Welcome to our September Newsletter!
image credit: www.runeguneriussen.no
WELCOME to our September newsletter and to the start of our 2024-25 Concert Season, Voyages in Music! Sarasa is excited to be back in the swing of things and preparing for our opening concerts over the weekend of September 27-29. First off, we will travel to the British Isles, featuring that quintessential English quirkiness and those pastoral moods so evident in the music of Henry Purcell, John Blow, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi, & Benjamin Britten. We are also pleased to be premiering a newly commissioned set of variations by Robert Merfeld, based on Orlando Gibbons’ famous madrigal, The Silver Swan (1612). An interview with Merfeld features below.
UP NEXT:
“Clarity, brilliance, tenderness, and strangeness” - words that Benjamin Britten used to describe Henry Purcell’s music. They also express that very distinct English school of composition explored by John Blow, and revisited later in the 20th century by Vaughan Williams, and Gerald Finzi. Including a new set of variations for string quintet by Robert Merfeld, inspired by Orlando Gibbons’ famous madrigal, The Silver Swan.
With Jason McStoots, tenor; Jesse Irons, Megumi Stohs Lewis, violins; Anna Griffis, viola; Jennifer Morsches, Timothy Merton, cellos; Daniel Padgett, keyboard
It’s still not too late to "Subscribe and Save" by purchasing a subscription package that meet your needs! A gentle reminder that this season all tickets at the door* will cost an extra $5.
*Tickets purchased at the door
(in-person by cash, check, or credit card)
Adult: $30
Senior: $25
Student/Under 35: $10
Under 18: free
Tickets purchased ahead:
(online or check by contacting sarah@sarasamusic.org)
Adult: $25
Senior: $20
Student/Under 35: $10
Under 18: free
Outreach news:
Thanks to a Challenge America Grant received through the National Endowment for the Arts, Sarasa was able to return to a full schedule of residencies with incarcerated youth this summer. We were able to visit three programs, two for boys and one for girls, where we met three times over a week for two hours each time with Sarasa’s team of two singers, cello & keyboard. The visits with the girls were especially fun, with theme-inspired days, such as “Tie-Dye Day” when they each wore tie-dyed items they had made, "Disney Day" exploring classic Disney songs, and composing music and poetry together as a final project. The young men from the Kennedy School in Middleton, MA were really eager to do group singing and share their raps, to which we would put down a beat. The atmosphere was full of encouragement and support from their peers and staff.
Some quotes from Windsor Hill Academy for Girls in Clinton, MA:
Listen to a couple of recordings from the Windsor Hill residency below! Other recordings from this summer’s residencies are on our website here.
Some quotes from the Kennedy School residency:
Sarasa interview with COMPoSER robert merfeld:
You can also learn more about how Robert Merfeld’s career has transformed from pianist/educator to composer here.
a very english partnership - thomas hardy & gerald finzi
listening corner:
When we think of Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), images of the Victorian English countryside come to mind, and perhaps most vividly, the character of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. But did you know Hardy also wrote a substantial amount of poetry throughout his career? With the turn of the 20th century, Hardy focused almost solely on his poetry. He became an influential figure for the generation of poets who came to prominence around the First World War, such as Siegfried Sassoon, and later on W.H. Auden and Philip Larkin. Over the course of his life, composer Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) found great inspiration in Hardy’s poetry, and created his song cycle A Young Man’s Exhortation, Op. 14 based on Hardy’s work. One of the poems, “The Comet at Yell'ham“ is a memory of “a very large” comet Hardy actually witnessed in 1859. Finzi’s setting captures the wonderment of beholding such a celestial spectacle, as well as the fleeting of time.
late summer cooking:
Figs are in season now! This simple recipe from the River Cafe in London (founded by Ruth Rogers & Rose Gray) is full of incredible, simple flavours that meld together wonderfully, and is ready in less than 20 minutes! Total YUM!
Hanging out in the parsley...
Basil-loving grasshopper
