Campus, News

BUMC hosts concert for Marathon anniversary

More than 100 people attended a musical performance at the Boston University Medical Center Tuesday in memoriam of the anniversary of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

The performance, titled “BU Medical Campus Flash Mob: Healing Boston with Music,” featured a 50-member orchestra including members of the Boston Accompanietta as well as the BU Symphonic Chorus and other BUMC musicians.

“After the events of last year’s marathon, which so deeply impacted our BU community, the Medical Campus put an extraordinary effort to restore health, and therefore, dignity in our city,” said Moisès Fernández Via, project curator and researcher for the BU Arts Outreach Initiative. “We aim to bring music and a moment of shared beauty to honor the spirit of determination that united our community out of that struggle.”

Via said the performance and flash mob aimed to use music to help heal the BU community.

“The whole institution was completely transformed by the bombings,” he said. “We wanted to offer them a gift and a way to send our gratitude. There were a large number of musical performances following the 10 days after the Marathon. The fact that the music was part of the recovery and the restoring of health and dignity gave us the idea that we had to complete the cycle.”

The flash mob was organized by the AOI, the BU Arts Outreach Program and Taichi Fukumura, a College of Fine Arts senior who conducts the Boston Accompanietta. Fukumura founded the Accompanietta in 2010.

“Boston was able to react so quickly and help everyone, and the way that they did is really something special,” Fukumura said. “I just wanted to do something … to contribute.”

Fukumura said the orchestra featured members of the community from all over the Boston area.

“I believe this was an all-time high number of participants because people wanted to support the cause,” he said. “It’s familiar people as well as some new people who I have never met. Even some members of the staff joined us, and they are from all around Boston.”

Boston residents joined with BU students to watch the flash mob and to honor the community coming together on the anniversary of the bombings.

“It’s a great way to give back and to play for the community while commemorating something that was very hard for the city and the people to experience,” said Carolyn Regula, a CFA junior and orchestra member.

Regula said the bombings had a devastating impact on the BU community because it happened so close to campus.

“It really hit close to home for me, because even though I’m not from Boston, I consider it to be my second home,” she said. “It [the flash mob] is a way to show that we recognize that occurrence, but we are not going to let it destroy us or define us in a way.”

Ang Gao, a senior in CFA, said bringing the flash mob and performance to the BUMC was an appropriate way to honor the anniversary of the marathon.

“It was really touching for me because it just happened a year ago, so everything is pretty fresh,” she said. “Hearing the music kind of reminded me of that time.”

Graham Boswell, a CFA senior, said he played in Tuesday’s performance out of his love for Boston.

“CFA musicians are sort of in an ivory tower all the time, hidden away in the practice rooms in the basement for hours, so any opportunity to bring some joy to people and connect to people is really valuable to us,” he said. “The character of our town really reflected well on us and on the way that people responded to the bombing.”

Website | More Articles

This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.

Comments are closed.