“The Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 70th year of admission-free performances in Institute Park with two free concerts July 11 and 18,” conducted by Jorge Soto, writes Richard Duckett in Sunday’s (7/4) Telegram and Gazette (Worcester, MA). “ ‘The concerts have stood the test of time,’ said Paul Levenson, executive director of the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra…. After being shut down for over a year by the pandemic, MSO will be performing again for the first time since 2019…. The 7 p.m. July 18 concert at Institute Park sees MSO exploring a new program with ‘Jazz in the Park: Celebrating Great African-American Composers.’ … Paul Levenson noted [that] as far back as 1962, [Massachusetts Symphony founder] Harry Levenson devoted a concert entirely to the Black neoclassical composer Ulysses Kay (1917-1995)…. Kay was present and thanked Levenson for giving him his ‘first one-man show.’ … At first the concerts were known as the Worcester Industrial Pops Concerts, Paul Levenson noted…. The orchestra’s name has changed along the way, … from Little Symphony through to the Central Massachusetts Orchestra in 1976 and then Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. But the concerts at Institute Park, last year excepted, have remained.”
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