Composition in Boston...

Take it Dan.

You already know about the Symphony, which takes care of one group I sing with (Tanglewood Festival Chorus). I'll take a moment to plug the other gorup I sing with, The Seraphim Singers. Seraphim does concerts of sacred music from all time periods in churches around the Boston area (our next concert is going to be at Mission Church, which is just up the hill from the E line at (I think) the Brigham Circle stop. They try to premiere a new commisioned piece at every concert, which I find really cool.

Other groups you might want to check out would include The Cantata Singers, Longwood Opera, Boston Academy of Music (another opera company), Back Bay Chorale, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and Boston Classical Orchestra. Common performance venues would be Jordan Hall at NEC, Symphony Hall, Sanders Theater at Harvard, Berklee Perfomance Center, and the Emerson Majestic Theater (which is under renovation at the moment; I think all of their shows have been moved to Northeastern).

Really, the best way to figure out what is where is to get copies of the Globe and Phoenix and skim through the listings. WCRB and WGBH are good for listings, too.

thanks Dan... that certainly helps. I see things on every organization's schedule that interest me.
If I was looking to hear compositions by Cage, Schoenberg, etc., would I simply have to wait for some of these groups to put those compositions on their schedule, or are there no groups that deal specifically with more (for lack of a better term) avant-garde music?

You might have better luck at some of the music schools (Longy, NEC, BU, Boston Conservatory) for more avant-garde music. The BSO will often sneak a more modern piece into its schedule, either as part of a concert series or as part of their chamber music concerts. There's a group out of Longy that's committed to doing more modern, avant-garde stuff as well, but I can't remember their name at the moment. You've also got groups doing odd, endearing things like The Boston Secession, who does their concerts as live soundtracks for movies (they've done "Metropolis" and "Wings Of Desire", for example).

Like I said, peruse the listings and try to get concert schedules from the groups that look interesting; that will give you the best handle on who's doing what when and where. I can only point you in vague directions.

thanks and one more thing... I saw that the Verdi concert BSO is doing is already sold out... is this typical? I am thinking of seeing the Rites Of Spring, but I won't be sure for another week or so...

It does happen for "big" concerts (famous pieces, famous artists, opening night and closing night, Holiday Pops). Oftentimes you can get tickets as late as the night before, but if there's a concert that you absolutely know you want to see, try to buy tickets as early as possible.

I'm singing in the chorus for that Verdi concert, BTW. :)