Welcome to our August Newsletter!
Celadon, 2025 by Christina Bothwell (materials: glass, ceramic, and hand-painted details) www.christinabothwell.com
We hope you have enjoyed a wonderful summer break so far, and cross our fingers that those hot and humid dog days of summer are well behind us. As we awaken from our respective summer cocoons, Sarasa is excited to get ramped up for the opening concert-set of the new 2025-26 season, and is especially looking forward to welcoming you back in person! Please read about the September program, some of its insights, and much more below!
Get ready to celebrate!
Upcoming: the opening concert-set of our 2025-26 Season is the weekend of September 12-14!
“Do not neglect your music,” Thomas Jefferson wrote his daughter. “It will be a companion which will sweeten many hours of life to you.”
Works that would have been heard in 1775 across four capital cities. Composers include Billings, Arne, JC Bach, Barsanti, Cervetto, Monza, Baltzar, Lanzetti, Haydn, & Mozart.
With Carley DeFranco, soprano; Susanna Ogata, violin; Timothy Merton, Jennifer Morsches, cellos; Andrus Madsen, fortepiano
Quote~Unquote: Words that still ring true
Sarasa's opening program of the new season is in part a celebration of MA250, marking the semiquincentennial anniversary of the shots that rang out in Concord and Lexington as a young nation sought freedom from oppression — events that marked the start of the Revolutionary War.
Kidnapped at the age of 7 in West Africa, enslaved at the age of 8 in Colonial Boston, Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American female poet to have her oeuvre published. She met and discussed her work with Benjamin Franklin in London, to whom she dedicated her second volume of poetry.
The famous Frenchman who volunteered and served in Washington’s Continental Army, Lafayette sought freedom from tyranny in his native France based on the ideals embraced by our Founding Fathers. He sent the key of the infamous Bastille prison to Geoge Washington, which you can see at the first U.S. President’s home in Mount Vernon, VA.
Benjamin Franklin was a great thinker, inventor, printer, and magnanimous, positive force in the creation of our democratic nation.
Music Societies of the 18th century: for the benefit of the public and musicians
Frontispiece from The New England Psalm Singer by William Billings, 1770; Engraving by Paul Revere
Sarasa’s season opener also takes its inspiration from the Bach-Abel Concerts in London (inaugurated in 1765, moving to the Hanover Square Rooms in 1775), Le concert spirituel in Paris (founded in 1725), and the Tonkünstler-Societät in Vienna (founded in 1772); all of these organizations brought music to the wider public and for the greater benefit of society as well as its musicians. Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams attended concerts at these benevolent institutions during their diplomatic travels. A cross-pollination of music from these European 18th-century concert societies, along with the music of Boston-born William Billings—the first American to publish his own collection of music with engravings by none other than Paul Revere—will bring more significant historical context to the music of J.C. Bach, Thomas Baltzar, Carlo Monza, Francesco Barsanti, Giacobbe Cervetto, Thomas Arne, Salvatore Lanzetti, Franz Joesph Haydn, and W.A. Mozart.
Bach-Abel partnership - Did you know?
When Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was employed as Kapellmeister at the Court Orchestra in Anhalt-Köthen from 1717-23, he worked and performed with Christian Ferdinand Abel (1682-1737 (or 1761?)). Abel was possibly the instrumentalist who inspired Bach to compose his six cello suites and three sonatas for keyboard and viola da gamba. A few decades later their sons, Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) and the youngest son of Bach, Johann Christian (1735-1782) became intrinsically linked as friends and business partners in London in the 1760s until their deaths. Each excelled at their chosen instruments: viol for Abel and keyboard for JC Bach, and both composed works that bridged the Baroque era into the galant and early classical styles. As appointees to the English Court, where they instructed members of the royal family, they each became leading musicians of the Georgian era. They initiated a subscription concert series where many musicians from abroad came to perform, including young W.A. Mozart who admired the ‘English' Bach’s music greatly. The Bach-Abel Concerts became a much lauded and popular musical institution in London, serving both as a highly visible platform for composers and instrumentalists to shine and as a social networking hotspot. Our program features several composers who would have performed on the Bach-Abel series, including Thomas Arne, cellists Salvatore Lanzetti and Giacobbe Cervetto, and oboist/flautist/violinist, Francesco Barsanti.
Fancy a jig?
The Highland Wedding at Blair Atholl, 1780 David Allan (1744-1796)
Another aspect of our September concert celebrates the cross-pollination of cultures so prevalent in the 18th century. One musical culture that caught the imagination of many was Scots traditional music. We will be performing “Mary’s Dream,” a famous Scottish ballad arranged by Haydn and a few Scottish airs transcribed by the Italian multi-instrumentalist and composer, Barsanti.
‘music unlocked’ news
As part of a much anticipated return to residencies at youth detention centers this summer, Sarasa musicians Kristen Watson, soprano; Krista River, mezzo soprano; Tim Merton, cello; Daniel Padgett, keyboard shared a wide variety of music, and created new compositions with teens at four different facilities in July and August. Tim Merton says, “As always, Sarasa residencies are an intense rollercoaster. Teens can be so unpredictable, and it’s a challenge to direct their talents and their energy from one visit to the next. But it’s always inspiring, revealing, and touches us deeply. The youth are always so grateful that we’re willing to collaborate with them as equals.” Scroll below to listen to a poem written by a teen girl at Mariposa, read by Krista River and accompanied on keyboard by Daniel Padgett.
Residency musicians Krista River, Kristen Watson, Dan Padgett, and Tim Merton
Sarasa visited:
-Mariposa teen girl detention in Dorchester, MA
-Winsor Hill Academy teen girl detention in Clinton, MA
-Kennedy School teen boys detention in Middleton, MA
-Leahy Detention teen boys detention in Worcester, MA
mark your calendar! creative chats with tim and jennifer
On September 5th from 8:30-10am, Sarasa’s Co-Artistic Directors Timothy Merton and Jennifer Morsches will join Matt Hanna, founder of Little Local Conversations, at the Mosesian Center for the Arts on Arsenal St in Watertown for a discussion about our upcoming September concert-set as part of the larger MA250 celebrations, and how Sarasa aims to bring this and other creative programming to incarcerated teens in Massachusetts.
recipe corner: chocolate & zucchini cake
Are you tired of canning/fermenting/pickling/freezing the plethora of vegetables this time of the year? Well, this dessert is a delicious and very moist cake that makes great use of the glut of zucchinis from the late summer garden! Recipe by Clotilde Dusoulier; her food blog is https://cnz.to/ This cake is always a hit!
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Serves 12.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, or 1/2 cup olive oil, plus a pat butter or teaspoon oil for the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t fine sea salt
3/4 cup unrefined blond cane sugar
1 t pure vanilla extract
3 T strong cooled coffee (optional)
3 large eggs
2 cups unpeeled grated zucchini, from about 1 1/2 medium zucchini
5 2/3 oz good-quality bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
Confectioner's sugar (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 10-inch round springform pan or an 8 1/2-inch square pan.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of a mixer (or by hand in a large mixing bowl), beat the sugar and butter until fluffy.
Add the vanilla, coffee, and eggs, mixing well between each addition.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the zucchini, chocolate chips, and about a third of the flour mixture, making sure the zucchini strands are well coated and not clumping too much.
Add the rest of the flour mixture into the egg batter. Mix until just combined; the batter will be thick.
Fold the zucchini mixture into the batter, and blend with a spatula without overmixing.
Pour into the prepared cake pan, and level the surface.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack to cool for 10 minutes, run a knife around the pan to loosen, and unclasp the sides of the pan.
Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar or a chocolate glaze if desired.
summer’s bounty!
A Maltese at the Dinner Table, 1883 Charles Van den Eycken (1859-1923)
Other Wonders of Summer: the Monarch Butterfly
Monarch caterpillar feeding on milkweed, its host plant
Monarch chrysalis
