Boston Landmarks Orchestra resumes in-person concerts at Hatch Shell and in Boston neighborhoods

The Boston Landmarks Orchestra launched its in-person summer season with July 16 and 18 “Lift Ev’Ry Voice” concerts at Boston’s Bethel AME Church and Arlington Street Church. Music Director Christopher Wilkins led Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; J. Rosamond Johnson’s Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, with lyrics by James Weldon Johnson, arr. William Grant Still; Still’s Danzas de Panama (string orchestra version); Clarice Assad’s Fusion: Dança Brasileira; Aldemaro Romero’s Fuga con Pajarillo; Jessie Montgomery’s Strum; and Michael Abels’s Delights and Dances. The first of the orchestra’s four performances at the DCR Hatch Memorial Shell take place on August 4 with soprano Sigourney Cook, violinist Adrian Anantawan, and the orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, George Gershwin’s Strike Up the Band Overture, Florence Price’s Concert Overture No. 2, William Grant Still’s Spirituals: A Medley, Nkeiru Okoye’s I am Harriet Tubman, Free Woman, James P. Johnson’s Drums, and Jules Massenet’s Thaïs: Méditation. The BLO’s annual community day on July 31 in Mozart Park in Jamaica Plain will include a instrument “Musical Playground,” conducting lessons, and interactive bucket drumming. The Hatch Shell concert on September 1 will feature works by Gershwin, Copland, Chadwick, Still, Priscilla Alden Beach, and the world premiere of Francine Trester’s A Walk in Her Shoes.