Friends of Music at Guilford's 53rd annual Labor Day Weekend Festival began as usual with a recital in the Organ Barn at Tree Frog Farm on the 1st of September. The festival continues on Sunday, the 2nd, with an Orchestra Lawn Concert at 2:00 pm outside the fabled Organ Barn, which forms an ell with the farmhouse.
Under the baton of Kenneth Olsson, the Festival Orchestra is comprised of professional and amateur players hailing from Vermont, New Hampshire, and several Pioneer Valley towns in Massachusetts. Leading off with excerpts from Henry Purcell's "Abdelazer, or The Moor's Revenge" (1695), the program continues with Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, op. 31 (1943), featuring soloists Joshua Collier, tenor, and Jean Jeffries, horn. After intermission, offerings include five chamber pieces by Frank Bridge (1879-1941), arranged for winds, as well as Two Pieces for Small Orchestra by Frederick Delius (1862-1934), his seasonal tone poems "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" and "Summer Night on the River."
The afternoon's traditional finale, a sing-in of Randall Thompson's Alleluia, brings members of the orchestra and audience together for this a cappella work. Attendees are asked to bring the music if they own a copy to share, or they can borrow one from FOMAG's collection.
Kenneth Olsson, conductor, earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from Ithaca College. He has appeared in many operatic leading roles in the Northeast and has served as artistic or music director, conductor, and rehearsal pianist for a variety of opera and musical theater production companies. He has also performed as organ soloist and piano accompanist for many concerts and recitals in the Northeast, including several for FOMAG. He directs the West River Valley Chorus, Nordic Harmoni, and the Springfield Community Chorus. He holds leadership roles with the American Union of Swedish Singers, and with wife Julie Olsson founded the Southern Vermont Lyric Theatre, which presented a full-length production of La Traviata in late August.
American tenor Joshua Collier, praised for his "thrilling high range" and "passionate commitment to character," was hailed as "a great Italian tenor on the make" byBoston's Classical Scene in his June 2016 role debut as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette. A graduate of The New England Conservatory with an M.M. in Vocal Performance, he has appeared throughout New England and beyond in operatic roles from Rodolfo in "La Bohème," Macduff in "Macbeth," and Frederic in "The Pirates of Penzance" to B. F. Pinkerton in "Madama Butterfly." In addition to the lyric stage, Mr. Collier has performed the tenor solos in much of the symphonic and oratorio repertoire. In 2013, Mr. Collier founded Boston's Opera Brittenica, championing the works of Benjamin Britten, and is currently the artistic director of BARN OPERA in Brandon, Vermont.
Jean Jeffries, a graduate of Harvard College, teaches horn and chamber music at three of the Five Colleges in the Pioneer Valley. She lectures and performs throughout New England on modern, natural, and baroque horn. Her interest in promoting and performing contemporary music has resulted in several commissions, the most recent being a setting of Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "The Fish," by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lewis Spratlan, and "The Rusalka" for horn and piano by Clifton J. Noble.
Grounds open at 12 noon on Sunday for picnicking and lunch sales. A hearty vegetarian meal of assorted salads, eggs, Grafton cheddar cheese, Walker Farm tomatoes, Vermont-made artisan bread, a drink, and Scott Farm apples, is offered for $10/person; lemonade and warm chocolate chip cookies are also available at intermission. Children are welcome, with parental supervision, but dogs are asked to stay at home.
The orchestra concert is admission-free, with donations welcome to support the considerable cost of this weekend in the country.
Follow signs for 9 miles from the Guilford Country Store, on Rt. 5 just south of Exit 1, to the Organ Barn. The journey begins at the start of Guilford Center Rd., then turns onto Weatherhead Hollow Rd. in about 2 miles, and reaches Packer Corners Rd. just after the Franklin Farm. The entrance to Kopkind Rd. is on the left about two miles from that final turn onto Packer Corners Rd.
In case of threatening weather on Sunday, the lunch and lawn concert will be moved to West Village Meeting House, the home of All Souls Church UU, at 29 South St., just over a mile west of Exit 2 off I-91 in West Brattleboro, across the road from the fire station; check the FOMAG website and Facebook page, as well as local radio stations, for any change of venue.
For further info and a full 2018-19 Season Calendar, contact the FOMAG office at 802-254-3600 or office@fomag.org; visit online at www.fomag.org. Friends of Music at Guilford's 53rd Season enjoys media sponsorship by Vermont Public Radio and the Vermont Arts 2018 program of the Vermont Arts Council.
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