Boston Chamber Symphony Reveals 2026–27 Season, Featuring Two East Coast Premieres

Boston Chamber Symphony (BCS) has announced its 2026–27 season, featuring three concerts, two East Coast premieres by Boston-area composers Pascal Le Boeuf and Michael Gilbertson, and appearances by acclaimed guest soloists. Music Director Avlana Eisenberg conducts.

Legacy and Innovation 

Saturday, October 17, 2026, at 7:30pm / First Church in Cambridge

BCS opens its season with three titans of the Viennese tradition—Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms—performing Mozart's Overture to Così fan tutte, Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, and Brahms's Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Joshua Brown. This appearance marks Brown's fourth consecutive season with BCS, following performances of concertos by Mendelssohn (2023), Beethoven (2024), and Bruch (2025). The Brahms holds particular significance for Brown: it was the piece he performed in the final round of the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, where he won Second Prize and both Audience Awards. 

Love and Magic 

Saturday, February 20, 2027, at 7:30pm / Thomas Tull Concert Hall at MIT

BCS's winter concert brings two East Coast premieres to MIT's Thomas Tull Concert Hall: Pascal Le Boeuf's Triple Concerto for Violin and Percussion Duo and Michael Gilbertson's Concerto for Percussion Duo. Both works were commissioned by and feature arx duo, with violinist Natalie Lin Douglas joining the ensemble for Le Boeuf's Triple Concerto. Le Boeuf and Douglas are members of the MIT Music faculty, and Gilbertson is on the composition faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. The program opens with Elgar's Serenade for Strings—written as a gift for his wife, Alice, on their third wedding anniversary—and closes with de Falla's El amor brujo.

Wit and Wonder 

Saturday, May 1, 2027, at 7:30pm / First Baptist Church in Newton

BCS closes its season with Rossini's exuberant Overture to The Barber of Seville and Mozart's dramatic Piano Concerto No. 20, featuring acclaimed pianist Adam Golka. One of only two Mozart piano concertos written in a minor key, the work is among the composer's most intense and theatrical works. The concert concludes with Schumann's sweeping Symphony No. 4.

Artist Bios:

About Joshua Brown: Violinist Joshua Brown received a 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant and won 2nd Prize and both Audience Awards at the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He has performed with orchestras including the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, and the Belgian National Orchestra, and was recently named a 2027–30 Bowers Program Artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He earned his Bachelor's, Master's, and Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory, studying under Donald Weilerstein.

About Pascal Le Boeuf: Composer Pascal Le Boeuf is an Assistant Professor of Music at MIT, where he teaches composition. A 2025 Grammy Award winner and 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, he has received commissions from the New World Symphony, Chamber Music America, and New Music USA, among others. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University.

About Michael Gilbertson: Composer Michael Gilbertson was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Quartet. His works have been performed by ensembles including the Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and New World Symphony. An Associate Professor of Composition at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Gilbertson holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Yale University.

About arx duo: Percussionists Mari Yoshinaga and Garrett Arney formed arx duo while students together at the Yale School of Music. The ensemble is dedicated to expanding the percussion chamber music repertoire through new commissions and premieres and has performed at venues including London's Royal Albert Hall. They have worked closely with composers including Steven Mackey and Ted Hearne and currently serve on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music's Young Artist Summer Program.

About Natalie Lin Douglas: New Zealand-born violinist Natalie Lin Douglas is an Associate Professor of Music at MIT and the founder and artistic director of Kinetic Ensemble, a Houston-based conductorless ensemble. A prizewinner at the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition and the 2012 Klein International Strings Competition, she has appeared as soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia. She earned degrees from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

About Adam Golka: Polish-American pianist Adam Golka won first prize at the Shanghai International Piano Competition at age sixteen. He has performed with orchestras across the United States and abroad, including the San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestras, and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2010.

About Avlana Eisenberg: Music Director of the Boston Chamber Symphony, conductor Avlana Eisenberg has led orchestras across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe, and was named one of Classical Radio Boston's (WCRB) "Five Powerhouse Women in Classical Music You Should Know." Her 2022 Naxos recording of world-premiere works by William Grant Still with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra was praised as "stunning" by The New York Times and named Album of the Week by SiriusXM. A Fulbright Fellow and Yale graduate, Eisenberg holds graduate degrees in conducting from the University of Michigan and the Peabody Institute.

Need more Boston Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...