For Immediate Release
Thurston Consort
54 Wallace Ave Ste: 403
Fitchburg, MA 01420
Contact: Noel Plouffe
978-503-8592 / [email protected] / thurstonconsort.org
Fitchburg, MA (April 25, 2022) – The Thurston Consort returns to the concert hall with a series of performances; their first downtown Fitchburg concerts since the ensemble’s “Inaugural Concert” in 2019. The Thurston Concert will be performing in the beautiful chapel of Rollstone Congregational Church, 199 Main Street on Friday, May 27th, starting at 7:30 pm presenting a program of music by Claudio Monteverdi, Gasbar Sanz, Henry Purcell and other composers of the early baroque. There is no admission for this concert; donations are always welcome.
Sunday, June 5th at 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm in Carter Park, Leominster, MA. The Thurston Consort working with the Stratton Players in their performance of the works of Shakespeare starting with a half hour concert of Elizabethan and early English music. The ensemble will also provide incidental music for the performance ending with the English Country Dance Favorite, Sellenger’s Round. Members of the consort will repeat their performance with the Stratton Players on Saturday, June 11th at 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm at Gateway Park, Fitchburg, MA
The Thurston Consort will end their spring concert season on Sunday, June 12th with an afternoon concert at 2 pm in the comfort of the Dillon Room, First Parish Church, 923 Main Street, Upper Common, Fitchburg. The ensemble will present a concert of music by Josquin des Prez, Athanasius Kircher, Turlough O’Carolan and Johann Pachelbel to name a few of the composers of the seventeenth century on the program. Admission is free, contributions are always welcome. All performances this spring season are funded in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council as administered by the Fitchburg Cultural Council.
The Thurston Consort, named for the long admired nineteenth century Fitchburg musician, teacher and singing master Cyrus Thurston is part of the long tradition in Fitchburg’s musical heritage of ensembles providing chamber music for the community. The consort was founded in 2019 and held our “Inaugural Concert” in October of that year. Facing the pandemic of COVID 19, the Thurston Consort, like so many other performing artists and ensembles had to look beyond the concert hall for performances. In 2021 the Thurston Consort did studio work and had their performances cablecast on FATV and recorded two CDs. The consort’s first performance presented three centuries of musical compositions by Fitchburg composers. That CD is for sale with the Fitchburg Historical Society. For the holiday season the Thurston Consort recorded a Christmas special for FATV of a reading of Washington Irving’s Christmas Sketch Book with Old English carols and seasonal music by New England composers; contemporaries to Irving all born in the eighteenth century. This CD is for sale at the consort’s website, thurstonconsort.org and both performances are available on the Thurston Consort YouTube channel. The Thurston Consort will be presenting an autumn concert of music by composers of the First New England School; sometime late October or early November 2022.
###
