Episode 168 - STL GLD - BSO

Above The Basement - Boston Music and Conversation

In early November we ran across an article in the Boston Globe about a collaboration between the Boston Hip Hop group STL GLD and The Boston Symphony Orchestra. The headline alone caught our interest – the BSO is collaborating with a hip hop artist? We were so interested.

We watched a music video that they put together and it blew our minds. The song itself, "With Me," from STL GLD's 2019 album "The New Normal” is an amazing piece, made even more incredible by adding talent from some BSO musicians.

This project, called “Us: A Celebration of Community”, was a great idea imagined by Hip Hop artist and former guest on ATB Moe Pope, who felt that a collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra would be a great way to reach out to the hip hop community. The BSO was all in, and they both decided to bring together these two entities, as well as other artists, and I quote, “to explore the synergy between artists of different genres, in pursuit of a new and inclusive artistic vocabulary.”

In light of the COVID shutdown, they had to rethink the project. Instead of the live performances they envisioned, they introduced a series of zoom conversations, hosted by STL GLD member Timothy Hall, that would bring together musicians from STL GLD and the BSO to talk music, influences and other topics. These are available for free at https://stlgld.bso.org.

We were able to pull in saxophone player and Berklee College of Music Professor Timothy Hall as well as french horn player and the first female member of the BSO brass section in its history, as well as New England Conservatory faculty member, Rachel Childers to talk about the project and what they hope will continue to be a great Boston Collaboration.