By Martin Renzhofer
What began as a single concert in the Concert Hall on the Bedford campus of Middlesex Community College nearly 30 years ago has grown into a yearlong series featuring some of the finest musicians in Massachusetts.
The World of Music Concert Series has proved to be so popular among the musicians that series director Carmen Rodriguez-Peralta no longer has to seek them out. “They contact me,” she said. “That part is easy. The musicians love to perform.”
The series began its 2019 Spring schedule March 15 with an art exhibit opening as a prelude to the performance at the new Academic Arts Center Recital Hall in Lowell.
On Friday, April 5 at 8 pm, the award-winning Holes in the Floor Cello Quartet, featuring Boston-based ensemble Jonathan Butler, Eunghee Cho, Yejin Hong, and Joy Yanai, is scheduled to play works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ian Wiese, Jeremy Crosmer, Claude Debussy, and Ludwig van Beethoven at the Concert Hall on the Bedford campus of MCC.
It will be one of three performances in Bedford, with one more at the Lowell campus. All concerts are free and open to the public.
The Bedford performances include, on April 26 at 8 p.m., a selection of chamber music performed by Bedford High School graduate John Ferrillo, principal oboist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ferrillo will be with Elizabeth Ostling, associate principal flute for the BSO, cellist Williams Rounds, and Rodriguez-Peralta.
“I really enjoy working on this, putting it together,” said Rodriguez-Peralta, Chair of the MCC Music Department. “The World of Music is expanding even more.”
Although the roots of the series are – and will remain – deep in the classical genre, the series will also embrace World, jazz, and folk music.
Bradford Connor, musical director of First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Bedford, said that the World of Music series tries to highlight the talent in the local community, including the faculty of Middlesex Community College.
“We have a thriving artistic community,” he said. “She has a specific goal to showcase the faculty.”
The roots of the World of Music series began with the first concert October 29, 1989, in the Concert Hall of the Bedford campus. It featured a dual recital with Rodríguez-Peralta and Boston Symphony cellist Luis Leguía.
The event drew enough interest that, beginning in 1992, it was expanded to two concerts a year. Soon, as the music program at Middlesex grew and there were more community music groups interested in performing at the college, as well as more student performers, there became a need for a yearlong concert series.
A World of Music Concert Series began in the fall of 2001, featuring MCC music faculty, students, and community, as well as visiting artists who performed a variety of classical, jazz, folk, and world music. It has grown to between 12 and 14 concerts a year in either the Concert Hall in Bedford or in the new Donahue Family Academic Arts Center, Recital Hall in Lowell.
“We always find a lovely audience in Bedford,” Rodriguez-Peralta said. “We have gotten to know the people in the community through this [concert series] and find they are very loyal.”
The list of guest musicians includes a host of performers from the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as Internationally known violinists Ryu Goto, Florin Croitoru, and Irina Muresanu; cellists Igor Zubkovsky and Rafael Popper-Keizer; and pianists Richard Meyrick and John MacDonald.
The series has included jazz musicians from the Berklee College of Music and World music ensembles such as the Caravan World Music Trio, Brazilian Popular Ensemble, and Carlos Odria Trio.
When Rodriguez-Peralta, an accomplished soloist and musician, began with that one concert in 1989, she certainly did not see it growing into a series of concerts. When she arrived from New York City to take her post at Middlesex there were not many concerts in the Bedford area.
“No one will come,” she said. “Who wants to hear cello and piano? To my surprise, people did come. Our expectations are now even more events and concerts.”
Loading ...
