originally curated in response to the marathon bombings,
“The Still Running project has helped people to find hope, healing and a sense of community, all of which are essential for people who have experienced terrible tragedy and loss,” Soward said.
Original works exhibited at Still Running will be gifted to first responders, local hospitals and police stations after they are featured at a series of art shows throughout Boston.
“I curated the exhibition because I felt that the theme of the Boston Healing Arts Reception at Symphony Hall was in conjunction with the mission of Still Running,” Mortell said. “… I hope the message this exhibition carries is reflective of the strength, resilience and compassion of the greater Boston community.”
By using the arts to foster healing within the city of Boston, Mortell said she has discovered a new way to communicate ideas and emotions.
“Healing and catharsis are incredibly important because these processes allow for intellectual growth and closure,” she said. “Through my own experience, healing through the arts has provided me with a new voice and method of communication.”
