Dear Friend,
We are writing to you with great excitement and pride! In 2017, Aston Magna celebrates our 45th anniversary season! There will be much to celebrate, including our return to our former long-time performance home at the magnificently restored Saint James Place in Great Barrington!
One of the first groups formed in the early music movement of the 1970s, Aston Magna is now the longest-running early music summer festival in the nation. Concerts have taken place across America and internationally, with music performed on original instruments or historically accurate reproductions, and with attention to appropriate styles and aesthetics.
Among the many highlights of Aston Magna’s pioneering history are the first performances of the complete Bach Brandenburg Concertos, chamber operas by Monteverdi, Purcell, Pergolesi and Mozart, and an early oratorio by Handel. Many of these have been recorded for the Centaur label.
As we put the finishing touches on our 45th festival programming, we ask you to make a special year-end tax-deductible gift to Aston Magna in honor of our accomplishments and this noteworthy anniversary.
Donate Today!
Your gift will support a varied and beautiful series in 2017 including Mozart’s great Clarinet Quintet; “Forbidden Dances,” sarabands, chaconnes and early tango music by Corelli, Bach and Rodriguez; the 24 Paganini Caprices for solo violin; Biblical cantatas excerpts of Purcell and Caldara; and early 16th century music for voices and viols. Our season will also be expanded to six weekends at Brandeis and in Great Barrington; and for the first four weekends, we return to the intimate new venue at the Bard College Conservatory.
Our outreach programs continue to expand with the upcoming 11th Annual Bach Unaccompanied Violin Workshop in June, and a recent multi-media community concert featuring Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, with related projected artwork and poetry readings at the Newton Town Hall. We are hoping to bring this program into the schools.
Please be our partner and help us continue our critically acclaimed, superb music making. The Board, musicians, staff and all of us at Aston Magna thank you in advance for your generosity, and wish you a happy, healthy holiday season.
Susan Obel, Executive Director
Daniel Stepner, Artistic Director