Monadnock Music 2012 Preview and Concert Schedule: the First Season under the Directorship of Gil Rose, by Michael Miller

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A Monadnock Music Evening at Peterborough Town House. Photo © 2006 Michael Miller.

In the wake of Opera Boston’s sad demise, the appointment of Gil Rose, who had led the company so brilliantly, as Artistic Director of the Monadnock Music came as cheering news. With the 2012 summer season beginning, we can look forward to the fruits of the board’s wise decision. The summer schedule is an eclectic masterpiece which accurately reflects the taste of the more sophisticated music-lover of today, especially in Boston. In comparison, other festival programs seem stodgy. Its mix of modern, contemporary, classical and opera continues the tradition established by James Bolle, who is primarily a composer himself, extended by a few programs of baroque music on period instruments, a significant strain in contemporary performance. Some of the participants like James Maddalena will be familiar to long-time festival goers, while others are new. The combination of free (now called “voluntary”) local concerts around the Monadnock region and more formal ticketed concerts in the Peterborough Town House continues. By perusing the schedule, I get the impression that the quality of the voluntary concerts has improved.

Read the full preview on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!