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According to the April 22, 1892, edition of the Boston Globe, the Boston College orchestra “made its first appearance” at a banquet in the “college refectory.” Today the Boston College Symphony Orchestra comprises some 60 musicians drawn from the University and the surrounding community, performing four or five concerts annually. Each December the orchestra holds a concerto competition open to all Boston College students. Contestants are given 20 minutes to audition and are required to play at least one complete movement of the concerto they would perform if chosen as a winner. This year the event drew seven contestants and resulted in two winners: cellist Devon Maloney ’11 and Miguel Garcia-Bender ’11, a violinist whom orchestra conductor John Finney says was chosen for his “technical mastery of his instrument and . . . deep understanding of the music he plays.”
On February 27, Garcia-Bender (foreground) was the featured soloist for the Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77, by Johannes Brahms, presented at Trinity Chapel on the Newton Campus with Finney conducting. On April 10, Devon Maloney will perform Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33, also at Trinity Chapel.