Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble

Sarasa Concert Series for 2012-2013

We’re pleased to welcome you to the 13th season of the Sarasa Chamber Music Series. We begin the season on Saturday, October 27th with a program of Celtic and British songs, featuring celebrated early music soprano Emily Van Evera and the incomparable Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin.

For the New Year, regretfully the Portative Organ concert originally planned with the brilliant young Hungarian organist and composer, Bálint Karosi has had to be cancelled. We will update you on the new program for the January dates of 12-13, 2013 on our website as soon as the information becomes available.

And by popular request, we will close our concert season with fortepianist Maggie Cole returning to Sarasa May 18-19 for a spring program of Dvorák and other folk-inspired chamber music, with a possible special guest.

A Country Lass: Folk tunes from the British Isles: with songs and instrumental music of Vaughan Williams, Haydn, Oswald, and Purcell

Please join SARASA for a magical evening of music drawn from the rich folk and pastoral traditions of the British Isles. The program includes Scottish folk songs “Barbara Allen” and “By the stream so cool and clear” by J. Haydn and haunting duos for voice and violin by Vaughan Williams in settings of “Searching for lambs” and “Along the field”.

Instrumental music will include settings by Elizabeth Blumenstock of traditional O’Carolan Irish tunes for two violins and folk-influenced trio sonatas by Scottish composer James Oswald and English composer Matthew Locke.

8pm Saturday, October 27, 2012 Friends Meeting House (Cambridge, MA)- accessible via T Red Line (Harvard Sta.) and wheelchair accessible.
7pm Sunday, October 28, 2012 Parish Hall, First Parish Church (Concord, MA) - ample free parking and wheelchair accessible.

Emily Van Evera“…Van Evera’s dynamic contrasts are riveting, as are the purity and power of her voice… Lady Rich was once called ‘heart-stealing’; this recording is as well.” — BBC Music Magazine

Elizabeth Blumenstock “… demonstrated why she is among the finest Baroque violinists of our time.” — Early Music America

Emily Van Evera, soprano

Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin

Download concert brochure.

Baroque Trio Sonatas

Including Trio Sonatas and Sonatas by C.P.E. Bach, Corelli, Vivaldi, Telemann, J.S. Bach, and others

Cynthia Roberts, violin
Sarah Cantor, recorders
Timothy Merton, cello
Matthew Hall, harpsichord

8pm Saturday, January 12, 2013   Friends Meeting House (Cambridge, MA) - accessible via T Red Line (Harvard Sta.) and wheelchair accessible.
7pm Sunday, January 13, 2013   Parish Hall, First Parish Church (Concord, MA) - ample free parking and wheelchair accessible.

Sarasa and Les Sirènes

Georg Friedrich Händel
Cantatas and Arias for two sopranos • Sonatas for two violins

Kristen Watson, and Kathryn Mueller, sopranos
Beth Wenstrom and Adriane Post, violins
Timothy Merton, cello
Charles Sherman, harpsichord

8pm Saturday, January 19, 2013   Parish Hall, Emmanuel Church (15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA) - accessible via T Green Line (Arlington Station); parking garage across the street; wheelchair accessible.

3:30pm Sunday, January 20, 2013  First Unitarian Church, Providence, Rhode Island.  More information here.

Please join Sarasa and Les Sirènes for a repeat performance by popular demand of Händel works for two sopranos, two violins, and continuo. This astonishingly brilliant music for two sopranos is full of “sparkling coloratura, and lavish suspensions.” Likewise, Händel’s sonatas for two violins feature a vocal style similarly full of virtuosity and sonorous beauty. Our two sopranos, Kristen Watson and Kathryn Mueller, based in Boston and North Carolina respectively, are members of the ensemble Les Sirènes, which specializes in the exploration of the soprano voice and the Baroque repertory. Our two violinists, Beth Wenstrom and Adriane Post, have both recently finished the new graduate program in Historical Performance at The Juilliard School. A recent performance by one of them was described in The New Yorker as “elegant and sensual, stylishly wild.” 

Review of the 2011 performance:  "This was a beautifully sung and played evening, further demonstration of Sarasa’s ongoing ability to do what they do very, very, well.” — Christopher Greenleaf, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Download brochure.

Fortepiano with Maggie Cole

Music of Dvorák and other folk inspired works

Maggie Cole, fortepiano
Christina Day Martinson, violin
Jenny Stirling, viola
Timothy Merton, cello

8pm Saturday, May 18, 2013 Friends Meeting House (Cambridge, MA)- accessible via T Red Line (Harvard Sta.) and wheelchair accessible.
7pm Sunday, May 19, 2013 Parish Hall, First Parish Church (Concord, MA) - ample free parking and wheelchair accessible.

Maggie Cole “…the splendid British-American fortepianist Maggie Cole. In her hands, the delicacy of the fortepiano is no impediment to the power, even muscularity, of the music written for it.” - The Boston Globe

Maggie Cole, Harpsichord

Download concert brochure.

Baroque Trio Sonatas

Including Trio Sonatas and Sonatas by C.P.E. Bach, Corelli, Vivaldi, Telemann, J.S. Bach, and others

Jesse Irons, violin
Sarah Cantor, recorders
Timothy Merton, cello
Matthew Hall, harpsichord

Noon Friday, June 14, 2013 Boston Conservatory (Room T401 | 8 The Fenway | Boston, MA)   

7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 22, 2013 Strafford Town House (Strafford, VT)  

Noon Friday, June 14, 2013 Next Stage (15 Kimball Hilll  |  Putney, VT)  

Information on our past seasons: