Launched in 2022, the second season of Arpeggio Music Festival kicks off this month.
The festival director is Bill Bonnell, for whom music has been a big part of his life, both as a musician and as a concert-goer. He started playing the French horn when he was eleven, and he kept on playing it; for years he was a member of the Connecticut Symphonic Winds. Retired after a career in graphic design and branding, his appetite for concerts is as hearty as ever, and he continues to travel often to concerts and music festivals around the U.S. and abroad.
This year’s theme, new perspectives, is built on the idea that experiencing a musical work in a different arrangement–for example, Mahler’s Ninth Symphony transcribed for piano four-hand–can expand one’s understanding of the composer’s processes.
The festival, held at First Congregational Church in Old Greenwich, comprises six concerts over this weekend and next.
Here’s the lineup:
Friday, June 2, at 7:30
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, for 5 strings, with the original poems recited
Saturday, June 3, at 7:30
Richard Strauss’s The Four Last Songs and the Opus 3 Five Piano Pieces
Sunday, June 4, at 4:00
Richard Wagner’s “Unshielded,” from the Wagner in Vermont Festival
Friday, June 9, at 7:30
Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, arranged for piano four-hand
Saturday, June 10, at 7:30
Jazz: Total Improv, with Bennie Wallace, tenor saxophone, and two other musicians
Sunday, June 11, at 4:00
Concert Band and Organ, playing pieces originally written for orchestra and organ
For more detailed information about the concerts and to buy tickets online, go to www.ArpeggioFestival.org. Tickets, which are $20, are also available at the door.
All nine festival events will be held in the auditorium at the First Congregational Church, 108 Sound Beach Avenue, Old Greenwich. Tickets at www.arpeggiofestival.org.