Celebrity Series of Boston

The Celebrity Series of Boston is a non-profit performing arts presenter established in Boston, Massachusetts by Boston impresario Aaron Richmond in 1938 as Aaron Richmond's Celebrity Series.^[1] Since its founding the Celebrity Series has evolved into one of New England's major presenting organizations with over 100 performance and outreach activities annually.

History

From its inception the Celebrity Series became a mainstay of Boston's cultural life with performances by a wide variety of noted performers. Below is a partial list of performers by genre presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston since its founding:

Music performances

Pianists in Recital

Claudio Arrau Daniel Barenboim Alfred Brendel Van Cliburn Leon Fleisher Boris Goldovsky Richard Goode Judith Gordon Glenn Gould Horacio Gutierrez Vladimir Horowitz

Evgeny Kissin Robert Levin Radu Lupu Moura Lympany Olivier Messiaen (piano duo with Yvonne Loriod) Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Garrick Ohlsson Ignace Jan Paderewski Murray Perahia Maurizio Pollini Awadagin Pratt

Sergei Rachmaninoff Sviatoslav Richter Artur Rubinstein Sergey Schepkin Rudolf Serkin Russell Sherman Jan Smeterlin Solomon Dubravka Tomsic André Watts Krystian Zimerman

Violinists in Recital

Joshua Bell Adolf Busch Mischa Elman Hilary Hahn Jascha Heifetz

Fritz Kreisler Yehudi Menuhin Midori Nathan Milstein Anne-Sophie Mutter

Itzhak Perlman Gil Shaham Isaac Stern Josef Szigeti Efrem Zimbalist

Cellists in Recital

Matt Haimovitz Lynn Harrell Yo-Yo Ma Gregor Piatigorsky Jacqueline du Pré Mstislav Rostropovich Alisa Weilerstein

Classical vocalists in Recital

Marian Anderson Cecilia Bartoli Pierre Bernac with Francis Poulenc Benjamin Britten with tenor Peter Pears Maria Callas Renée Fleming Roland Hayes Marilyn Horne

Dawn Upshaw Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Birgit Nilsson Jessye Norman Luciano Pavarotti Ezio Pinza Lily Pons Leontyne Price

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Beverly Sills Dawn Upshaw Deborah Voigt

Guitarists in Recital

Andrés Segovia Carlos Montoya

Christopher Parkening John Williams

Julian Bream

Orchestras

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Baltimore Symphony Orchestra BBC Symphony Berlin Philharmonic Chicago Symphony Orchestra Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Cleveland Orchestra Detroit Symphony Dresden Staatskapelle Hague Philharmonic Houston Symphony Israel Philharmonic

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra Los Angeles Philharmonic Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra Moscow Philharmonic National Symphony Orchestra NBC Symphony Orchestra New Philharmonia Orchestra of London New York Philharmonic L'Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Orchestre de Paris

Orchestre National de France Philadelphia Orchestra Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Royal Philharmonic Orchestra San Francisco Symphony St. Petersburg Philharmonic (and Leningrad Philharmonic) Stockholm Philharmonic Vienna Philharmonic Vienna Symphony Orchestra Warsaw Philharmonic

Conductors

André Previn Antal Doráti Arturo Toscanini Bernard Haitink Carlo Maria Giulini Charles Dutoit Charles Münch Christoph von Dohnányi Claudio Abbado Daniel Barenboim Dennis Russell Davies Edo de Waart Eduard van Beinum Eugene Ormandy Frans Brüggen

George Szell Gil Rose Herbert Blomstedt Herbert von Karajan Igor Stravinsky (conducting his own works) Karl Böhm Kurt Masur Leonard Bernstein Leonard Slatkin Leopold Stokowski Lorin Maazel Mariss Jansons Michael Tilson Thomas Mstislav Rostropovich Neville Marriner

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Pierre Boulez Pierre Monteux Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Rafael Kubelík Riccardo Chailly Seiji Ozawa Sir Georg Solti Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Spivakov Wilhelm Furtwängler Wolfgang Sawallisch Yehudi Menuhin Yuri Temirkanov Zubin Mehta

Chamber Ensembles

Academy of St Martin in the Fields Alban Berg Quartet Amadeus Quartet Artemis String Quartet Beaux Arts Trio Béla Bartók (with Benny Goodman and Josef Szigeti) Berlin Philharmonic Octet Borromeo String Quartet Boston Musica Viva Budapest String Quartet eighth blackbird Emerson String Quartet

ETHEL Guarneri Quartet I Musici I Solisti de Zagreb Juilliard String Quartet Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio Kronos Quartet Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Music from Marlboro Mutter-Previn-Harrell Trio New England String Ensemble Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Paganini Quartet

Quartetto Italiano Reginald Kell Chamber Players Romeros Guitar Quartet St. Lawrence String Quartet Takács Quartet Tokyo String Quartet Trieste Trio Triple Helix Vienna Octet Virtuosi di Roma

Jazz Performers

Benny Goodman (with Béla Bartók and violinist Josef Szigeti) Bobby McFerrin Dave Brubeck Diana Krall Dizzy Gillespie

Gerry Mulligan Joe Lovano Lester Bowie Maria Schneider Orchestra Mel Tormé Mingus Big Band

Modern Jazz Quartet Preservation Hall Jazz Band Wynton Marsalis

Miscellaneous Musical Performers

Burl Ives Joni Mitchell Maurice Chevalier Kathy Mattea

Ravi Shankar The Chieftains Trapp Family Singers Victor Borge

Rob Kapilow, Family Musik and What Makes It Great? Del McCoury

Dance Performances

Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater American Ballet Theatre Ballet Folklorico de Mexico Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo BeijingDance/LDTX Bejart Ballet of the Twentieth Century Bolshoi Ballet Dance Theatre of Harlem Destine Haitian Dance Company Geoffrey Holder Dance Company Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Iva Kitchell Joffrey Ballet Jooss European Ballet Jose Greco & his Spanish Dancers Jose Limón Dance Company Katherine Dunham Kirov Ballet Mark Morris Dance Group Martha Graham and Company Merce Cunningham Dance Company Moiseyev Dance Company Original Ballet Russe

Paul Taylor Dance Company Pearl Primus Dance Company Pilobolus (dance company) Sadlers Wells Ballet/Royal Ballet Sankai Juku Seán Curran Company Trudi Schoop and her Dancing Comedians Twyla Tharp Dance Uday Shankar and his Hindu Ballet

Theatre/Spoken Word Performances

Alexander McCall Smith Basil Twist Bette Davis Bristol Old Vic Carol Burnett Cornelia Otis Skinner Dame Judith Anderson as Hamlet David Rakoff

David Sedaris Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens Frank Rich Garrison Keillor Hal Holbrook in "Mark Twain Tonight!" Ira Glass Ruth Draper

Sarah Vowell Sir Thomas Beecham Spalding Gray Terry Gross

Boston debuts

Many nationally and internationally recognized artists have made their Boston debuts with the Celebrity Series. They include:

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Cellist Yo-Yo Ma Flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal Pianist Emanuel Ax Dance Theatre of Harlem Wynton Marsalis Septet Mitsuko Shirai Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Hagen Quartet Roby Lakatos Ensemble

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Baritone Thomas Hampson Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Jazz at Lincoln Center) Soprano Dawn Upshaw Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg Aszure Barton and Artists Circa

BeijingDance/LDTX Violinist Joshua Bell Emerson String Quartet Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden Soprano Leontyne Price Pianist Angela Hewitt Pianist Ingrid Fliter Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Company Pianist Paul Lewis The Goat Rodeo Sessions

Each season from early fall to late spring, the Celebrity Series presents more than 50 multi-cultural and international artists and performing ensembles to audiences in the greater Boston area. By utilizing a number of different performance venues throughout the Boston area, each year the Celebrity Series presents programs of classical music, modern and classical dance, jazz, folk, world music, family music and multi-media performances.

Original 1938 logo of Aaron Richmond's Celebrity Series

The Celebrity Series has operated under a number of organizational umbrellas. In 1938, Aaron Richmond founded Aaron Richmond's Celebrity Series. ^[2] In 1953, it affiliated with Boston University and took the name, the Boston University Celebrity Series.^[3] In 1984, the Celebrity Series changed affiliations and moved its operations under the auspices of the Wang Center for the Performing Arts a not-for-profit institution.^[4] Then, in 1989, the Celebrity Series incorporated as an independent, non-profit institution with its own Board of Directors^[5] and an annual budget of over $3 million (now between $6 million and $7 million). After 18 years of operating with the title sponsorship support of Bank of Boston, BankBoston, FleetBoston Financial, and Bank of America, the Celebrity Series began operating under its incorporated name, Celebrity Series of Boston, in June 2007.^[6]

Leadership

Aaron Richmond: performing arts manager, pianist, impresario, and educator

Leadership of the Celebrity Series has remained consistent over its lifetime. In 1958, Aaron Richmond hired Walter Pierce as a Programming Associate. Pierce later became Executive Director and guided the Series from an impresario-style presenter to a fully staffed, not-for-profit organization. In 1986, Mr. Pierce hired Martha H. Jones as the Series' Director of Marketing. Jones later became General Manager, and, in 1996, when Mr. Pierce retired his full-time post, Martha Jones was appointed Executive Director.^{[7][8][9][10]} Ms. Jones retired in 2011. She was succeeded by Gary Dunning.^[11]

In 1971, the Celebrity Series merged with the Boston Opera Association. During this time, Walter Pierce worked closely with Harriet O’Brien, managing director of the Boston Opera Association, sponsors of the annual one-week Boston engagement of the Metropolitan Opera. Following Ms. O’Brien’s death, Mr. Pierce managed the Metropolitan Opera week in Boston until the company ceased touring.

In 1998, a gala concert in honor of Walter Pierce was staged at Boston's Symphony Hall. It was announced during the festivities that seat P-1 in Symphony Hall had been endowed in Pierce's name and that the Celebrity Series had formed the Walter Pierce Annual Performance Fund. Among the performers were pianist Dubravka Tomsic, who played Liszt's Mephisto Waltz; flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal with pianist John Steel Ritter, who played Beethoven's Three National Airs with Variations, Opus 107; William Bolcom and Joan Morris, who performed Billy Desmond and Walter Dore's song, "When Are You Going to Lead Me to the Altar, Walter?"; the Juilliard String Quartet, a trio of pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Isaac Stern, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Nasha Thomas-Schmitt of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who danced Alvin Ailey's solo piece "Cry.".^[12][13][14] At the dinner following the performance, soprano Leontyne Price sang an impromptu version of "This Little Light of Mine" for Pierce.^[15]

Programs

Arts, education and community program

The Celebrity Series operates one of the most extensive education and community service programs in New England. Launched in the mid-1980s, the Celebrity Series Arts, Education and Community Program has grown from a small, school-based ticket giveaway program reaching 200 people a year to an innovative outreach program reaching thousands of individuals each year with a series of residency programs, master classes, workshops and interactive concerts for students, families, seniors, and special needs groups. The Celebrity Series works with hundreds of community-based organizations who each month receive mailings detailing upcoming Arts, Education and Community Program activities and ticket programs in which they are able to participate.^[16]

Between 90,000 and 100,000 individuals attend Celebrity Series concerts each year. While audiences come from as far north as Maine and as far south as New Jersey, the majority come from the greater Boston metropolitan area. The Celebrity Series – through the Arts, Education and Community Program – attempts to ensure that its audience is ethnically diverse and includes people from all age groups and socio-economic backgrounds.

AileyCamp Boston

AileyCamp Boston is a six-week, summer day camp that combines dance instruction with personal development workshops, creative communication classes and field trips. Founded in 2000 and based on a structural model provided by the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation as a template for camps across the country, the AileyCamp program is designed to help low-income students develop self-respect, confidence, discipline and imagination while fostering an appreciation for the joy of dance. The goal is not to train students to be professional dancers, but to challenge the participants and to strengthen their self-esteem.^[17] The camp celebrated its tenth anniversary at its closing performance on Thursday, August 6, 2009.

Boston Marquee

The Celebrity Series Boston Marquee series, which grew out of the Celebrity Series' Emerging Artists series,^[18] was inaugurated in the 2000-01 season.^[19] Boston Marquee sought to provide new creative opportunities for Boston artists and to offer new experiences for Boston audiences by commissioning new works, encouraging artistic collaborations and making resources available to artists. Among the artists who appeared on Boston Marquee are pianists Judith Gordon, Craig Smith, and Robert D. Levin, soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano Jan Curtis, dancer Julie Ince Thompson, the Boston Trio, Sol y Canto, the Nicola Hawkins Dance Company, Rebecca Rice Dance, violinist Stefan Jackiw and Emmanuel Music. Though Boston artists remain an important part of Celebrity Series presentations, the Boston Marquee series was suspended prior to the 2008-09 season.

Collaborations

The Celebrity Series regularly collaborates with other Boston-area arts organizations to enrich Boston's cultural offerings. Most often these collaborations take the form of co-presentations. Past and present collaborative partners include The Wang Center for the Performing Arts, World Music , Broadway in Boston, Dance Umbrella, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Handel and Haydn Society.

Memberships

The Celebrity Series of Boston is a member of ArtsBoston , the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), Boston Dance Alliance , Chamber Music America , Dance USA , Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau , the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) , New England Presenters .

References

1. "Tickets Still Available for Lehman, Melchoir". Daily Boston Globe. October 17, 1938. This morning the single ticket sale for the first concert of the Aaron Richmond Celebrity Series I, the recital by Lotte Lehman and Lauritz Melchoir at Symphony Hall ... will go on sale at the box office.
2. "Tickets Still Available for Lehman, Melchoir". Daily Boston Globe. October 17, 1938.
3. "Aaron Richmond Directs BU Celebrity Series", Daily Boston Globe (Boston, MA), March 30, 1953, p. 10
4. "Pierce Takes Helm at Wang Center". Daily Boston Globe. May 3, 1984. p. 1. the Boston University Celebrity Series, which Pierce has directed since 1965, will be the Wang Celebrity Series beginning with the 1984-85 season.
5. Dyer, Richard (April 27, 1989). "Celebrity Series gets new sponsor". Boston Globe. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
6. Eichler, Jeremy (April 23, 2007). "Celebrity Series reverts to old name". Boston Globe. pp. E 7. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
7. Dyer, Richard (May 8, 1996). "Pierce retires as Celebrity Series head". Boston Globe. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
8. Knapp, Peter (May 11, 1996). "Boston's impresario steps back after 31 years at the top". Patriot Ledger. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
9. Pfeifer, Ellen (May 8, 1996). "Celebrity Series chief steps out of spotlight into retirement". Boston Herald. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
10. Dyer, Richard (October 20, 1996), "Jones is building a bridge to Celebrity Series' future", Boston Globe (Boston, MA), pp. M.2
11. "From the circus to the Celebrity Series, Gary Dunning draws on a diverse record in the arts for his new leadership post", Boston Globe (Boston, MA), April 8, 2011, pp. G.4
12. Dyer, Richard (April 27, 1998). "Celebrities fete series impresario". Boston Globe. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
13. Knapp, Peter (April 28, 1998). "Tomsic's performance highlight of tribute Music – Walter Pierce Tribute Concert, Sunday afternoon at Symphony Hall, Boston". Patriot Ledger. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
14. Pfeifer, Ellen (April 28, 1998). "Music review; Musicians pay tribute to impresario". Boston Herald. Retrieved August 3, 2008.
15. Hatfield, Julie (April 28, 1998), "A movable, musical feast for Walter Pierce", Boston Globe (Boston, MA), pp. C.2
16. McLaughlin, Jeff (February 17, 1984), "MARQUEE; Schools to get Cut-Price Tickets for Ailey Visit", Boston Globe (Boston, MA), p. 1
17. Dezell, Maureen (January 22, 2000), "Ailey Plans Dance Camp for Kids", Boston Globe (Boston, MA), pp. F.8
18. Dyer, Richard (January 8, 1993), "Ying launches series for rising stars", Boston Globe (Boston, MA), p. 35
19. Dyer, Richard (January 15, 2001), "Gordon Opens Series Adeptly", Boston Globe (Boston, MA), pp. B.6

External links

• Celebrity Series of Boston web site
• Celebrity Series of Boston Blog
• Boston Globe article, "Celebrity Series reverts to old name/" April 23, 2007