Event Details
The Boston Pops with Pop Star Natalie Merchant
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Members Who Went Said:
She was fantastic—even with a cold!
Anonymous Member Great orchestra. Great singer. Great event. Great evening. Great price.
Kate I was disappointed by Natalie Merchant's choice of music. After singing two songs that nearly put me to sleep she told the audience they were lullabies. Well they worked. Most of the people around me were checking their programs and watches wondering when it would be over. Of her vast repertoire, she sang only one song the audience recognized.
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Event Highlights
More Details About This Event: Folk and pop music are reinvented on the Pops stage in this special performance by the unmistakable, original voice behind the band 10,000 Maniacs. Featuring her lyrical vocals, this Pops presentation showcases Natalie Merchant’s extraordinary solo career — the singing, songwriting, and producing expertise that has earned her the marks of a true musical innovator. After each EdgeFest concert, hear the best of today's emerging talent.
Natalie Merchant began her recording career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs. Her voice and outspoken social awareness cemented her status as one of today’s most astute and captivating artists with a reputation as a songwriter and singer of quality. From their humble beginnings in a small rural NY community the group traveled extensively performing for 12 years throughout the United States and abroad. Merchant released six albums with the 10,000 Maniacs between 1981 and 1993 (The Wishing Chair, In My Tribe, Blind Man's Zoo, Hope Chest, Our Time in Eden & MTV Unplugged). In 1994 Merchant began her solo career with a self-produced debut album, Tigerlily (1995) which astounded the music industry by selling 5 million copies. In the years following, she released Ophelia (1998), Natalie Merchant Live (1999) and Motherland (2001). In 2003 after 18 years Merchant left Elektra Records and independently released an album of traditional and contemporary folk music The House Carpenter’s Daughter on her own label, Myth America Records. In 2005 she was persuaded to curate a collection of her own work for a double album she titled Retrospective. Over her 25 year career Merchant has been dedicated to supporting a wide array of non-profit organizations lending both financial support and raising public awareness. She has been involved for many years preserving the natural beauty of New York’s Hudson Valley through Scenic Hudson and Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Riverkeeper. The Center for Constitutional Rights, Doctors Without Borders, Tibet House, Greenpeace and The Southern Center for Human Rights are among the social justice groups to which she has been devoted. She contributes support to several children’s organizations including The Association to Benefit Children in Manhattan, and in her hometown The Boys & Girls Club, and the YMCA and YWCA continue to benefit from her annual gifts. About Boston Symphony Orchestra: Now in its 126th season, the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert on October 22, 1881, and has continued to uphold the vision of its founder, the businessman, philanthropist, Civil War veteran, and amateur musician Henry Lee Higginson, for well over a century. The Boston Symphony Orchestra has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, South America, and China; in addition, it reaches audiences numbering in the millions through its performances on radio, television, and recordings. It plays an active role in commissioning new works from today's most important composers; its summer season at Tanglewood is regarded as one of the world's most important music festivals; it helps develop the audience of the future through BSO Youth Concerts and through a variety of outreach programs involving the entire Boston community; and, during the Tanglewood season, it sponsors the Tanglewood Music Center, one of the world's most important training grounds for young composers, conductors, instrumentalists, and vocalists. The orchestra's virtuosity is reflected in the concert and recording activities of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, one of the world's most distinguished chamber ensembles made up of a major symphony orchestra's principal players, and the activities of the Boston Pops Orchestra have established an international standard for the performance of lighter kinds of music. Overall, the mission of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is to foster and maintain an organization dedicated to the making of music consonant with the highest aspirations of musical art, creating performances and providing educational and training programs at the highest level of excellence. This is accomplished with the continued support of its audiences, governmental assistance on both the federal and local levels, and through the generosity of many foundations, businesses, and individuals. About Boston Symphony Hall: Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, is widely considered to be one of the two or three finest concert halls in the world. It is the home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, and several other organizations hold performances there as well.Symphony Hall was inaugurated on October 15, 1900. The Hall was modeled on the second Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig, and is relatively long, narrow, and high, in a rectangular "shoebox" shape like Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and Vienna's Musikvereinssaal. It is 61 feet high, 75 feet wide, and 125 long from the lower back wall to the front of the stage. Stage walls slope inward to help focus the sound. With the exception of its wooden floors, the Hall is built of brick, steel, and plaster, with modest decoration. Side balconies are very shallow to avoid trapping or muffling sound, and the coffered ceiling and statue-filled niches along three sides help provide excellent acoustics to essentially every seat. Conductor Herbert von Karajan, in comparing it to the Musikverein, stated that "for much music, it is even better... because of the slightly lower reverberation time." Beethoven's name is enscribed over the stage. His was the only musician's name put in Symphony Hall, as he was the only composer that the original directors could fully agree upon. The hall's leather seats are still original from 1900. The hall seats 2,625 people during Symphony season, 2,371 during the Pops season, and up to 800 for dinner. |
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Judy Bernstein
JLB