James Conlon makes his BSO conducting debut with a program that raises the voices of composers silenced throughout history. William Levi Dawson, an African American composer, garnered a great deal of short-lived attention in 1934 when his Negro Folk Symphony was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Alexander von Zemlinsky, a prominent composer in the 1920s, was suppressed by the Nazi regime. His Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid) is a lyrical symphonic poem based on the tale by Hans Christian Anderson.