Belmont Music Festival Orchestra Plays Beethoven Dec. 30

is back in town and that can only mean one thing: the 20-year-old Yale student is bringing his musician friends together for a concert.

For the second December in a row, Meyer will lead The Belmont Music Festival Orchestra in a musical offering to the town. This year, Meyer – the BMF's musical director – and the orchestra will perform Beethoven's Third Symphony in E flat major, Op. 55, the 'Eroica' (or Heroic), on Friday, Dec. 30 at 1 p.m. at the , 266 Beech St. 

The orchestra, featuring 13 alumni from the music program and friends from youth and college ensembles, marks their fourth visit to Belmont's Senior Center for concerts that filled the hall with music enthusiasts. 

The concert is free and a great introduction for children out on holiday break or anyone to classical music. 

The third symphony is Beethoven's breakthrough orchestral work, initially dedicated to Napoleon until the composer heard Bonaparte had named himself Emperor at which time he scratched out his name from the title page. The symphony's second movement, the funeral march, has been performed at the funerals of many prominent musicians and people.

In Boston history, Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Erich Leinsdorf announced the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to a shocked radio and Symphony Hall audience on Nov. 22, 1963 before performing the second movement.

As a prelude to the concert, Meyer will be holding a lecture today at 4 p.m. at the Beech Street Center that is open to the community where he will introduce the symphony and the life and works of Beethoven.