As it has for a half-century, the launch of Friends of Music's season begins with a Saturday night Organ Concert in the Barn at 7:30. This year's guest organist is Susan Summerfield, professor of music and college organist at Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vt. Her program, entitled "Traditions," will include works by Baroque masters J. S. Bach, Louis Couperin, and Pierre Dandreiu; C. P. E. Bach from the start of the classic period; and 20th-century composers Darius Milhaud and Lou Harrison, whose pieces employ Baroque elements. This concert is rain or shine and will be followed by a champagne and cake reception. . . . The Sunday afternoon Lawn Concert at 2:00, by the nearly 50-piece Festival Orchestra under the baton of Ken Olsson, will include Don McLean's "Fanfare for the 50th," dedicated to late founder A. Graham Down (1929-2014), who brought the c. 1897 Tracker Organ to this site in the mid-1960s, funded its renovation and improvements over the years, and performed on it from 1966-1969 and several times over the past decade. Other pieces on the program include Mozart's rarely heard Symphony #26 as well as a duet from his opera "Don Giovanni" (featuring soloists Julie Johnson Olsson and James Anderson); Gouvy's Petite Suite Gauloise, Barber's popular Adagio for Strings (also in memory of Down), and a reorchestrated suite of music composed by FOMAG founder Nicholas Humez for a Monteverdi Players 1978 production of "Alice," with soloists Don and Evelyn McLean reprising their original-cast roles. Grounds open at 12 noon on Sunday for picnicking and lunch sales. In case of inclement weather, the Sunday lunch and concert will be moved to the Broad Brook Grange at 3940 Guilford Center Rd. . . . Both events are Admission Free, with generous donations encouraged to support the considerable costs of this musical weekend in the country. The Organ Barn is at Tree Frog Farm on Kopkind Rd., off Packer Corners Rd.; follow signs for 9 miles from the Guilford Country Store on Rt. 5 near Exit 1 of I-91, or take Weatherhead Hollow Rd. to Packer Corners Rd. (2 miles to the Barn from there). For further information, call 802-254-3600 or email office@fomag.org; visit online at http://www.fomag.org/Calendar.html.

Jan 18, 2025, 10 AM to 2 PM

Jan 18, 2025, 10 AM to 2 PM

Jan 18, 2025, 4 to 5 PM