Event

Quabbin Valley Pro Musica

The concert will feature new music by composers Carolyn Brown Senier and Richard Chase of Orange and Allison Pollitt of Athol. Also on the docket are the first half closer, a spoken piece with oral sound effects, and the second half accompanied entirely by a string quartet.

Dr. Charles Heffernan ~ Music Conductor
Quabbin Valley Pro Musica ~ chorus
Mary Cafagna ~ violoncello
Judy Johnson ~ piano
Naomi Lesley ~ violin
Dennis Townsend ~ viola
Janet VanBlerkom ~ violin

Opening with a Beethoven chorus, "Hallelujah," from The Mount of Olives, the program will segue to resident composers Brown Senier, Pollitt, and Chase, with their "Take Joy Home," "Psalm 19," and "This is not a Broken Heart (Let Love Rule the World!)," respectively. Chase will serve as tenor soloist and pianist for his piece. John Beckwith's "GAS!" will close the first half with a rousing, spoken riff on street signs and traffic signals dating to the early 1970s. Judy Johnson will accompany most of the first half on piano.

After intermission, a string quartet including Janet VanBlerkom, Naomi Lesley, Dennis Townsend, and Mary Carfagna plus Judy Johnson will take the stage to accompany the chorus in Bachs "All Breathing Life," two choruses from Randall Thompson's "The Testament of Freedom," Sir Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance," and Sir Charles Hubert Parry's "Jerusalem."

The Meetinghouse's resident chorus, Quabbin Valley Pro Musica, is known for its varied music and high-quality concerts. Dr. Heffernan, Music Conductor, is professor emeritus of music at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His conducting and teaching careers have taken him from coast to coast in the US and Canada as he has groomed choruses, music educators, and solo performers.