Monadnock Music blooms behind new artistic director

Monadnock Music blooms behind new artistic
director
By TERESA SANTOSKI Staff Writer
Courtesy photo. Gil Rose was hired as the new artistic
director for Monadnock Music in February of this year.
For most annual music festivals, planning is done at least a year in advance.
Gil Rose, the new artistic director for Monadnock Music, had about four months.
“People asked me if I inherited the first summer’s program,” he said. “No, no, they’re
mine.”
Rose was hired for the position in February and immediately set to work planning this
season’s performances.
“We’ve really been moving fast and furious, and it’s been busy,” he said. “But we’re in a
great position, and we’re looking forward to a great summer.”
Monadnock Music’s season will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 6, with a performance by the
Monadnock Sinfonietta at the Peterborough Town House.
The performance, which will feature works commissioned by modern dance pioneer Martha
Graham, will be conducted by Rose and exemplifies his vision for Monadnock Music.
This vision is more a refocusing of the festival’s original mission of providing a summer
series of varied classical programming, with an emphasis on lesser known music and
composers, throughout the Monadnock Region.
In the past, the festival has been equal parts chamber music, choral and early music, solo
performances, orchestral music and opera.
“In the last three or four years, it’s focused more on chamber music,” Rose said. “We
thought it was good to get back into the business of diversity.”
“As we looked to what Monadnock Music’s mission has been historically, we realized that all
these different genres had a place at Monadnock Music,” Executive Director William J.H.
Chapman said. “It’s very important to find someone like Gil whose skills and interests are
not so narrowly focused.”
Opera in particular has been missing from the lineup for at least eight years.
“The festival has a long tradition of opera. Jim Bolle managed many opera performances,”
Rose said of Monadnock Music’s founder. “So we’re going to start back on that path.”
That first step will be a performance of “A Water Bird Talk” and “The Boor,” one-act operas
by American composer Dominick Argento, at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 29, at the Colonial
Theatre in Keene. The operas will be directed and conducted by Rose.
Rose also plans to re-establish Monadnock Music’s dedication to unusual and infrequently
performed works by spotlighting American composers.
“I wanted to, every season, do a thorough exploration of an American composer’s chamber
music,” he said.
The season will focus on the works of Virgil Thomson.
“A lot of the music is spread throughout the summer,” Rose said, “so there’s a little Virgil
Thomson everywhere.”
After the season, Rose will bring the performers back together to record Thomson’s
chamber music and Argento’s operas.
“Neither of these projects are documenting existing recordings. They’ll be unique offerings,”
he said, adding that the recordings will be presented at the start of next year’s festival.
In this way, Monadnock Music will be contributing to the music world on an international
level.
“By making recordings,” Rose said, “we’ll be spreading gospel, in a sense, way beyond New
Hampshire.”
“Peterborough is our global headquarters,” Chapman said.
Rose agreed: “It’s base camp.”
As founder and conductor of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the pre-eminent
professional orchestra dedicated to performing and recording modern and contemporary
music, Rose has the experience needed to help Monadnock Music achieve its goals.
Rose also served as music director, then artistic director, at Opera Boston, where he and
Chapman were colleagues for seven years.
This revamped partnership between the two, coupled with the decision to refocus on the
festival’s original mission, has already been a significant financial boon to Monadnock Music.
According to Chapman, since Rose began his position in February, Monadnock Music has
raised upward of $150,000 in new money from local and national institutions. The
organization is halfway to its goal of raising an additional $65,000 in new money.
“It’s very encouraging,” Chapman said. “That’s all to improve our programming and for
capacity building, to strengthen the institution.”
Fundraising and planning are particularly important with Monadnock Music’s 50th
anniversary coming up; this is its 47th season.
“To pull off a 50th anniversary season on the level that we aspire to, we have to start
thinking about it and essentially work back,” Chapman said.
“It’s a pretty wonderful opportunity that doesn’t come along every day. It’s kind of like the
queen’s diamond jubilee. You don’t expect to get a second one in life, so you make the most
of it.”
In the meantime, Chapman and Rose will be working together to further cement Monadnock
Music’s reputation for varied classical music performances of the highest caliber.
“I’d really like us to be known as the most exciting and the most known small festival,”
Chapman said. “We don’t have to be big; we have to be really high quality and really, really
interesting and fun. Small, but mighty.”
2012 Monadnock Music schedule
For complete performance details, visit www.monadnockmusic.org.
n 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 6, Peterborough Town House: Monadnock Sinfonietta performs music
commissioned by Martha Graham.
n 3 p.m. Sunday, July 8, Harrisville Community Church: Village Concert by Monadnock Players.
n 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 11, Deering Community Church: Village Concert by Irina Muresanu (violin)
and Rob Auler (piano).
n 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 13, Peterborough Town House: Claremont Trio.
n 3 p.m. Sunday, July 15, Wilton Center Unitarian Church: Village Concert by Monadnock Players.
n 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 18, Keene Ahavas Achim Synagogue: Village Concert by Hirsch-Pinkas Duo
(pianos) and Jonathan Hess and Robert Schulz (percussion).
n 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 20, Peterborough Town House: Alan Feinberg (piano).
n 3 p.m. Sunday, July 22, Francestown Old Meeting House: Village Concert by Monadnock Players.
n 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 25, Temple Community Church: Village Concert by Terry Everson (trumpet)
and Scott Jarett (organ).
n 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 26, Sullivan Congregational Church: Village Concert by F.A.E. Duo – Nicholas
DiEugenio (violin) and Chi-Chen Wu (fortepiano).
n 3 p.m. Sunday, July 29, Keene Colonial Theatre: Two one-act operas by Dominick Argento, featuring
Heather Buck (soprano), James Maddalena (baritone), Frank Kelley (tenor) and Aaron Engebreth
(baritone); directed and conducted by Gil Rose.
n 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1, Hancock Congregational Church: Village Concert by Monadnock Players
with Krista River.
n 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2, Washington Congregational Church: Village Concert by Monadnock Players.
n 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, Peterborough Town House: Sanford Sylvan (baritone) and David Breitman
(fortepiano).
n 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5, Walpole Unitarian Church: Village Concert by Monadnock Players.
n 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 8, Jaffrey Center: Village Concert by Monadnock Quartet.
n 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10, Peterborough All Saints Church: Village Concert by Lorelei Ensemble.
n 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, Dublin Emmanuel Church: Village Concert by Monadnock Quartet.
TICKET INFORMATION
All village concerts have voluntary admission. Tickets for other performances are $25 for reserved
seating, $20 for general seating and $8 for students. Season tickets are $120. After July 5, prices will be
$5 more per ticket.
Tickets can be ordered at www.monadnockmusic.org.
Teresa Santoski can be reached at 594-6466 or [email protected]. Also,
follow Santoski on Twitter (@Telegraph_TS).

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