Dear Friends,
We begin our 42nd season with a tribute to a father-son relationship. Carl Philip Emanuel Bach — whose 300th birthday we celebrate this year — inherited his father’s bent for improvisation and colorful instrumentation, even as he cut a path into the new world of the galant.
His father paid tribute to the new trends in his Musical Offering, composed after a trip to visit his employer and patron, Frederick the Great. In our second program, we continue to explore the development of music for wind instruments with a program of Crusell, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Music from a troubled 17th-century Britain constitutes our third program, and our fourth, and signature program this season, “Vice Squad,” explores the many facets of early vocal and instrumental responses to alcohol, tobacco, coffee and love.
Our fifth and final program features a survey of two centuries of Italian trio sonatas, plus a new work, “Aston Magna,” by Nico Muhly, commissioned by our co-founder Lee Elman. We hope you will join us this summer for a colorful array of concerts that we are excited to offer you.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Stepner