The Engima Chamber Opera's artistic director, Kirsten Cairns, says this Britten production is especially timely.

Join us on an genealogical quest – an author’s exploration of her family and its history, brought to life in Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family, named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker. Don’t miss Rachel Webster’s presentation and conversation with historian Kendra Field about her experience connecting with relatives across lines of color, culture, and time.

In 1791, Thomas Jefferson hired a Black man to help survey Washington, DC. That man was Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician, a writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation. Banneker then wrote what would become a famous letter to Jefferson, imploring the new president to examine his hypocrisy, as someone who claimed to love liberty yet was an enslaver. More than two centuries later, Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white woman, learns that this groundbreaking Black forefather is also her distant relative. Acting as a storyteller, Webster draws on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins to imagine the lives of their shared ancestors across eleven generations, among them Banneker’s grandparents, an interracial couple who broke the law to marry.

On Nov. 28, 1973, a fashion show rocked the Palace of Versailles and forever changed our understanding of style.

Last year, interdisciplinary scholar and writer Imani Perry was named one of the MacArthur "genius" grant fellows for 2023. She's one of four local awardees, part of Under the Radar's series, "The Genius Next Door."

GBH Music will introduce new listeners to opera in a video series produced in collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) and New England Conservatory (NEC). Designed for newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts, “Getting into Opera” aims to ignite a passion for the genre by showcasing how powerful performances are shaped by vocal coaching and stage direction. The innovative multi-platform video series will be filmed in front of a live audience in GBH’s acoustically acclaimed Fraser Performance Studio.

The second episode features BLO Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artists and New England Conservatory students performing some of the most emotionally resonant arias ever written. Joshua Major, Chair of Opera Studies at NEC and a celebrated opera stage director, will demonstrate how movement and direction add new emotional depth to opera scenes.

“Getting into Opera” will be hosted by Anthony Rudel, General Manager of GBH Music and author of “Tales from the Opera,” “Classical Music Top 40,” and “Imagining Don Giovanni.” Bradley Vernatter, BLO’s Stanford Calderwood General Director & CEO, will share perspectives on producing operas as part of the series.

“Getting into Opera” will be available free of charge on YouTube and other platforms. The production is made possible by a generous donation from David and Janet McCue.







Event timeline:
7-8:30pm Performance in Fraser

8:30-9:30pm Dessert Reception in the Atrium




This event is FREE but every ticket RSVP requires an access code. The access code is provided in the communication that you received.

Event registration is required. Seating is general admission.

Image credit: GBH Creative

In celebration of International Jazz Day, GBH Music and JazzBoston present Cuban pianist, composer and arranger Zahili Gonzalez Zamora.

The GBH studio at the BPL is hosting Outspoken Saturdays, a spoken word poetry event for emerging artists. Every first Saturday of the month, the series will be created in collaboration with spoken word artist Amanda Shea. Join us!

Registration is encouraged for this free event.

Netflix will also release a documentary later this year looking at the 2004 World Series championship Sox team.

The monthly panel series will offer Boston's comic lovers a place to gather and celebrate the genre.

Mark Daley always knew the goal was reunification — but he was still devastated when the young boys in his care returned to their birth family. He writes about the experience in his new memoir, Safe.