Winchendon Music Festival To Present Seven Concerts in August

The Winchendon Music Festival, led by Founder and distinguished American musician Andrew Arceci, who performs on colascione, viola da gamba, and double bass, returns this year for seven concerts from August 16 to 27. Featuring performances by international artists from a variety of genres including classical, folk, jazz, historical performance, and world music, this festival will showcase Mr. Arceci, Renaissance lutanists Hideki Yamaya and William Simms, other WMF Artists, the Arcadia Players, John Arcaro & Band, pianist George Lykogiannis, the folk collective Floyds Row, and the Worcester Jazz Orchestra. Full program details follow:

Hideki Yamaya & William Simms, Renaissance lutes

Wednesday, August 16, 7 pm | Murdock-Whitney House (151 Front St., Winchendon, MA 01475) Mr. Yamaya and Mr. Simms have selected several popular 16th century lute duets by John Johnson (c.1545-1594), Thomas Robinson (c.1560-c.1610), John Dowland (c.1563-1626), and John Danyel (1564-c.1626).

Andrew Arceci & WMF Artists

Friday, August 18, 6 pm | Winchendon Amphitheater (85 Ingleside Dr. Winchendon, MA 01475) This program features various contemporary classical pieces, including works by the iconoclast John Cage (1912-1992), the minimalist Terry Riley (1935-), and others.

Arcadia Players

Sunday, August 20, 7 pm | Beals Memorial Library (50 Pleasant St. Winchendon, MA 01475) This program will feature Italianate vocal and instrumental renditions of British folk tunes, performed by soprano Hailey Fuqua and a string ensemble led by Artistic Director Andrew Arceci. The material is culled from works by two late 17th/early18th century musicians from Lucca, Italy, Francesco Geminiani (1687- 1762) and Francesco Barsanti 1690-1775) who, as was popular among Italian composers of the time, immigrated to London. In 1742, Barsanti published "A Collection of Old Scots Tunes," and in 1749, Geminiani produced "A Treatise of Good Taste in the Art of Musick."

John Arcaro & Band

Monday, August 21, 7 pm | Beals Memorial Library (50 Pleasant St. Winchendon, MA 01475)

Berklee College of Music professor, John Arcaro, leads a program of works from the "Great American Songbook", complemented by contemporary jazz compositions.

George Lykogiannis, piano

Friday, August 25, 7 pm | Murdock-Whitney House (151 Front St., Winchendon, MA 01475)

Noted Greek-American pianist and accordionist George Lykogiannis, will perform works by his compatriot Manos Hatzidakis (1925-1994), the great 20th century Catalan composer Federico Mompou (1893-1987), and the beloved Spanish composer/pianist Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909). Mr. Lykogiannis will also play a composition of his own.

Floyds Row

Saturday, August 26, 7 pm | Murdock-Whitney House (151 Front St., Winchendon, MA 01475)

Folk collective, Floyds Row, explores the connections among early, classical, folk, newgrass, and world genres. The ensemble has performed throughout the UK and the US--recent venues have included Club Passim (Cambridge, MA), the American Folk Art Museum (New York, NY), Rockwood Music Hall (New York, NY), Gaithersburg Arts Barn (Gaithersburg, MD), and others.

Worcester Jazz Orchestra

Sunday, August 27, 2 pm | Winchendon Amphitheater (85 Ingleside Dr. Winchendon, MA 01475) Ever popular, the Big Band plays works by Glenn Miller (1904-c.1944), Buddy Rich (1917-1987), and others.

Called a "thoughtful interpreter of historically informed early music" by Stephen Brookes in The Washington Post, Andrew Arceci has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition to serving as Arcadia Players' Artistic Director, he is the Founding Director of the Winchendon Music Festival (Winchendon, MA). During the 2019-2020 academic year, Mr. Arceci was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Mr. Arceci has taught at several institutions, including Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College (Director, Collegium Musicum), and Worcester State University. Additionally, he has given lectures, masterclasses, and/or workshops at Illinois Wesleyan University, the International Baroque Institute at Longy (Bard College), the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, the Narnia Arts Academy (Italy), Institutum Romanum Finlandiae (Italy), Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan), and Burapha University (Thailand).

Mr. Arceci studied double bass, viola da gamba, and art history at Peabody and went on to study early music at Juilliard School and at Magdalen College in Oxford.

Founded in 2016, the Winchendon Music Festival, dubbed "a world-class event in the small north Worcester County town" by Richard Duckett in the Telegram & Gazette, is dedicated to the memory of Andrew Arceci's father, Robert J. Arceci, a pediatric oncologist with a passion for the arts.

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