Lowell Chamber Orchestra Announces Eighth Season with Bernstein, Beethoven

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The free concert series will feature works by composers including Alan Hovhaness and more.

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The Lowell Chamber Orchestra has revealed "The Sound of Belonging," its eighth season, a series of programs exploring how music connects us to family, culture, history and community. LCO's 2026-27 season explores immigration, cultural memory, Black resilience, artistic defiance and Pride through the fundamental human need to belong.

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At the heart of the season is the principle that has defined LCO since its founding: great music should belong to everyone. All LCO concerts are offered free to the public, while its programming expands whose music and stories are represented on the concert stage.

The season opens with scenes from Pasquale Tassone's opera "Seven Rabbits on a Pole," based on the drama by John C. Picardi, with a libretto by Elizabeth Searle . Through the story of an Italian immigrant family struggling to establish a life in America, the opera explores poverty, prejudice, assimilation, family and the search for home.

"The Memory of Melodies" explores how composers remember, borrow and transform music from the past. Melodies can survive borders, generations and political change, becoming a form of cultural inheritance that connects us to where we came from. Featuring soloists Wei Zhao on flute, guitarist Apostolos Paraskevas, violinist Krista Buckland-Reisner, and pianist Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta.

Presented at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Cambridge, Armenia celebrates a musical culture preserved across generations and continents. Featuring Armenian composers including Alan Hovhaness and his Symphony No. 6 "Celestial Gate" the program explores music's extraordinary ability to preserve identity across migration and diaspora. Featuring violinist Sargis Karapetyan as soloist.

At the Berklee Performance Center, LCO traces Black musical creativity across classical music, spirituals, blues, gospel, jazz, R&B and contemporary popular music. Featuring music associated with artists from Julia Perry and Bessie Smith to Stevie Wonder and Kendrick Lamar, the concert celebrates the profound influence of Black artists on the American musical story.

"Blissful Insolence" celebrates artists who refuse to conform. Bernstein's Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 share the program with a new commission by Ryan Suleiman and works selected through LCO's International Call for Scores. Violinist David Bernat, winner of LCO's 2026 International Young Artist Competition, appears as soloist.

The season concludes with "Pride: A Rainbow of Repertoire," celebrating LGBTQ+ composers and artists whose contributions have helped shape musical culture, often during periods when their identities could not be openly acknowledged. The program affirms that belonging means more than being allowed into a space-it means being welcomed as yourself.

Nominate your favorite local productions and performers before the deadline on October 31, 2026.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/boston/article/Bernstein-Beethoven-and-More-Set-for-Lowell-Chamber-Orchestra-Eighth-Season-20260921)._