Naturally, the concert, which will take place at Symphony Hall on Día de Muertos on Friday, is of course not Pop’s first foray into Latin music. Recent years have seen the addition of Arturo Rodriguez’s “Noche de Posadas (Night of Las Posadas)” to the orchestra’s holiday season repertoire, and Lockhart notes with glee that the Pops are a Latin Grammy-nominated ensemble. “Latin Album” (2000). Even so, dedicating an entire concert to the Day of the Dead, a commemoration of past loved ones that takes place the first two days of each November, is an important statement from an orchestra that has been working to diversify its programming over the past few years. years.

It turns out it’s as simple as looking at Boston. “We decided to keep the entire show very local in nature,” says Lockhart. “We wanted this to feel like a collaboration with community musicians, not just us bringing in a famous Mexican singer from somewhere else for a concert.” To that end, the concert (featuring works by Mexican composers such as Rodriguez, Gabriela Ortiz, and José Pablo Moncayo, as well as a suite from the Pixar film “Coco”) will feature performances by two renowned Boston pop debutants: Veronica Robles and the Mariachi Ensemble ( Boston’s first all-female mariachi band) and internationally renowned classical guitarist Zaira Meneses son jarocho Folk style combining elements of Mexican, African and Sephardic music.

For Meneses, who came to Boston in 2001 and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music, there is an element of acceptance in the concert, even without his involvement. “What I love about the Boston Pops is that they elevate a community,” he says. “They pay tribute and appreciate it. I started telling you, I couldn’t fit in, could I? Now with the Boston Pops presenting Día de Muertos, I feel like, ‘Oh, okay, I’m part of Boston.’ “I feel welcome.”

In Robles’ case, it’s more like a vindication. “When I came here, someone asked me, ‘What are you doing here? Why don’t you go to California? No mariachi here. People aren’t used to listening to mariachi music.’ “And I said, ‘No, I want to stay in Boston,’” he says with a laugh. “It took Boston a long time to realize that I was a stage performer, because people think of mariachi at a restaurant with fajitas all over it.”

The clearing up of misunderstandings was even reflected in the Pops concert. Robles describes her own experience with Día de Muertos—recognizing the grandfather who died before she was born during the holiday and using that to process the loss of his teenage daughter and preserve her gift—and how she helps advise Pops on the subject. to appropriately equip the Symphony Hall for the event.

“We were talking about Día de los Muertos, putting an altar at the entrance of the theater, and people were talking about skeletons, and I said, ‘You should put pictures of people with BSO that people remember,'” Robles says. . “’You don’t need to put anything else in. Just put the flowers and pictures.’ Because when people come in, they’ll see those pictures, people coming into the Symphony Hall. They know the history and story of the Boston Symphony Orchestra people in the room. I guess that’s what happened.”

Even if the holiday has its trappings, it’s something with universal resonance, and Lockhart is careful to emphasize that the concert isn’t just for one constituency. “I don’t believe you should do a Día de Muertos concert and expect to fill it with 2,000 people who are Mexican or celebrating that holiday,” he says. “I think our music is for everyone, and I think it’s a two-way street. “We must be welcoming and be a platform where even people who are not familiar with this tradition can fall in love with it.”

And of course, Día de Muertos is, first and foremost, a celebration; It is something that translates across languages ​​and cultures. Meneses, who is preparing to give a concert with Pops for the first time, said, “It is great that they brought the concert and tried to do their best in a very respectful way. Everyone is going crazy about this. All my friends are coming and it’s huge for me. So I try not to think about it… I just focus on the fun part. Let’s have fun.”

BOSTON POPS: WE CELEBRATE DÍA DE MUERTOS – DEATHS DAY

At Symphony Hall, Friday, November 1, 19:30

Marc Hirsh can be reached at: [email protected] or at Bluesky @spacecitymarc.bsky.social