Guilford, Vt. – The opening weekend of Friends of Music at Guilford’s 50th Anniversary Season is dedicated to founder A. Graham Down (1929-2014), who brought the c. 1897 Guilford Tracker Organ to the Barn over a half-century ago, and funded its renovations and improvements over the years; he performed on it in 1966-69 and several times since 2001.
The music begins as usual with a Saturday night Organ Concert in the Barn at 7:30. This year’s guest performer is Susan Summerfield, music professor and college organist at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt. Her program, “Traditions,” includes works by Baroque masters J. S. Bach, Pierre Dandrieu, and Louis Couperin; C. P. E. Bach from the start of the classic period; and 20th-century composers Darius Milhaud and Lou Harrison, whose pieces employ certain Baroque elements. A cake and champagne reception follows.
At 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 6, the nearly 50-piece Guilford Festival Orchestra performs a Lawn Concert entitled “Celebrations,” under the baton of conductor Ken Olsson. Leading off with Don McLean’s “Fanfare for the 50th,” composed in memory of Down. The program also features Mozart’s lesser-known Symphony #26 and a duet from his “Don Giovanni” with soloists Julie Johnson Olsson and James Anderson. Other works include Gouvy’s Petite Suite Gauloise, Barber’s popular Adagio for Strings (another tribute to Down), and a reorchestrated suite of incidental music by Nicholas Humez for the 1978 Monteverdi Players production of “Alice,” with reprise performances by original cast members Don and Evelyn McLean. The traditional finale for this concert is a sing-in of Randall Thompson’s Alleluia. Grounds open at 12:00 noon on Sunday for picnicking and lunch sales; a hearty vegetarian meal of assorted salads, eggs, Grafton cheddar cheese, Walker Farm tomatoes, Vermont-made artisan bread, a drink, and Scott Farm apples, is offered for $10/person; warm chocolate chip cookies and refreshing lemonade are available before the concert and at intermission.
Both Labor Day Weekend concerts are admission free, with generous donations encouraged to defray the high cost of this musical weekend in the country. Follow signs for 9 miles from the Guilford Country Store, on Rt. 5 south of Exit 1, to the Organ Barn off Packer Corners Rd. The organ concert is rain or shine. In case of threatening weather on Sunday, the lunch and lawn concert will be moved to Broad Brook Grange, 3940 Guilford Center Rd., 4 miles from the Guilford Store. For further information, contact the FOMAG office at 802-254-3600 or office@fomag.org; visit online at www.fomag.org. The 50th Anniversary Season is sponsored in part by Vermont Public Radio and the Vermont Arts Council.
