Community Calendar

Illumine Vocal Ensemble, in collaboration with the American Guild of Organists Western Massachusetts chapter and the Mount Holyoke choirs, will present “The Echoing Vault,” a concert highlighting choral works with organ accompaniment and works for solo organ. The concert is on Sunday, November 1 at 2pm at Abbey Chapel, 50 College St, South Hadley. Tickets for the performance are available on a sliding scale at illuminechoir.org and at the door.

Abbey Chapel is unusual in possessing two very different organs: a Fisk Opus 84 designed to produce the expressive sounds of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and the Skinner organ, which commands the “timber-rattling” power associated with modern instruments. The concert program ranges in style from Baroque to modern. Highlights will include a movement from Louis Vierne's “Messe solennelle,” featuring choir and both organs, James Macmillan’s “Cantos Sagrados,” a dramatic composition weaving together biblical allusions and poems about colonization and political violence in Latin America, and sacred music from a long Anglican tradition of celebrating the soaring beauty of vocal music accompanied by an organ.

The musicians performing at this concert will include organists Larry Schipull and Noah Horn; Illumine Ensemble, directed by Arianne Abela; and Mount Holyoke Glee Club and Chamber Singers, directed by Colin Britt.

Featuring the West Stockbridge Chamber Players artistic director and clarinetist Catherine Hudgins, violinist Sheila Fiekowsky, violinist Samuel Andonian, violist Daniel Getz, and cellist Francesca McNeeley. The program will include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet No. 17 in B-flat major, K. 458; Gustav Holst’s Phantasy Quartet on British Folk Songs; and Arthur Somervell’s Clarinet Quintet in G major. These concerts, which benefit the West Stockbridge Historical Society, routinely sell out, so order your tickets today! Tickets ($35 for members, $40 for non-members) can be reserved at www.weststockbridgehistory.org. Seating is limited, first come, first served. This concert is supported by the West Stockbridge Cultural Council.

From the beauty of Mozart to the rhythmic energy of Bartók and Gershwin, Close Encounters With Music opens its 35th season with an afternoon celebrating the clarinet’s remarkable range.

Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein leads a program featuring Mozart’s beloved Clarinet Quintet, Beethoven’s spirited Trio in B-flat major, and Bartók’s Contrasts, written for Benny Goodman and violinist Joseph Szigeti, alongside music by Gershwin.

Joining Fiterstein are pianist Michael Chertock, violinists Xiao-Dong Wang and Helena Baillie, violist Daniel Panner, and cellist and artistic director Yehuda Hanani. Hanani’s lively commentary explores the stories and cultural connections behind the music, giving listeners more to discover in each work.

Stay for the Afterglow reception to meet the performers and enjoy conversation with fellow concertgoers.

Tickets: $35 balcony / $60 orchestra, plus processing fees.
Tickets and information: cewm.org.

Galant Fire celebrates the electrifying transition from the intense gravity of the High Baroque to the luminous, driving passion of the early galant style. At the heart of the choral program is Laetatus sum RV 827, a recently rediscovered masterpiece by Antonio Vivaldi—a work so compelling it was misattributed for centuries to Baldassare Galuppi. Galuppi took the tightly knit, dramatic Venetian counterpoint of his teacher, Antonio Lotti (heard in Lotti's Dixit Dominus in G minor), and kindled it into the sunny, operatic lyricism of his own Dixit Dominus in E-flat major. This northern spark is brilliantly answered by the Neapolitan vocal masters, led by Leonardo Leo’s festive Credo in C major, which transforms strict polyphony into an exhilarating, theatrical showcase.
Interspersed among the choral masterworks, the instrumental selections perfectly mirror this clash of styles: A vivid, strings-only work by Francesco Durante provides a bridge of pure kinetic energy, while the program further contrasts Vivaldi’s Sonata al Santo Sepolcro—a somber Venetian work filled with stark chromatic tension—with Antonio Caldara’s Ciaccona, a vibrant set of variations showcasing the elegant, lyrical textures of the emerging Neapolitan style. Join us to experience a musical landscape ablaze with rhythmic vitality, vocal brilliance, and historical rediscovery.

Performers: Crescendo Chorus, Soloists (soprano Caroline Christopher, alto Laura Evans, tenor Kevin Ray, bass-baritone Douglas Williams), and Crescendo Period String Ensemble (Jeremy Zhang-Rhizor, concert master), directed by Christine Gevert.

Visit https://crescendomusic.org/ for tickets.

The Naghash Ensemble combines the earthy spirituality of Armenian folk song, new classical music, and contemporary post-minimalism with the energy of rock and jazz. Three brilliant female vocalists and some of Armenia’s finest instrumentalists on duduk, oud, dhol, and piano play captivating new music based on sacred texts by the medieval Armenian mystic poet and priest Mkrtich Naghash.

Written by Armenian-American composer John Hodian, The Naghash Ensemble’s “Songs of Exile” is a meditation on man’s relationship to God from the perspective of a monk forced to live in exile for many years.

“An enchanting elixir of sounds based on new Armenian folk and centuries-old poetry.” – KEXP

“A moment of grace and meditation.” – Rolling Stone

11.06.26 at 7:30 p.m. | NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston
DELIGHT OF THE MUSES
ANTHONY DE RITIS Jiggedy Jingle Jaunty Jaunty (2026) world premiere
SAMUEL BARBER Knoxville Summer of 1915 (1947)
Julia Bullock, soprano
MATTHEW AUCION Selections from The No One’s Rose (2021)
Julia Bullock, soprano
CHARLES WUORINEN Delight of the Muses (1991)

Anthony De Ritis’s Jiggedy, Jingle, Jaunty, Jaunty, a world premiere for orchestra and electronics, pays homage to two 20th-century giants, James Joyce and Luciano Berio ,through a dialogue that stretches across time. BMOP welcomes soprano Julia Bullock for Samuel Barber’s iconic Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a setting of James Agee’s 1938 prose text whose childlike recollection of a summer evening remains one of Barber’s most beloved creations. In addition, Ms. Bullock also performs two movements from Matt Aucoin’s The No One’s Rose, settings of poems by Paul Celan that explore memory, language, and loss. The evening concludes with Charles Wuorinen’s Delight of the Muses, a homageto Mozart based on material from Don Giovanni. Outlandish, sentimental, and a rousing good time, this ballet shows this iconic American composer at his irreverent best.

The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra – comprised of 120 young musicians from across the northeastern United States – opens its final season on Friday, November 6, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. with a program highlighting the evolution of Russian orchestral music with works by Glinka, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky.

Experience a sweeping journey of emotion and history as the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra presents Florence Price’s evocative Ethiopia’s Shadow in America, Ulysses Kay’s brilliant and bold Concerto for Orchestra, and Tchaikovsky’s deeply moving Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique.” This powerful program blends resilience, virtuosity, and unforgettable Romantic intensity in one compelling afternoon.

Hailed for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera-theater, White Snake Projects (WSP) presents the U.S. premiere of Brent Michael Davids’s monumental orchestral work Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People. This profoundly moving musical work brings an abrupt and necessary shift of perspective amid the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of America’s independence.
Drawing deeply from his Native American heritage, Davids tackles the genocidal founding of America, challenging music norms and sanitized historical rhetoric to give voice to America’s invisible people: American Indians.

Following its acclaimed world premiere in London by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Requiem for America premieres in America in a one-night only concert, November 14, 2026, at NEC’s Jordan Hall in Boston.