The final evening of MusicNOW 2015 brought things back to the festival’s ancestral home at Memorial Hall. The windows in the balcony were open on a perfect spring night, and a large crowd (including Symphony conductor Louis Langrée) gathered outside before the doors opened. If the show...

When Bryce Dessner of The National started MusicNOW in 2006, it was a small two-night event held at the Contemporary Arts Center. Over the past decade, it’s become a landmark annual affair, internationally renowned for commissioning new works by classical music’s most innovative...