Author: Donna Ardizzoni

GLOUCESTER MEETINGHOUSE FOUNDATION PRESENTS

THE MUSICIANS OF THE OLD POST ROAD IN A PROGRAM CALLED

‘A CHRISTMAS PILGRIMAGE’

Saturday, December 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Gloucester Meetinghouse corner of Middle and Church Streets in Gloucester.  The accessible side entrance is at 10 Church Street. Event parking is available on the green and at additional parking lots nearby in the Historic District.

The ensemble, The Musicians of the Old Post Road, returns for the fourth season to perform their greatly anticipated annual holiday concert held at the Gloucester Meetinghouse, home of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church. The program includes traditional favorites by Handel and Telemann and rarely-performed works by Bach contemporaries Christoph Graupner, Johann David Heinichen, Johann Christoph Pez, and Augustin Pfleger.

Tickets for A Christmas Pilgrimage are available at the door or online with more information at www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org. Preferred seating $45; general $30; students $10 with ID; under 12 free. Thanks to a generous sponsor this concert is dedicated to the memory of Carol Ackerman.

EVENT DESCRIPTION
The Musicians of the Old Post Road, a chamber ensemble based in the Boston area, specializes in works from the Baroque to early Romantic eras performed on period instruments. The ensemble is well known for bringing their audiences rediscovered masterpieces, works that are rarely performed in public. The Musicians of the Old Post Road received the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society in 1998. They have seven CD recordings to their credit and have toured throughout North America and Europe.

Concert selections include Georg Philipp Telemann’s Der mit Sunden beleidigte Heiland; Johann David Heinichen’s, Pastorale per la Notte di Natale; Johann Christoph Pez’s, Concerto Pastorale; and Augustin Pfleger’s Mache dich auf, werde Licht. The centerpiece of the program is a world-premiere revival of Christoph Graupner’s cantata  Das Volk so im Finstern wandelt, researched and reconstructed by co-Artistic Directors Daniel Ryan and Suzanne Stumpf. Additional works will be the familiar Pifa sinfonia from G.F. Handel’s Messiah, and an audience sing-along with “Joy to the World,” adapted from one of Handel’s choruses.

Members of the ensemble, all specialists in period instrument performance, include flutist Suzanne Stumpf, violinist Sarah Darling, violist Marcia Cassidy, cellist Daniel Ryan, and fortepianist/harpsichordist Michael Bahmann. They are joined by four soloists well known to Boston area audiences: soprano Jessica Petrus; mezzo-soprano Sophie Michaux; tenor Jason McStoots; and baritone David McFerrin.

This concert is made possible by a generous gift in memory of Carol Ackerman. Carol is fondly remembered as a longtime member of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church and a devoted member of the church choir. Her passion for music was well known throughout Cape Ann and the Boston area where she sang in several choruses. She served on the board of Rockport Music and established their Music Outreach Program for young people.

The Gloucester Meetinghouse, home of the Unitarian Universalist Church, is located at the corner of Church and Middle Streets. The accessible side entrance is at 10 Church Street. Event parking is available on the green and at additional parking lots nearby in the Historic District. For more information on this program and for the full 2019-20 event schedule, please visit www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE MUSICIANS OF THE OLD POST ROAD
The Musicians of the Old Post Road takes its name from its acclaimed concert series that brings period instrument performances of music from the 17^th to the 19^th centuries to historic buildings along New England’s fabled Old Post Road, the first thoroughfare to connect Boston and New York City in the late 17^th century.

The ensemble has garnered a reputation for its original and unique holiday programming. Each December the ensemble spotlights outstanding works that have been lost to audiences for centuries. The Boston Musical Intelligencer described, “rich, delicious and completely unfamiliar works….Hurrah for the enterprising investigation of repertory by The Musicians of the Old Post Road and equally for their spirited playing and singing.”

Winner of the 1998 Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, The Musicians of the Old Post Road has also received programming awards from Chamber Music America and the US-Mexico Fund for Culture. They have toured in Germany, Austria, and Mexico, and have appeared at festivals and on concert series in the US, including the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival Concert Series, the Castle Hill Festival, the Artist Series at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and the Connecticut Early Music Festival. The ensemble held a residency at Dartmouth College and was featured on WCVB television’s “Chronicle” program and 99.5 All Classical radio’s “Live from Fraser” program. Their discography includes seven recordings that have each been praised in the US and abroad.