Rachel Franklin

Smithsonian Associates: Music Inspired by the Natural World, Lecture 1 - Earth: Its Creation, Seasons, and Landscapes
2026-04-06 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York)
https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/music-inspired-by-natural-world

A painter can create entire worlds on a flat piece of paper. But where is a composer to start when seeking to represent the natural universe through sound? Centuries of exquisite nature-inspired concert works show just how well it can be done through direct imitation, allegory, and symbolism. Over time, composers have fashioned powerful musical vocabularies that guide listeners to see harmony as visual image.
In a 4-session course, popular speaker and concert pianist Rachel Franklin uses her unique live piano demonstrations and fascinating film clips to explore how such masters as Beethoven, Mahler, Wagner, Vivaldi, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Saint-Saëns, and countless others composed beloved works that conjure the natural world.
British-born Franklin has been a featured speaker for organizations including the Library of Congress and NPR, exploring intersections among classical and jazz music, film scores, and the fine arts.
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Franklin begins with perhaps the most greatly loved example of the natural world in concert music, Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, the “Pastoral.” Both allegorical and descriptive, it creates an entire earthly landscape of peasants and animals, harvesting, stormy weather, and golden sunlit fields. Following this triumph, other composers such as Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler led the way with further symphonic panoramas of mountainous and mystical terrains. Franklin also explores many representations of weather and seasons by Vivaldi, Rachmaninoff, Berlioz, Janácek, Milhaud, Barber and more.

Smithsonian Associates: Music Inspired by the Natural World, Lecture 2 - Heavenly Marvels
2026-04-13 12:00 - 13:30

Rachel Franklin for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Inside the Classics
2026-04-16 19:00 - 19:30, 2026-04-25 19:00 - 19:30, 2026-05-03 14:00 - 14:30, 2026-05-16 19:00 - 19:30, 2026-05-28 19:00 - 19:30, 2026-06-06 19:00 - 19:30, 2026-06-14 14:00 - 14:30 | Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Ln, North Bethesda, MD, 20852, United States
https://www.bsomusic.org/inside-the-classics/

Dr. Rachel Franklin is delighted to be the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Strathmore Music Scholar-in-Residence. She gives all the BSO’s pre-concert presentations at their Bethesda, MD venue, Strathmore Hall as part of their “Inside the Classics” series.

Smithsonian Associates: Music Inspired by the Natural World, Lecture 3 - Creatures of the Earth, Sea, and Sky
2026-04-20 12:00 - 13:30
https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/music-inspired-by-natural-world

A painter can create entire worlds on a flat piece of paper. But where is a composer to start when seeking to represent the natural universe through sound? Centuries of exquisite nature-inspired concert works show just how well it can be done through direct imitation, allegory, and symbolism. Over time, composers have fashioned powerful musical vocabularies that guide listeners to see harmony as visual image.
In a 4-session course, popular speaker and concert pianist Rachel Franklin uses her unique live piano demonstrations and fascinating film clips to explore how such masters as Beethoven, Mahler, Wagner, Vivaldi, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Saint-Saëns, and countless others composed beloved works that conjure the natural world.
British-born Franklin has been a featured speaker for organizations including the Library of Congress and NPR, exploring intersections among classical and jazz music, film scores, and the fine arts.
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The depiction of living creatures is one of the most delightful but challenging aspects of the composer’s craft. Is it necessary to attempt a literal copy of an animal’s call and, if not, what musical device could successfully invoke the sound? Such works as Dvorak’s “American” string quartet, Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals suite, Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending,” and Rimsky Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee” are among many examples in the enchanting menagerie.

Smithsonian Associates: Music Inspired by the Natural World, Lecture 4 - Water, Water Everywhere
2026-04-27 12:00 - 13:30
https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/music-inspired-by-natural-world

A painter can create entire worlds on a flat piece of paper. But where is a composer to start when seeking to represent the natural universe through sound? Centuries of exquisite nature-inspired concert works show just how well it can be done through direct imitation, allegory, and symbolism. Over time, composers have fashioned powerful musical vocabularies that guide listeners to see harmony as visual image.
In a 4-session course, popular speaker and concert pianist Rachel Franklin uses her unique live piano demonstrations and fascinating film clips to explore how such masters as Beethoven, Mahler, Wagner, Vivaldi, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Saint-Saëns, and countless others composed beloved works that conjure the natural world.
British-born Franklin has been a featured speaker for organizations including the Library of Congress and NPR, exploring intersections among classical and jazz music, film scores, and the fine arts.
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Mighty oceans, torrential rivers, glittering fountains. Watery works abound across the concert repertoire. But how can music be wet? Can a composer ever truly recreate a sense of fluid motion? Voyage through the mightiest of seascapes, Debussy’s La Mer; marvel at Liszt’s electrifying portrayal of St. Francis walking on water; shiver on the stony beaches of Britten’s “Sea Interludes,” and delight in Resphigi’s sparkling images of Rome’s famous fountains. Also included are works by Smetana, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.

Censored Voices: Silent No More - Preconcert Lecture
2026-05-03 17:30 - 18:00 | National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20016, United States
https://my.bsomusic.org/20520/

EGC Productions, in partnership with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, presents powerful chamber program featuring works by Russian composers silenced but who nonetheless produced extraordinary classical music.
The preconcert lecture at 5.30pm with Dr. Rachel Franklin, Strathmore Music Scholar in Residence for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, invites audiences into the stories behind the music—illuminating how each composer confronted censorship in their own time and responded with courage, creativity, and conviction.

Censored Voices: Silent No More
2026-05-03 19:00 - 21:00 | National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20016, United States

Rachel Franklin - Piano Recital
2026-05-09 19:00 - 20:15 | Cathedral of Peel, Isle of Man, 68C5+PGH, Derby Rd, Peel, Isle of Man
https://www.cathedral.im/news/rachel-franklin-piano-recital-saturday-9-may-at-7-30pm

Rachel Franklin was born in London and studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Royal College of Music and the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore. A distinguished concert and jazz pianist, Rachel is now based in Maryland, USA, where she is Music Scholar in Residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She has given recitals in a number of international venues, including the Carnegie Hall, New York, the Jordan Hall, Boston, and the Wigmore Hall, London, and she has broadcast widely in the USA, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
We are delighted that Rachel’s recital on Saturday 9 May will be the inaugural concert on the Challen Piano, the gift of the Isle of Man Arts Council, which came to the cathedral in 2025 from its previous home at the Erin Arts Centre.
Rachel’s programme will include music by Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Kurt Weill and Duke Ellington.
Admission is free. The audience is invited to make donations towards the cathedral’s music programme.
