Boston Conservatory at Berklee to Present Hemenway Strings: Remembrance and Hope, featuring Guest Poet Maya Giles on September 28

Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s fall Center Stage performance season will begin on Tuesday, September 28 with a free event showcasing student musicians, faculty performances, and a special guest. Hemenway Strings: Remembrance and Hope, featuring Guest Poet Maya Giles will be directed by Conservatory professor of violin Lynn Chang, and feature pianists Jessica Shinn and Michael Shinn alongside student musicians and artist Maya Giles (B.M. '21, violin), a recent Conservatory graduate.

“I am thrilled to welcome audiences back to the Boston Conservatory campus for this special Center Stage performance,” said Michael Shinn, dean of music for Boston Conservatory at Berklee. “The themes of remembrance and hope ring true for all of us right now in the current moment, and this evening will be a beautiful gathering to pay tribute to these themes through music.”

The program will feature George Walker’s Lyric for Strings; Tan Dun’s “Peking Opera,” “Pink Actress,” and “Drum and Gong” from Eight Colors; Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet, op. 77, no. 2, Minuetto: Presto; Caroline Shaw’s Entr'Acte; Camille Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals; and Mozart's Serenata Notturna.

"I am so honored to craft a modern meaning to Saint-Saëns beloved Carnival of the Animals through my words,” said Giles, a poet and violinist who graduated from the Conservatory in 2021. “In times both good and bad, art has a way of comforting us, entertaining us, and giving us space for reflection. It is my hope that as we come together for this special performance, we can rejoice in the power that art has to evolve us as human beings.”

Hemenway Strings: Remembrance and Hope, featuring Guest Poet Maya Giles will take place at the Boston Conservatory Theater, located at 31 Hemenway Street in Boston, MA, at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 28. This event will be free to attend.

Berklee Live Event Attendance Policy

Any member of the public attending a live, ticketed event at Berklee will be required to provide a government-issued photo identification; and one of the following: proof of full vaccination (two weeks after the second of a two-shot vaccine, or the first of a one-shot vaccine); or proof of a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event, or a rapid antigen test taken within 24 hours of the event. Attendees may provide these documents in physical/paper form, by photocopy, or a photo on a phone, as long as all information is clearly visible and readable. Photos of at-home tests must be time-stamped.

Masks will be required indoors, regardless of vaccination or negative test status. Attendees must bring their own masks, and wear them over the nose and mouth. Read more about Berklee’s health and safety protocols for public performances.