BCO kicks off its 27th season celebrating the 251st birthday (covid may have disrupted his 250th celebration with the BCO) of Ludwig Van Beethoven, one of the most loved and performed composers in western civilization. Beethoven left an undeniable and invaluable mark on classical music. Beethoven, a “musical influencer” of the late 18th and early 19th century, laid the groundwork for many composers that followed.

Join us as we perform Beethoven’s 5th Symphony as well as music of composers that were influenced by Beethoven’s work.

Fun Facts:

• Born in late 1770, Beethoven’s birthday is celebrated December 17th, however this is the date of his baptism, there is no reliable record of the actual date of his birth.
• Beethoven was a talented pianist.
• Beethoven was bad at math! Beethoven left school at the age of 11 to work in order to help his family. As a result, Beethoven struggled with numbers. While in school, Beethoven learned addition and subtraction, but left school before learning multiplication and division. Amazing to consider this as much of music is math…and the mathematical complexity of Beethoven’s writing is remarkable.
• Beethoven published his first composition at age 12 and by age 29 debuted his first symphony.
• In his early 20’s Beethoven took lessons from Joseph Hayden. Hayden, a prolific composer in his own right, is often referred to as the father of the symphony.
• Ludwig Van Beethoven was the third Ludwig in his family. The first was his grandfather and the second was a brother that died in infancy.
• It is believed on Beethoven’s first trip to Vienna he performed for Mozart.
• At age 26 Beethoven started losing his hearing and by age 44 or 45 was totally deaf. Beethoven Passed away at the age of 56.