Part II: delayed due to Boston Crusaders continuing coverage

After a dramatic storm delay and a full hour of broadcast-only highlights [review of the 7-8pm broadcast HERE], the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular 2026 and MA250 Celebration rocked Boston’s Hatch Shell on July 4^th. Five popular artists (with their four respective touring bands), two local mixed choirs, and two local marching bands performed live with Keith Lockhart and the Pops from 8-10:30pm.

THE TOAST OF BROADWAY
Mezzo soprano Megan Hilty sang a shortened set that contrasted a lush Boston Pops arrangement of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” with a song perfectly suited to Hilty from her star turn on the NBC TV series Smash. That show, based on the “Let’s put on a [Broadway] Show” trope, ran for two seasons (2012-2013) and featured many of the best leading actors on Broadway at that time, including Brandeis alum Debra Messing, Boston Conservatory alum Katharine McPhee, and tenor Jeremy Jordan, who started his professional career in Hartford and at the Goodspeed Opera House [watch him sing “She Used to Be Mine,” composed by Sara Bareilles for the musical Waitress first developed by Cambridge’s A.R.T. HERE]). Jordan will return to Boston Emerson Colonial Theatre for a one-night-only show on November 30, 2026 [tickets HERE].

Hilty is a powerhouse voice and a fantastic actress, recently nominated for a Tony for her starring role in (most of) 693 performances of Death Becomes Her [watch her studio work for its song “Falling Apart” HERE]. She has been a favorite soloist with the Pops for more than a decade, singing Marc Shaiman’s hits from Smash (now preserved in his new Broadway musical Bombshell) such as “Second Hand White Baby Grand” and “They Just Keep Moving the Line” [watch her perform it live with the Boston Pops in 2016 HERE].

This year, the Esplanade audience particularly responded to her short duet with emcee Jane Lynch. They had both previously (an separately) starred in Charles Strouse’s musical Annie (Lynch as Miss Hannigan and Hilty as Lily St. Regis), but Keith Lockhart encouraged them to try out their “preferred” roles of Daddy Warbucks and Annie, singing a charming “I Don’t Need Anything but You.”

LOCAL VOICES
Fifty members of the Boston Children’s Chorus [website HERE] premiered a new work for wordless chorus, orchestra, and spoken word poetry by Carlos Simon [review HERE, at time/heading 7:05]. Later in the program, they premiered a new arrangement featuring Chance the Rapper and joined the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Boston Pops for both Randol Bass’s arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner in B-flat [review HERE, at time/heading 7:00] and a singalong medley of Armed Services anthems which included the new “Semper Supra” Space Force official song composed by MTSU Music Professor James Teachenor.

The huge Hatch Shell stage extension was framed with large screens, projecting close-ups of the musicians and lyrics (during the sing-alongs). Guest choral conductor Jean-Sébastien Vallée (Director of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir) stood well downstage of Lockhart and the Pops, coordinating the massed 102 choral singers in lieu of video or audio monitors. You can hear Valleé’s most recent choral recording HERE. Backing vocalists were miked both from in front and by judiciously hidden body mikes spread throughout the ensembles. Although the orchestra was shown in close-ups throughout the live portion of the July 4 performance, the filming was out of balance to the coverage of the live artists. The most satisfying part of Boston Pops performances (be they indoor, outdoor, Holiday-themed, or patriotic) is always, without exception, the orchestra itself, an ensemble of soloists and specialists that is unrivaled for its versatility and musicality.

The BCC, ably prepared and led by conductor Kenneth Griffith, sang with warmth and enthusiasm. They perform annually in Symphony Hall [watch their 2025 MLK concert HERE], this performance marked a return to the Hatch Shell after being a highlight of last year’s Fireworks Spectacular [article HERE]. Their infectious energy fed off the audience’s engagement and participation during the set by Chance the Rapper. The lyrics for each of his songs were slightly altered to make them appropriate for broadcast, and the BCC singers added a much-needed depth to the stage band’s contributions.

Audience favorite Lainey Wilson is a masterful performer: she worked the crowd, strutted around the full stage and out the long thrust to connect with the audience, sang duets in close harmony with her multi-instrumentalists Sav Madigan and Aslan Freeman, and even slid to her knees at climaxes. Her country set was remarkable for its virtuosity, perfect intonation, and musical balance, featuring 20 singers from the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (in well-miked SATB harmony on “Can’t Sit Still”) in up-tempo arrangements with the full orchestra that highlighted the vocal harmonies voices and solo work of Lainey’s band. Listen to an informative interview with her music director (Freeman) HERE and watch a seven-minute excerpt from the July 4 show HERE.

COLONIAL & CONTEMPORARY MASSACHUSETTS
The most powerful and emotional concert numbers during the outdoor event featured Keith Lockhart leading impressive collaborations with college-aged students from our local World Champion Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps [founded in 1940, website HERE], and an interesting medley featuring a tune by colonial Boston composer William Billings on Healey fifes played by the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums, the most professional of Boston’s many re-enactor/musician groups [website HERE]. MCV has an extensive website of live performances and “quarantine videos” made during the COVID-19 lockdown [watch HERE].

Billings, one of the first Boston composers to make a name for himself (both as a singing school instructor and as a published composer), was featured in a challenging medley and arrangement of his 1778 song “Chester,” whose words begin “Let tyrants shake their iron rod… New England’s God forever reigns.” Watch the MCV rehearsal just before the costumed performance with the Pops HERE. The group performed around Boston during Concord250 and Sail Boston events; they have the honor of leading the opening night parade for the Lowell Folk Festival tomorrow night (6:15pm on Friday July 24).

This was the first year that Keith Lockhart led live music during the fireworks display, and they featured a world premiere work by NEC grad James Stephenson entitled “Spirit of America.” Stephenson, who has played as an orchestral musician under Lockhart’s direction, included celebratory “energy… a little grit… some pastoral amber waves of grain… lots of trumpet fanfare, percussion, and strings and percussion going crazy” [listen to his remarks about the new work HERE].

Once a year on July 4^th, the Boston Pops Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture using real cannons, following the composer’s original intentions.

Written to celebrate the completion of a major church in 1882 (Christ the Savior in Moscow), the music celebrates a battle and victory over an invading (French) power and resistance to (Napoleonic) imperialism. Two years before the 1976 bicentennial, Arthur Fiedler led the Boston Pops in a televised concert featuring this music: he combined the orchestral presentation with cannons and church bells. This “went viral”, and by the 1976 celebrations, the 1812 Overture had become a standard “patriotic” work for July 4 fireworks events around the country.

This year’s events featured M102 Howitzer cannons and were closely choreographed by a moving, musically aware drone show over the Charles River. Local images commemorating the MA250 celebration included the Replica of the Eleanor, one of the Boston Tea Party ships owned by leading Boston merchant, smuggler, and Boston Board of Selectman, John Rowe; the tower of Boston’s Old North Church with two lanterns (indicating that the British were coming “by sea, i.e. the Charles, and then on to Mass Ave.); Paul Revere on his ride (before he fell off in Lincoln); riflemen enacting the moment immortalized by Emerson as “The Shot Heard ‘round the World” at the Old North Bridge in Concord; the stately Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown; Daniel Chester French’s Minuteman Statue (from Concord and Lexington); the writing of the Declaration of Independence, emblazoned with the word “Liberty”; the modern Boston skyline; two of the M102 Howitzers; and a final emblem reading “MA 250.”

BOSTON MUSICIANS NOW ON THE ROAD TO WORLDS
Nothing beats the powerful of massed live brass, and the Boston Crusaders played right into the hearts of the Esplanade audience. Standing both on the main stage, in front of the seated Pops and Keith Lockhart), and also in two large groups right on the lawn itself, they augmented and intensified music by New Orleans composer and Grammy winner Trombone Shorty (“Here Come the Girls,” ably backed his band and Berklee student pianist Peli Su Yavuz). This complimented a danceable version of his “Hurricane Season.” and the smoother “Something Beautiful,” an early work that featured Lenny Kravitz [listen to a 2010 performance HERE]. Born Troy Andrews in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, Shorty made his first appearance at New Orleans’ iconic Jazz Fest at the age of four, and by his early twenties, he’d released the first in a string of critically acclaimed, chart-topping albums that has led to Grammy Awards, a sold-out Madison Square Garden concert, the 2025 Super Bowl, and one of the most replayed NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. That 2011 Boston performance featured the short, jazzy “Dumaine St.” from his album For True; the improvisational “Lagniappe” built around a bari sax bass line; and “Do To Me,” a funky vocal feature; watch HERE].

Reprising a combined 1812 Overture with the Boston Pops and the Blue Devils from Tanglewood in 2015 [watch that performance from the stage of the Shed HERE and their 2015 Tanglewood “Conquest” concert HERE], and a combined Tanglewood concert in 2016 with the Bluecoats, Phantom Regiment, and The Cadets, the Boston Crusaders doubled the volume of Tchaikovsky’s main themes just before and during the firing of the cannons. It was the loudest part of the concert, resonating thrillingly through the Esplanade and audible across the Charles (even without the sound reinforcement).

Since these performances, the Boston Crusaders have been touring middle America and evolving their competition show, taking first place at Drums Across the Smokies in Tennessee (July 7): you can hear them perform an excerpt from Alfred Newman’s 1947 film score to Captain from Castille HERE. Under the direction of Chris Holland and a large professional staff [names HERE], they traveled to Georgia and won Drums Across America (July 8): you can see the battery practicing for that show HERE. Last year at DCI World, they were the first Corps to earn a perfect score in the Percussion category since 1987.

Apocalyptic weather not only delayed the July 4 Boston Fireworks show by an hour: it has also caused the cancellation of several major July Drum Corps events (Little Rock due to thunderstorms and Mesa, AZ due to a haboob, see HERE). However, the Boston Crusaders have continued to rack up wins at DCI Northern Alabama (July 9, 84.55 points) and DCI Broken Arrow (OK, July 14, 87.6 points, watch the performance HERE).

Last week in Texas the show had evolved significantly, with new visual elements, formations, dance, and more complexity in the percussion and the pit. You can listen to seven minutes of drum line rehearsal on July 16 in Denton, Texas HERE. The Crusaders finally came up against the Bluecoats, taking second in Denton (88.6 points to the Bluecoats 90.4 points), Houston (89.5 points to the Bluecoats 91.15 points), and San Antonio (90.888 points to the Bluecoats 93.050 points). Their July 17 Houston, Texas performance is posted HERE.

The rest of the month will see much tougher competition in Atlanta, Annapolis, and the mid-south as other Crusaders progress toward the World Championships in Indianapolis on August 8. Their winning show at the Indianapolis DCI World Finals event last year earned an almost-perfect 98.425 points, for a multi-movement performance based on fifteen minutes of music selected and arranged by staff composer Ryan George. This was the first World Championship title for the Crusaders in their 85-year history [watch HERE].

UP NEXT
Don’t miss the Boston Crusaders’ final local performance this season at the East Coast DCI Showcase in Lawrence, MA on July 30 [tickets HERE]. The current show is a series of nine musical episodes and is continuing to evolve.

Keith Lockhart’s next performances with the Boston Pops will include “Tanglewood on Parade” on August 4 (curated by Yo Yo Ma), a concert with Hugh Jackson on August 11, a John Williams Film Night on August 15, and a concert Cynthia Erivo on August 21 [tickets HERE].

Broadway star Megan Hilty will return to the Boston area soon to perform at Concord’s Umbrella Art Center on August 30, 2026 [tickets HERE].