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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

COMPOSER PETER BOYER AND LYRICIST LYNN AHRENS'S NEW WORK, "THE DREAM LIVES ON: A PORTRAIT OF THE KENNEDY BROTHERS," TO RECEIVE WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE BY KEITH LOCKHART AND THE BOSTON POPS, AS PART OF ORCHESTRA'S 125TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON CELEBRATION

Peter Boyer, one of the most performed American orchestral composers of his generation, has been commissioned by the Boston Pops Orchestra to create a work, The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, celebrating the legacy of John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy, as part of the Boston Pops' 125th anniversary season, May 4-June 20. This new work, conceived by Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart and written with lyricist Lynn Ahrens, will have its world premiere performances at Boston's Symphony Hall on May 18 and 19, in performances featuring the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and four celebrity narrators (details to be announced soon). Additional performances are scheduled throughout the Boston Pops spring season (May 20, 21, and 22), at the Charles River Esplanade (July 3 & 4), at Tanglewood in the Berkshires (July 18), and at a special concert in Hyannis, MA (August 1).

Grammy®-nominated composer Peter Boyer is active in both the classical music field and the film and television music industry. To date, Boyer’s orchestral works have received nearly 250 public performances by more than 80 orchestras worldwide.

The Dream Lives On pays tribute to the call to public service, drive for social change, the legacy of optimism for America’s future, and the spirit epitomized by the Kennedy brothers. Conceived by Lockhart, composed by Boyer, with text by Tony award-winning lyricist Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime), the work combines quotes from speeches by the Kennedy brothers, original text and video, with Boyer’s dramatic orchestral-choral score. The title of the work was taken from the closing lines of Ted Kennedy’s speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention: “If we set our compass true, we will reach our destination… The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.”

"This project--a new work for the Boston Pops honoring the Kennedy brothers--has been a dream of mine for quite some time now," said Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart. “I have never performed Peter’s music, but after hearing a recording of his Ellis Island, I realized that his style of composing--its distinctly 'American' feel, with a buoyancy I find very inspiring--was a great choice for this Boston Pops project. Peter's compositional style and Lynn Ahrens's poetic way of matching words to music are the ideal collaboration for this tribute to these native sons of Massachusetts."

“The fact that members of the Kennedy family gave their blessing to the Boston Pops for the project and the choice of composer is especially meaningful to me,” said Boyer. “I see my role in this project as endeavoring to reflect and amplify these timeless words of the Kennedys through the special power that belongs to music alone. If I can help to strengthen the connection that listeners feel to these powerful words in a directly emotional way through music, and thereby honor the Kennedys’ legacy, it will be as meaningful an outcome as I can imagine for a composer.”

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Peter Boyer was just appointed Composer-in-Residence with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Miguel Harth-Bedoya for the 2010-11 season. He has conducted recordings of his music with two of the world’s finest orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia. His music has been performed in venues throughout the US and abroad, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Brooklyn Academy of Music, London’s Abbey Road Studios, Los Angeles’ Royce Hall and Shrine Auditorium, Dallas’ Meyerson Symphony Center, and Fort Worth’s Bass Hall.

His widely acclaimed Ellis Island: The Dream of America celebrates the historic American immigrant experience. With more than 100 performances by 50 orchestras since its 2002 debut, Ellis Island is one of the most-performed large-scale American orchestral works of the last decade. The Naxos recording was nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition in 2006.

In addition to his work for the concert hall, Boyer is active in the film and television music industry. He has contributed orchestral arrangements to more than a dozen major feature films, from studios such as Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Disney/Pixar, Columbia Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, and Lionsgate/Marvel. Boyer has twice arranged and orchestrated music for the Academy Awards (Oscars®), including the 2009 telecast. As a television composer, Boyer’s credits include Engineering an Empire for The History Channel.

Additional information about Peter Boyer can be found at http://www.PropulsiveMusic.com

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON POPS 125TH SEASON, MAY 4-JUNE 20

The 125th season opens on May 4 with a gala concert featuring multiple Tony Award-winner Idina Menzel and the inimitable Doc Severinsen, who holds the distinction of having performed under the batons of Arthur Fiedler, John Williams, and Keith Lockhart—a perfect addition to a program honoring the artistic vision of the three most famous Boston Pops conductors (more information available at bostonpops.org). During the season the Pops will present the world premiere of a new work by composer Peter Boyer and lyricist Lynn Ahrens,“The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers,” honoring Massachusetts native sons John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy, mark the 10th anniversary of the popular radio and TV show “From the Top,” focus on esteemed artists from the fields of jazz, musical theater, and pop, including Dave Brubeck, Kelli O’Hara, and Maureen McGovern, and honor the legacies of such musical titans as Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Daniel Bernard Roumain, who in concert melds his classical music roots with his own Haitian-American cultural references and vibrant musical imagination, and Ozomatli , the multi-Grammy award-winning, genre-defying sensation, join the orchestra for programs that continue the Pops tradition of focusing on the best and brightest new talent on the musical scene today. Returning to the Pops schedule is the legendary film music series under the direction of John Williams, this year marking his 30th anniversary with the Pops, and one of the newest Pops traditions, Gospel Night with Charles Floyd. To bring the 125th season to a close in June, the Boston Pops will present one of this country’s greatest living legends—the incomparable Arlo Guthrie. Other highlights include A Boston Pops 125th documentary, entitled America’s Orchestra: Celebrating 125 years of the Boston Pops to air on PBS in the spring, and a national contest trough Twitter, Facebook, and mobile phone text messages for a family of four to win a trip to Boston’s famous Fourth-of-July celebration, details of which are available at bostonpops.org/125.

TICKETS & INFORMATION

Tickets for the May concerts (18, 20, 21, and 22) can be purchased online at www.bostonpops.org, by phone through 617-266-1200 or 888-266-1200 or in person at the Symphony Hall box office.

For the performance on July 18 at Tanglewood in the Berkshires, tickets can be purchased online at www.tanglewood.org, and by phone through 617-266-1200 or 888-266-1200.

Additional performances of The Dream Lives On will be held throughout Massachusetts this summer by the Boston Pops Orchestra. It will be featured on July 3, and at the annual free and open to the public Boston Pops July 4th concert at Boston’s Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade.

A performance on August 1 on the Hyannis Village Green in Hyannis, MA, home to generations of Kennedys, will also be given. Tickets are available at: http://www.artsfoundation.org/products/3

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