BFO founders on a mission to make classical music accessible to all

Boston Globe

3 days ago

Brown, 32, is BFO's executive director and principal clarinetist. Wang, 30, is artistic director and conductor.
Alyssa Wang, artistic director and conductor of Boston Festival Orchestra, in the Boston Atheneaum. Wang is also a composer, and she will conduct the BFO performing one of her pieces in July. (Pat Greenhouse/ The Boston Globe Staff)
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
The BFO takes advantage of the city's summer classical music lull – that's when the
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The programming syncs with the Athenaeum's '
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'If we can open a door for them to be hearing what we hear,' she said, 'then their world expands.'
Where to find them
: www.bforchestra.org
Originally from
: Brown grew up in Portland, Maine, and Wang in Danville, Calif.
Boston Festival Orchestra artistic director Alyssa Wang, left, and executive director Nicholas Brown at the Boston Atheneaum's front door. (Pat Greenhouse/ The Boston Globe Staff)
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Live in
: Wang moves from Roslindale to Cambridge after the June 12 concert. Brown lives in Brockton.
Making a living
: They supplement their BFO work with freelance gigs.
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Studio
: 'There is a large space issue in Boston for orchestras,' said Brown. The BFO has rehearsed at
How they started
: Wang picked up the violin at six 'and never stopped,' she said. Becoming a conductor, she added, felt like a natural extension of playing violin.
Brown's parents bought him a clarinet at BJ's Wholesale Club when he was 11. 'We opened it up– it's in this strange foam orange case – and I have never seen another one like it. It had two bottom joints,' Brown said. 'I was like, 'I don't know how to play the clarinet, but this doesn't feel right.'' It was a manufacturer's error.
Boston Festival Orchestra executive director and principal clarinetist Nicholas Brown in the Boston Atheneaum. (Pat Greenhouse/ The Boston Globe Staff)
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
What they make
: 'The BFO makes experiences,' Wang said, '
music
experiences, rooted in the shared humanity we have when we allow art to bring us together.'
How they work
: 'Leading up to the summer concerts, I'm a ball of anxious energy,' Brown said. ''When is the stage crew going to be here? Wait, I have to go set up the box office table.' And every time, she reminds me, 'This is the easy part.''
The hard part is the rest of the year: quarterly reports, fundraising, finding venues, musicians, and contractors. 'We've spent months trying to sell tickets, literally standing on street corners passing out flyers, which we have done for years,' Wang said. 'It's as grassroots as it can possibly get.'
'I think if we didn't have a really efficient working partnership, it would make everything impossible,' she added.
Advice for musicians
: 'Artists can have very singular and solitary lives,' Brown said. 'Don't be afraid to ask for help in any and every capacity.'
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Boston Festival Orchestra's Alyssa Wang and Nicholas Brown outside the Boston Atheneaum. The Boston Festival Orchestra will stages a chamber concert in the space in June. (Pat Greenhouse/ The Boston Globe Staff)
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff