Groton Hill Music Center — Upcoming Concerts & Performances

Sat Oct 10 · 7:30pm

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – All American

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

The Vista Philharmonic, Groton Hill's resident orchestra, opens its season for America's 250th with William Grant Still's Symphony No. 1, Afro-American, the first work by a Black composer performed by a major U.S. orchestra, and Copland's Symphony No. 3, whose finale draws on his Fanfare for the Common Man. Sara Davis Buechner, the 1984 Gina Bachauer gold medallist and a Temple University piano professor, plays Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

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Sun Oct 11 · 7:00pm

Voces8: Lead Me Home

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

VOCES8, the British a cappella ensemble whose Decca recording of Christopher Tin's The Lost Birds was Grammy-nominated in 2023, sings Lead Me Home, a programme of American choral music. The first half sets William Byrd beside Billings, Virgil Thomson, two spirituals, Caroline Shaw, Lauridsen and Whitacre; the second turns to Barber's To Be Sung on the Water, "Shenandoah", Don McLean's "Vincent" and Cole Porter.

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Sat Nov 7 · 8:00pm

Palaver Strings: I Believed in Magic

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

Palaver Strings, the Grammy-nominated string ensemble from Portland, Maine, frames I Believed in Magic as an evening of retold bedtime stories on gender, power, fear and desire. It includes two premieres, Teagan Faran's Fíjate, a tango-inflected answer to Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique told from the pursued woman's side, and Xenia St. Charles Iris Llyllyth's Canary Resuscitator, alongside Florence Price, Nina Shekhar and Mary Kouyoumdjian.

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Sat Nov 14 · 7:30pm

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – The Classics

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

For the Vista Philharmonic, Groton Hill's resident orchestra, Bruce Hangen has programmed Joseph Bologne's Symphony No. 1, Op. 11, by the Mozart contemporary who was the first composer of African descent to win wide acclaim in Europe, alongside Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 and Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, new to the orchestra. Concertmaster Alice Hallstrom is soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, her solo debut in the work.

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Thu Dec 10 – Sun Dec 13

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra: Christmas Magic

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

Thu Dec 10 · 7:30pm / Fri Dec 11 · 7:30pm / Sat Dec 12 · 2pm & 7:30pm / Sun Dec 13 · 2pm

Groton Hill's resident Vista Philharmonic Orchestra brings back Christmas Magic, a programme of holiday favourites with special guests joining the orchestra. Groton Hill pitches it as a family outing, one to make part of a holiday tradition. The run has five performances, three in the evening and matinées on Saturday and Sunday.

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Sun Jan 17 · 3:00pm

Randy Steere, organ: Newly Discovered Gems and An Old Friend

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

Randy Steere plays a programme of seldom-heard and new organ music on the hall's Hauptwerk virtual pipe organ, which samples historic instruments such as the Görlitz Sonnenorgel. Works by Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, Saint-Saëns, Jongen, Lanquetuit and living composers Adam Heron and Daniel Gawthrop sit around Bach's Fantasy and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542. Steere was assistant organist at Old South Church and is dean of the Worcester AGO chapter.

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Sat Feb 6 · 7:30pm

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – On Becoming

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

The Vista Philharmonic's programme on growth and identity sets Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Weber and Brahms's Symphony No. 2 around Kris Bowers's For a Younger Self, a violin concerto that follows a "Hero's Journey" within the traditional form. Grammy winner Charles Yang, a Juilliard alumnus like Bowers, who scored the films Green Book and King Richard, is the soloist.

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Sat Mar 6 · 7:30pm

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Unique Impressions

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

The Vista Philharmonic, Groton Hill's resident orchestra, builds a programme around Debussy's La Mer, his "symphonic sketches" of the sea. Joshua Mhoon is the guest soloist in Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor, and the evening closes with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, the 19-year-old's graduation piece, whose "wrong-note" humour nods to his time as a silent-film accompanist.

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Sat Apr 3 · 7:30pm

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Everybody's Favorites!

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

The Vista Philharmonic's programme of symphonic favourites opens with Rossini's William Tell Overture and Smetana's The Moldau, then "Spring" from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with concertmaster Alice Hallstrom as soloist. The second half is a "Symphony of Symphonies" assembled by Bruce Hangen from movements of Beethoven's Fifth, Tchaikovsky's Fourth, Dvořák's "New World" and Shostakovich's Fifth, with other favourites promised besides.

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Sat May 8 · 7:30pm

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Gustav's Best

· · · 122 Old Ayer Rd · ·

The Vista Philharmonic performs Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection", which moves from an opening funeral march to a choral finale with off-stage brass. Soprano Kristin Renée Young and alto Emily Marvosh are the soloists, Marvosh singing the "Urlicht" song, and the Worcester Chorus of Music Worcester, directed by Chris Shepard, joins for the finale's setting of Klopstock's resurrection hymn with Mahler's own added verses.

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