Brookline Symphony marks Altenbach's 10th season with new commission

Brookline Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andrew Altenbach will mark his 10th season on the podium when the orchestra opens its 2026-2027 schedule Saturday, Oct. 24, at All Saints Parish on Beacon Street.

The five-concert season, announced by BrooklineHub, features symphonies by Sibelius, Mozart, Schubert and Tchaikovsky alongside a world premiere by award-winning composer Will Cooper. Two winners of the 2026 Bouix Concerto Competition, cellists Miles Edwards and Aron Zelkowicz, will solo during the season.

The opener, titled "French Adventures: From Fairy Tales to the Sea," pairs Étienne Méhul's Symphony No. 1 with Ravel's "Mother Goose" suite and Debussy's "La Mer." All concerts take place at All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon St.

Altenbach will step from the podium to the piano bench for the March concerts. He joins Concertmaster Jean Huang Baverstam and Principal Cellist Stephanie Wingfield for Beethoven's Triple Concerto on a program called "Unfinished Business," which also includes Schubert's Symphony No. 8 and Emilie Mayer's Faust Overture. Those performances are scheduled for Saturday, March 13, and Sunday, March 14, 2027.

Cooper's new work premieres Friday, May 8, and Sunday, May 9, 2027, on a program titled "Fate, Fantasy, and Fireworks" that closes with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. Edwards, the Bouix competition's orchestra-category winner, performs Saint-Saëns's Cello Concerto No. 1 on the same concerts. Cooper holds degrees from the Juilliard School and a doctorate from the University of California, Davis. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and ASCAP, and teaches at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick.

The winter concert, "Farewell and Fortitude," is set for Saturday, Jan. 16, 2027. Zelkowicz, the competition's community-category winner, performs Elgar's Cello Concerto alongside Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 and Mozart's Symphony No. 32. A Summer Pops Concert closes the season Sunday, June 13, 2027.

The orchestra is all-volunteer. In a 2017 interview with the Boston Musical Intelligencer at the start of his tenure, Altenbach described the ensemble's range: "The IQ level of this orchestra is pretty astonishing." The group blends amateur, student and professional musicians.

Founded in the 1950s, the BSO went on hiatus in 2001 before a group of friends revived it in 2010, according to the BrooklineHub report. Altenbach, a native of Atlanta who studied at Northwestern University and Indiana University, previously taught opera at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He also founded the Minnesota Bach Ensemble, a professional chamber orchestra in the Twin Cities.

General admission tickets cost $20 to $25. Seniors pay $15, students $10, and children 12 and under attend free. Holders of EBT, WIC or ConnectorCare cards can buy $5 tickets for up to four people.

Upcoming BSO concerts at All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon St.: