It is stated in the Thurston Consort’s Mission Statement that this ensemble will provide concert opportunities to help “develop and retain regional musicians”  The 2021 concert season proudly presented our first student musician in the Thurston Consort Student Musician Program, Nyk Fischer of Nashoba Technical High School.  Ms. Fischer is a senior at Nashoba Tech enrolled in the Theater Arts Program and sings with the high school choral  ensemble.  Ms. Fischer first came to the consort’s attention with her directorial debut with the Stratton Player as Assistant Director in the Players’ production of Letters From the Front.

Ms. Fischer sang two songs in the Thurston Consort concert program of music of Fitchburg composers from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Ms. Fischer sang “Do They Miss Me At Home” (1852) by S.M. Grannis who was inspired by a poem by  Fitchburg’s much admired poet Caroline Atherton Mason and the Fitchburg Bi-centennial Hymn, “Fitchburg O Fitchburg” (1964) by Madeleine Gaylor.

Nyk Fischer with the Thurston Consort’s performance was partly funded through a grant by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and can be found on YouTube and FATV. Fitchburg, MA.