Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert

View the Boston Pops roster and musician bios

For more than 135 years, the Boston Pops has entertained audiences in Boston and beyond, with Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart leading the orchestra since 1995. In 1881, Civil War veteran Henry Lee Higginson founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra, calling its establishment “the dream of my life.” From the start he intended to present, in the warmer months, concerts of light classics and the popular music of the day. Seventeen Pops conductors, beginning with Adolf Neuendorff, preceded the legendary Arthur Fiedler (Conductor, 1930-1979). The first American-born musician to lead the orchestra, he established the Boston Pops as a national icon. When John Williams (Conductor, 1980-1993) succeeded Fiedler in 1980, he was the most highly acclaimed composer in Hollywood, and today, with 52 Academy Award nominations, he is the most-nominated living person in Academy history. With the Pops, Mr. Williams made a series of best-selling recordings, broadened and updated the Pops repertoire, and entertained audiences with live orchestral accompaniment to memorable movie scenes, many of which featured his own iconic scores. Having led over 2,000 Boston Pops concerts in his tenure to date, Keith Lockhart (Conductor, 1995-present) has created programs that reach out to a broader and younger audience by presenting artists—both established performers and rising stars—from virtually every corner of the entertainment world, all the while maintaining the Pops' core appeal. He has made more than 80 television shows, led 45 national and four overseas tours with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, led the Pops at several high-profile sports events, and recorded 14 albums. Mr. Lockhart's tenure has been marked by a dramatic increase in touring, the orchestra's first Grammy nominations, the first major network national broadcast of the July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular from the Esplanade, and the release of the Boston Pops' first self-produced and self-distributed recordings.

The Boston Pops Orchestra may be heard on Boston Pops Recordings, RCA Victor, Sony Classical, and Philips Records.

Steinway & Sons Pianos, selected exclusively for Symphony Hall.

The BSO’s Steinway & Sons pianos were purchased through a generous gift from Gabriella and Leo Beranek.

Special thanks to Fidelity Investments, Arbella Insurance Foundation, Fairmont Copley Plaza, and American Airlines.

New arrangements and works for the Boston Pops are generously supported by the Cecile Higginson Murphy Pops Programming Fund.

Broadcasts of the Boston Pops are heard on 99.5 WCRB.

Programs and artists subject to change.

The BSO’s 2022-23 season is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives support from the State of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Board of Trustees | Board of Advisors | Staff and Administration

Ragtime debuted on Broadway in 1998, an epic, large-scale musical with a sweeping tale to tell of America’s hopes, ambitions, and imperfections. Over the past twenty-five years, the musical has been produced countless times in productions large and small, in schools, colleges, community theaters, and professional venues across the country and around the world.

But tonight you will hear “the music of something beginning”—Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert, a brand-new concert version, commissioned by the Boston Pops and created by its three authors shortly before librettist Terrence McNally passed away in 2020. This is the first time the show has been adapted specifically for the concert hall, its complex story told seamlessly using newly created narrative, singers, and symphony orchestra. It also features a new orchestration by Kim Scharnberg based on the Tony Award-winning original by William David Brohn. This version of Ragtime was originally scheduled to premiere in the spring of 2020 to coincide with Keith Lockhart’s 25th anniversary with the Boston Pops, but the pandemic put everything on hold. With this long-anticipated performance, we can finally celebrate his extraordinary tenure, and also honor the memory of Terrence McNally.

Ragtime is the story of three disparate families in 1902, a tumultuous time when our country was experiencing “a new music”—the arrival of immigrants, the rising cultural influence of Black Americans, the Industrial Revolution, and the coming World War.

But although the story is set at the turn of the century, the musical itself has continued to remain relevant, always reflecting current events in an uncanny way, as Americans continue even now to fight for their rights, their dignity, and their dreams. E.L. Doctorow’s great American novel, on which the musical is based, was prescient, and still is.

Just as in the novel, the show contains some racially hateful words that bluntly portray the casual bigotry prevalent at the turn of the century against Blacks, Jews, Irish and more. But to quote Tony-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell, who was Broadway’s original Coalhouse Walker, Jr., “To take the ugly language out of Ragtime is to sanitize it, and that does it a great disservice. People should be offended by those words. But Ragtime is about how we get through ugliness, how we talk together, work together, get through it together. The show takes us to the next steps. That’s what our country needs to do.”

Ragtime continues to portray us as we were, and as we still are. And it offers not only challenges but hope for what we still might be. “We have different lives and faces, but our hearts have common places.” In the end, this is the essential message of Ragtime, and why we are so proud to present this powerful new version with this thrilling cast, chorus, and orchestra.

Lynn Ahrens

As lyricist of Ragtime, Lynn Ahrens won the 1998 Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards, as well as Grammy nominations for Songs from Ragtime and the original Broadway cast recording. Her credits with longtime collaborator, Ragtime composer Stephen Flaherty include Once On This Island, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, My Favorite Year, Lucky Stiff, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones, and Seussical.

Thank you all for being here to share in Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of the show opening on Broadway.

Before he passed in March of 2020 from complications of COVID, the show’s playwright, Terrence McNally, transposed much of his scene work into direct-address narrative, allowing us to jump seamlessly from song to song. That, along with the score, smartly reduced by the composing team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, still allows the full impact of the show’s voice of racial equality, immigration, women’s rights, and social justice to sing full-throated.

The story, set at the dawning of the 20th century, of a well-to-do white woman in New Rochelle, who seeks autonomy in a time where that was still an unrealized dream; an Eastern European Jewish immigrant, striving for success in the land of opportunity, while facing heightened xenophobia and antisemitism; and a ragtime piano player from Harlem who feels ignored and marginalized while seeking justice for himself and for the cruel murder of his love at the hands of the police, is complex and nuanced: a story of self-awakening, great hardships, and social injustices that haven’t really changed that much a century later.

To get across the high stakes of all that is going on in America at this time, there is language and action that has been chosen to show the animosity, anger, and tension between characters and groups of people. It was carefully considered and not taken lightly by our playwright.

The issues that are raised in this story are not only acutely contemplated but, in our artistic medium of theatre and music, necessary to give us a visceral reaction. This “gut-punch” allows you, as the audience, to be put in the shoes of our characters and paves the way for a deeper empathy.

The baseball song “What a Game” is full of ethnic slurs toward the Irish, the Jewish, Germans, Italians…no one comes out unscathed. The ironic humor is in the juxtaposition of “the great American pastime,” baseball, and another unfortunate American pastime, bigotry. It’s there to illustrate one of the major social diseases we have here in the U.S.

The character of Sarah is the victim of police brutality. Sarah seeks assistance from a man she thinks can surely help her and Coalhouse in their desire for justice. She is murdered because the police “thought they saw a gun” in her hand. Coalhouse Walker, Jr.’s ultimate demise has been reflected time and time again on the news and in the headlines of many of our nation’s papers.

“Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”

On a personal note, I have had a close relationship with Ragtime for around 27 years now, since the world premiere of the show in 1996, as my late wife, Marin Mazzie, originated the role of Mother.

Marin and I, almost simultaneously, began a long relationship with maestro Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, as guest artists and friends. Marin and I performed here, at Symphony Hall, at Tanglewood, on the Esplanade for a couple of the Fourth of July celebration performances, and on tours in the U.S. and abroad. Keith, and many of the musicians that are still around all these 25 years later, are very much an extended family of mine.

Both longstanding relationships, and the culmination of Ragtime with the Boston Pops, add up to one of the most important and meaningful projects I’ve undertaken in my 35 years in show business. I’m so happy and honored to have directed this production.

May we all appreciate that there is no going “Back to Before” in our journey as Americans and as human beings. I hold high in my heart that we may all continue to search and achieve our dreams for ourselves in harmony.

Jason Danieley

The Boston Pops salutes its friends, old and new, for their generosity. Fiedler Society members generously contribute annual gifts that fund Pops performances, education and outreach programs, and free Pops concerts throughout the community.

The BSO gratefully acknowledges the following Pops Annual Fund donors who, as of April 24, 2023, are current members at the following levels. For more information about becoming a Fiedler Society member, please contact the Friends Office at 617-638-9276.

‡ This symbol indicates a deceased donor.

FIEDLER ENCORE ($25,000 AND ABOVE)
Barbara and Amos Hostetter
The O'Block Family
Mitch J. Pomerance
Mr. Nicholas Vantzelfde and Ms. Lauren Erb

FIEDLER CONDUCTOR ($10,000 - 24,999) 
Stephen and Joan Clark
Douglas and Christine Emond
Richard and Nancy Heath
Kathleen and Ronald Jackson
Mr. Mark Legan
Dr. and Mrs. Frederick H. Lovejoy, Jr.
The McDonald Family in honor of Patricia McDonald
Joseph C. McNay, The New England Foundation
Paul & Joyce Mucci Family Foundation
In Loving Memory of Richard O’Brien
Bob and Laura Reynolds
Katherine Chapman Stemberg
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick J. Sullivan
Richard and Bonnie Sullivan
Jean C. Tempel
Scott and Catherine Webster
Sidney and Deanna Wolk

FIEDLER BACKSTAGE ($5,000 - 9,999 )
Mr. Daniel Brownell and Ms. Kelley Laurel
James Bunt
Camille Carlstrom
The Cavanagh Family
Jim and Shirley Curvey
Mr. David D'Alessandro
Mr. and Mrs. James Davis
Mary Dunbrack
Deirdre and Jeff Hannon
John W. Henry Family Foundation
Frances and Tom Knight
Peter and Connie Lacaillade
Rich and Holly Linton Jr.
Emily and Malcolm MacNaught
Mr. Patrick MeLampy and Rev. Priscilla Lawrence
Jennifer and Brad Moyer
Doug and Karen Pettingell
Carmichael Roberts and Sandra Park
Alex and Mimi Rozek
Carol Searle and Andrew Ley ‡
Peter and Barbara Sidel
Maggie and Jack Skenyon
Tony and Martha Vorlicek
Anna Marie Wagner and Rob Sinnott
Howard and Karen Wilcox
Ed and Judi Zuker
Anonymous (2)

FIEDLER SOCIETY ($3,000 - 4,999) 
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene F. Barnes III
Mr. and Mrs. Eliot Beal
Edward S. W. Boesel
Mr. David R. Bolton
Cathy and Jack Brennan
John and Trish Brennan
Franklyn Caine
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cella
Mark Condon and Jean Hynes
Charles L. and Nancy T. Donahue
Loretta H. and Gregory J. Gailius
Patricia Romeo-Gilbert and Paul B. Gilbert ‡
Dr. and Mrs. Richard Gillis
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Gilroy
Mr. Herbert H. Gowen II
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel A. Grady
Ms. Joanne Hayes-Rines
Mr. and Mrs. Blair E. Hendrix
Mary Hines
Peter Hornstra
Alan and Wendy Issokson
J. M. Electrical Co., Inc.
Mr. Timothy Johnson
John and Nancy Kendall
Mr. and Mrs. Carleton F. Kilmer
Ms. Danielle M. Lauzon and Mr. James R. Kasinger
Thomas Lewis and Ailene Robinson
Keith and Emiley Lockhart
In loving memory of Carlin F. Lynch
Erin and Craig Majernik
Joe and Liz Marconi
Bernhard Metzger in memory of Karen Zander
Jeffrey Moore and Barbara Southcote
Slocumb H. and E. Lee ‡ Perry
Mr. and Mrs. Dwight Poler
Mary Jane Restuccia
Peter and Karen Rhoten
Frederick J. and Bonnie M. ‡ Rich
Margaret and Fred Richardson
Lars and Elizabeth Schuster
Ms. Karin Settel
Bill and Anne Marie Teuber
Mr. and Mrs. William G. Walker
Susan Sprague Walters and Richard Walters
Dr. Xuqiong Wu

The operating support from the following generous donors enables the Boston Symphony Orchestra to maintain an unparalleled level of artistic excellence, to keep ticket prices at accessible levels, and to support extensive education and community engagement programs throughout the greater Boston area and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The BSO gratefully acknowledges these contributors for their philanthropic support during fiscal year 2022 through major corporate sponsorships and events, BSO Business Partners, and foundation and government grants.

$500,000 AND ABOVE
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Fidelity Investments
Morgan Stanley

$250,000 - 499,999
Microsoft New England
Fairmont Copley Plaza
Bank of America
Massachusetts Cultural Council

$100,000 - 249,999
American Airlines
Arbella Insurance Foundation
Miriam Shaw Fund
The Nancy Foss Heath and Richard B. Heath Educational, Cultural and Environmental Foundation
Yawkey Foundation

$50,000 - 99,999
Berkshire Health Systems
Brightcove Inc.
Elizabeth Taylor Fessenden Foundation
Fromm Music Foundation
Genesis Motor America
Kingsbury Road Charitable Foundation
Mass General Brigham
Miraval Berkshires Resort & Spa
Mugar Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

$25,000 - 49,999
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.
Adage Capital Management
Eaton Vance
Edwin S. Webster Foundation
ESAI Energy LLC
Grew Family Charitable Foundation
Hemenway & Barnes LLP
Liberty Mutual Foundation
Overly Foundation
Bayberry Financial Services
New Balance Foundation
Richard and Ann J. Prouty Foundation
Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation; John and Amy Smith Berylson, James Berylson, Jonathan Block and Jennifer Berylson Block, Robert Katz and Elizabeth Berylson Katz, Robert and Dana Smith, Madeleine Smith, Ryan Smith, Debra Smith Knez, Jessica Knez, and Andrew and Krista Knez
UniFirst Corporation
Anonymous

$10,000 - 24,999
Abrams Capital
Altimeter Capital Management, LP
Arthur J. Hurley Company, Inc.
Asia Alternatives Management, LLC
Berry Drew Family Foundation
Billy Rose Foundation
Boston Business Journal
Boston Globe
Cabot Corporation
Corvus Insurance
Council on Library and Information Resources
Elliott Management Corporation
Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton
GRAMMY Museum Foundation
Goodwin
Lucia B. Morrill Charitable Foundation
MEDITECH
Miss Wallace M. Leonard Foundation
Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation
Ruane Family Foundation
Saquish Foundation
Tetlow Realty Associates
The Alice Ward Fund of The Rhode Island Foundation
UniFirst Corporation
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Wilmington Trust, part of M&T Bank Family

$5,000 - 9,999
Stevens Foundation
Adelaide Breed Bayrd Foundation
Allison Hamilton Consulting LLC
The Amphion Foundation, Inc.
The Baupost Group
Cambridge Homes
CIBC Private Wealth Management
Connell Limited Partnership
Consulate General of the Netherlands/DutchArts USA
Demoulas Foundation
The E. Nakamichi Foundation
Edward A. Taft Trust
Encore Boston Harbor
Fiduciary Trust Company
The Fuller Foundation
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Herb Chambers Companies
Jack Madden Ford
Jackson and Irene Golden 1989 Charitable Trust
Katharine L.W. and Winthrop M. Crane, 3D Charitable Foundation
Mattina R. Proctor Foundation
The Summer Fund
Polar Beverage Corporation
PwC
Saks Fifth Avenue
William E. and Bertha E. Schrafft Charitable Trust
Stetson Whitcher Fund
Thomas A. and Georgina T. Russo Family Fund
Walsh Brothers, Inc.
Anonymous

$2,500 - 4,999
Albert O. Wilson Foundation
American-Scandinavian Foundation
Analytix Live
Aqueduct Technologies, Inc.
Bicon Dental Implant
Brookline Youth Concerts Fund
Cambridge Community Foundation
Chubb
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Elizabeth Grant Fund
Fire Equipment, Inc.
Goddard House
Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents
Natixis Global Asset Management
Norbella, Inc.
Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston
Oxford Fund
Rockland Trust
Sametz Blackstone Associates
True Tickets
Vacovec, Mayotte & Singer LLC
Verrill
Welch & Forbes, LLC