Boston Conservatory at Berklee, MF Dynamics, and Emerald Necklace Conservancy Team Up for Multidisciplinary Summer Performance in the Back Bay Fens
Boston Conservatory at Berklee, in partnership with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and MF Dynamics, announce an outdoor performance by Boston Conservatory dance, music, and theater students, to be held in the Back Bay Fens on Friday, May 28, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. (rain date: May 29, 2021 at 12:00 p.m.).
The performance will mark the culmination of Boston Conservatory’s new, credit-bearing summer course called Beyond Walls: Performance in Public Space, led by acclaimed artist and entrepreneur Maria Finkelmeier of MF Dynamics, who garnered praise earlier this year for her inventive multimedia public space project, Hatched: Breaking Through Silence, at the Hatch Memorial Shell in Boston.
A key component of the Beyond Walls course is conceptualizing and producing a new work for a public space. Program partner Emerald Necklace Conservancy will provide three creative briefs, each detailing a different goal for raising awareness of this linear park system through the performance piece. Students from the Conservatory’s Dance, Music, and Theater divisions will be divided into mixed-discipline teams, each of which will develop a performance proposal based on one of the briefs. Students will pitch their ideas to a panel of faculty and arts professionals such as Timothy Hall (Hipstory, BAMS, and Berklee College of Music) and Jane Long (MF Dynamics and BRM Production Management), and one project will be selected for the entire class to produce and perform as the May 28 performance in the Back Bay Fens.
“We are thrilled to partner with Maria Finkelmeier of MF Dynamics and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy to give our students this unique opportunity to collaborate across disciplines and connect with our surrounding community,” said Andy Vores, Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer. “The Back Bay Fens is our cherished neighbor and I can't think of a better landscape for our students to share their energizing artistry in a public-space performance.”
Additional faculty include dance artist Peter DiMuro (Public Displays of Motion and the Dance Complex), esteemed Boston Conservatory instructors Pierre Hurel and Olivier Besson, Silkroad artists Maeve Gilchrist, Mario Gotoh, and Shaw Pong Liu, and guest presenters Jamie Santuccio (Events Manager of Emerald Necklace Conservancy), Beau Kenyon (public artist and composer), Kate Gilbert (Executive Director of Now+There), and Catherine Morris (Founder of BAMS Fest).
"I look forward to guiding an outburst of creativity driven by the students of Boston Conservatory at Berklee,” said program director Maria Finkelmeier. “Together, we’ll explore sound, movement, and story-telling, while discovering new connections with our community at the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and beyond. I hope this program will inspire students to unleash their creative potential, accessing new pathways and partnerships in the public space."
About Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Boston Conservatory at Berklee provides a progressive learning environment where students are challenged to realize their potential as artists and inspired to pursue their dreams. Long recognized for its specialized training in dance, music, and theater, the Conservatory’s recent merger with Berklee now combines this rigorous, focused instruction with unparalleled access to a broad range of academic and creative opportunities. Set in the cultural, historical, and educational hub of Boston, this extraordinary institution represents the future of performing arts education.
About the Emerald Necklace Conservancy
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy conserves the Emerald Necklace—1,100 acres of parkland extending from Boston’s Back Bay through Brookline and Jamaica Plain to Franklin Park in Dorchester—through projects and programs that enrich the visitor experience and restore and renew the landscape, waterways and parkways. The Conservancy collaborates with its partners on advocacy, maintenance and restoration, education and access and promoting park stewardship through volunteer and youth programs.
About MF Dynamics
Named a “one-woman dynamo” by the Boston Globe and Boston’s Best 2018 "Creative Catalyst" by the Improper Bostonian, Maria Finkelmeier is a percussionist, composer, public artist, educator, and arts entrepreneur. Finkelmeier has created large-scale multimedia events in public spaces from Cincinnati to Northern Sweden, with several locations in Boston, including Fenway Park, Charlestown Navy Yard, Edison Power Plant, and Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum.