On Sunday, April 28th at 3:00 p.m. at least 20 professional musicians will gather to present “Music for an April Afternoon.” The concert will be held at the Unitarian Church at 130 Main Street and will highlight not only Monteverdi Music School’s (MMS) talented faculty (including Joni McCraw, Mary Jane Austin and Erik Kroncke) but will also feature Counterpoint, Vermont’s professional vocal ensemble, which calls MMS at the Center for Arts and Learning its home base for rehearsals. With such a diverse representation of faculty members performing there will be something for everyone on the program.
Karen Songhurst, board president, says “This concert is key to helping fund our annual fund as well as our scholarship program. We strive to make music education accessible to everyone in the community. We hope the local community will turn out to support their local community music nonprofit’s 25 years and celebrate the immense talent in our area.” A sample of the faculty on the program include Eliza Thomas playing a Schubert piano Impromptu and Doug Perkins playing a Bach Sonata on guitar. Clarinettist Joni McCraw, pianist Luke Rackers and mezzo soprano Lindsey Warren will perform a selection from VT composer Erik Nielsen’s “Until Time Itself…” Guitarist Daniel Gaviria will play La Catedral by Agustin Barrios Mangore.
In addition to the teaching faculty, Counterpoint, directed by Nathaniel Lew, will present selections from their Six Degrees program which is an educational project and musical panorama about the threat of climate change locally and worldwide. The title Six Degrees refers both to the cataclysmic result of the warming of the planet by six degrees Celsius, which would effectively end life on our planet, as well as to the “six degrees of separation” that connect all of humanity.
This year’s faculty concert will also have a special reception in honor of the organization’s 25th anniversary and to honor Joni McCraw, who is retiring from teaching after 30 years at Monteverdi. Tickets are $20 at the door, $15 for students & seniors, and kids 10 and under are free.