Boston Symphony Orchestra Announces Fall 2026 Humanities Programs

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The BSO's fall programming will include events with Tod Machover, Holly Herndon, Sudan Archives, Davóne Tines, Tracy K. Smith, Osvaldo Golijov and more.

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The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced its fall humanities programming, with two series of concerts, talks and multidisciplinary events complementing performances at Symphony Hall.

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October's Technology and Our Humanity programming will run October 20-25 alongside the world premiere of Tod Machover's BSO-commissioned already and not yet . In November, the BSO will continue its Faith in Our Time initiative with a Creation Festival running November 5-14, complementing performances of Haydn's The Creation and the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's Creation .

Tickets for the fall humanities events go on sale September 22 at 10 a.m.

On October 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge, Roomful of Teeth and members of Metropolis Ensemble will present a work-in-progress showing of William Brittelle's Millennium Rift .

The multimedia song cycle features newly integrated AI-assisted video by filmmaker Isaac Gale alongside additional digital content.

Kent Nagano will conduct the BSO on October 22 at 7:30 p.m., October 23 at 1:30 p.m. and October 24 at 8 p.m. at Symphony Hall.

The program includes Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture , the world premiere of Machover's BSO commission already and not yet , the U.S. premiere of Alex Nante's Ein feste Burg and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 5.

Machover's new work incorporates a live AI system designed to collaborate with the BSO musicians during the performance.

On October 24 at 6:30 p.m., composers George Lewis and Tod Machover will discuss the history and future of musical AI in the Cabot-Cahners Room at Symphony Hall.

The separately ticketed conversation precedes that evening's 8 p.m. BSO performance.

Tod Machover will moderate a panel celebrating four decades of musical experimentation at the MIT Media Lab on October 25 at 2 p.m. at MIT's Thomas Tull Concert Hall.

Panelists will include Media Lab alumni Teresa Marrin Nakra, Alex Rigopulos , Anna Huang, Ben Bloomberg and Nicole L'Huillier.

Composer and artist Holly Herndon will discuss the use of machine learning as part of her musical practice on October 25 at 3:30 p.m. at MIT's Thomas Tull Concert Hall.

The event will include a moderated Q&A with MIT Media Lab PhD student Manaswi Mishra.

The BSO's two-week Creation Festival will run November 5-14, bringing together music, poetry, literature, science and visual art around questions of creation and origins.

The festival complements performances of Haydn's The Creation and the world premiere of Golijov's Creation , featuring a book by David Henry Hwang and lyrics by Leah Hager Cohen.

Robert Hazen and Michael Wong will present a 45-minute talk based on their work Time's Second Arrow on November 5 at 6 p.m. in Symphony Hall's Cabot-Cahners Room.

The program will explore their theory of time and increasing complexity ahead of that evening's performance of Haydn's The Creation .

Philippe Jordan will conduct the BSO in Haydn's The Creation on November 5 at 7:30 p.m., November 6 at 1:30 p.m. and November 7 at 8 p.m.

The performances will feature soprano Louise Alder, tenor Bogdan Volkov, bass-baritone David Steffens and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus conducted by Jean-Sébastien Vallée.

William Basinski will present a live realization of The Garden of Brokenness on November 6 at 7 p.m. at Arrow Street Arts.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the work's release, the performance will feature Basinski with pianist Adam Tendler, an ensemble of BSO percussionists and Light and Space by A.J. Weissbard.

Poets Christian Wiman and Tracy K. Smith will present readings and reflections centered on creation on November 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the Cabot-Cahners Room at Symphony Hall.

Sudan Archives will present Any Shape I Want on November 8 at 7 p.m. at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in a co-presentation with the BSO.

The performance follows a 24-hour cycle through six stations, with Sudan Archives reimagining music from her catalog through violin loops, voice and projected video.

Davóne Tines and pianist John Bitoy will join composer and pianist Vijay Iyer for What Creation Sounds Like on November 10 at 6 p.m. at Harvard University's Paine Hall.

The event will combine conversation, performance and improvisation while exploring musical ideas connected to Golijov and Hwang's Creation .

Eric Jacobsen will conduct the world premiere of Golijov's Creation at Symphony Hall on November 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. and November 14 at 8 p.m.

The BSO commission features music by Golijov, a book by Hwang and lyrics by Cohen. Performers include Cécile McLorin Salvant, Davóne Tines, Cyro Baptista and Kayhan Kalhor, alongside the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the BSO x NEC Honors Children's Choir.

A Golden Wire will present Timæus on November 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Boston Athenaeum.

The program, featuring Parker Ramsay , Arnie Tanimoto, Thomas Fields and Lucine Musaelian, will explore connections among music, cosmology and creation through English Elizabethan and Jacobean works and Italian instrumental music.

Artist Makoto Fujimura will present A Portal of New Creation with a BSO string quartet on November 14 at 2 p.m. at Tremont Temple Baptist Church.

Fujimura will discuss ideas from his book Art + Faith: A Theology of Making and share work from his Qu4rtets project, accompanied by a performance of one of Beethoven's late string quartets.

The festival will conclude its humanities programming on November 14 at 6:30 p.m. with a conversation between Golijov and physicist, novelist and essayist Alan Lightman in Symphony Hall's Cabot-Cahners Room.

The discussion will explore the relationship among music, science, creativity and the experience of awe ahead of the final performance of Creation .

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/boston/article/Boston-Symphony-Orchestra-Sets-Fall-Humanities-Programs-Exploring-Technology-Faith-and-Creation-20260917)._