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Rafael Popper-Keizer joins Monadnock Music staff as Artistic Director
After 17 years performing with Monadnock Music, it is with great pleasure that we welcome him onto our programming team in an official capacity.
The passing of our founder, Jim Bolle, has led the staff, board, and artistic management of Monadnock Music to contemplate his legacy and the original impetus that moved Jim and his wife Jocelyn to start the organization 50+ years ago. Jim, Jocelyn, and the musicians who traveled up to play with them in the churches, Granges, and Town Halls in the small villages scattered throughout the hills of the Monadnock region, were singularly focused on presenting world-class music in small, rural venues. It was believed that these free concerts in their picture-postcard settings fostered a deeper connection between performer and audience, and made for a more intimate experience. That connection also meant that the performers could more thoroughly explore with the audience the nuances of composition and performance, and so enhance the totality of the experience for performer and audience alike.
What this means for Monadnock Music today is that we are planning to focus our energies for the upcoming 2020 summer season in favor of the Village Concert series, expanding it to twelve free concerts, plus a number of our other popular presentations, such as the Garden Tour, an Outdoor Concert, and several smaller ticketed events. When we return to the Peterborough Town House on July 26th, we will deliver a truly spectacular production of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to bring it all together!
To this end, our new Artistic Director, Rafael Popper-Keizer, has worked to prepare a season that maintains the high standard of artistic excellence that audiences have come to expect when attending a Monadnock Music concert, while operating from a deeply personal and meaningful place having performed with Jim Bolle many times throughout the years.
Maestro Gil Rose, who has done so much to raise the visibility and prestige of the organization throughout New England, and the country, will continue to collaborate with Monadnock Music as a guest conductor and will return to NH to conduct Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on July 26th (Jim Bolle’s birthday).
