Welcome to our October Newsletter!
October is National Arts and Humanities month!
President Biden issued a proclamation designating October 2022 as National Arts and Humanities Month in celebration of the significance of the arts, humanities, and museum and library services to our nation.
The Proclamation includes the announcement of a new Executive Order to promote the arts, humanities, and museum and library services. The order re-establishes the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and directs cooperation among Federal agencies and offices to strengthen our Nation’s health, economy, equity, and civic life through these disciplines. Read the Proclamation here!
Stream our latest concert free!
If you had to miss our recent opening concert of the season, “Female Torchbearers of the Baroque,” you still have a chance to watch it streaming on our website for a few more weeks! Don’t miss out- it has been a popular and engrossing program for many. Please share amongst your family, friends and colleagues!
Patrons who have viewed the stream had some great things to say!:
“Wow! Stunning!”
“Absolutely beautiful. Thanks a million!”
Sarasa OUTREACH is back on the road!
Sarasa Outreach News <3:
Sarasa received an Early Music America Engagement Award in September 2022, which helped cover costs towards an extended Outreach Presentation for the first time at the Epiphany School in Dorchester, MA. Made up of children from financially disadvantaged families, Sarasa met with a group of 5th & 6th grade students and then one of 7th & 8th graders. We performed excerpts of music from our opening program of the 2022-23 season, “Female Torchbearers of the Baroque” with the aim of presenting outstanding 17th-century female composers and their music.
We also introduced the kids to historical instruments most had never encountered before: such as the theorbo, harpsichord, an original 5-string piccolo cello, using gut strings, short Baroque bows, and hearing singing in Italian. We encouraged the students to ask questions, tell us how the music made them feel, and of what it reminded them. We had open conversations about what kind of music they enjoy the most, and if they have played or currently play an instrument or sing. We also noticed some students dancing to the music in their chairs, so we asked them to get up and join us. We asked for student volunteers to conduct us as we played, showing how their direction could impact how we played the music. This made them very involved, as they encouraged each other to stand up in front of their peers and perform. They also were eager to try out the instruments after the end of the sessions. The project hoped to demonstrate that long-neglected historical female composers had carved notable careers in music, and were worthy equals to their male counterparts. This was an example to encourage aspiring young girls, especially, to believe in themselves and their innate talents.
Some feedback from the kids:
Uplifting National News:
The Supreme Court’s first African American woman, Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson, made these remarks following her formal investiture ceremony on Friday, September 30th, 2022. She said she was humbled by the “fanfare” that has accompanied her ascension to the high court, and that young people are “seeing themselves portrayed in me.”
“I can see it in their eyes, I can hear it in their voices,” Jackson said. “They say this: ‘This is what we can accomplish if we put our minds to it.’ ” She added: “They’re saying to me, in essence you, ‘You go girl.’ They’re saying, ‘invisible no more. We see you, and we are with you.’ ” Jackson received a standing ovation when she said, “I have a seat at the table now. I have a seat at the table now, and I’m ready to work.” (Robert Barnes, The Washington Post, 30 September 2022)
NEW: Introducing the Sarasa Concert Video Catalogue
Sarasa is now introducing to our patrons a chance to relive concerts we have filmed since the pandemic shook our most basic modes of communication and brought to a sudden halt the act of sharing music through our regular concert series. Here, you will have the chance to see and hear once again, at your leisure, concerts we have filmed from September 2022 onwards. These full performances have been professionally recorded, edited, and mixed, resulting in wonderfully high-quality videos. We are proud to continue these recordings, and to offer each most recent concert video free for a limited time. However here, we have compiled each concert recording into a full catalogue for you to play through.
Subscribers to the current Sarasa Concert Season receive access to this full video catalogue as part of their subscription benefits. Access to the catalogue is also available for separate purchase. See the full details here and get your access today!
Brahms and Beethoven are up next in November!
Get ready to enjoy some incredible chamber music by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven in our next concert-set, “His dear nightingale…” the weekend of November 18-20, 2022. We will be performing the rhapsodic trio for clarinet, cello and piano by Brahms, who was lured out of retirement to write one of his final chamber works, inspired by the peerless skills and musicianship of the formidable German clarinettist, Richard Mühlfeld, whom he endearingly called “his dear nightingale.” On the second half, we celebrate Beethoven’s genius with his own arrangement of his septet, in a trio version for clarinet, cello and piano. One of his most beloved and popular pieces of chamber music, its final movement will keep your toes tapping all the way home! Buy your tickets now! Save and subscribe!
November 18 @7pm - Brattleboro Music Center
November 19 @7:30pm - Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, Cambridge
November 20 @3:30pm - Follen Community Church, Lexington
Happy fall!
