Arcadia Players - New England's Period Instrument Ensemble

Arcadia Players embraces 
historical performance 
practice to illuminate 
and invigorate the 
great Western heritage 
of vocal and 
instrumental music.

Our 2013-3014 season includes:

A series of benefit concerts and fund-raising events to ensure our future success, including:
Beethoven and the Romantic Violin
Susanna Ogata, violin and Ian Watson, fortepiano
Saturday March 15, 2014, 7:30 pm
Warbeke Room, Pratt Hall, Lower Lake Drive
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.

For more information click here

"Stunning: we were transported through sound to Beethoven's time. All of the pieces were revelations; I felt I was hearing them for the first time."--Boston Musical Intelligencer.

Order tickets online at:
Printable ticket order form for mailing
A Festive “Arts Bar”
an opportunity for you to join with Ian Watson, Arcadia's musicians and board members, as well as artists and poets from around the region. Time and Place TBD.


Our 2013-2014 season also included:

Our annual performance of
Handel's Messiah

Abbey Chapel, Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, MA
Friday Evening, December 20, 2013
Ian Watson, Artistic Director
Ian Watson, Arcadia Players’ Artistic Director, played an important role in the British Baroque revival which brought such renowned orchestras into prominence as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the English Chamber Orchestra, the English Baroque Soloists, the Monteverdi Choir and The Sixteen, with all of whom he has performed as organist, harpsichordist, solo pianist and/or director. Ian’s versatility is revealed in the equal ease with which he performs the roles of orchestral conductor, choir director, organist, harpsichordist, pianist, teacher and public speaker. and more.

Plans for our Gala Twenty-Fifth Season in 2014-2015 include:

Four “blockbuster’’ concerts that encompass the full spectrum of Arcadia’s range of historically-informed performances on original instruments, with four of the greatest and most immortal works of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Early Romantic periods:

Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin
Handel’s Messiah
Mozart’s Requiem
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

In addition, we are planning to produce for supporters and donors a CD (and possibly a DVD) highlighting a quarter-century of Arcadia’s great performances by our incredibly talented musicians.


Ludwig van Beethoven
Arcadia Players performing Monteverdi at 
St. Mary's Church, Northampton
Photo by Walter Denny
Image Credit Detail: 
Thomas Cole, Dream of  Arcadia, c. 1838
Denver Art Museum Collection:
Gift of Mrs. Lindsey Gentry, 1954.71
Arcadia Players' 24th concert season was made possible through the support of you, our patrons and donors, and by our hosts Smith College 
and Mount Holyoke College, our media sponsor New England Public Radio: 88.5 FM WFCR and all-news WNNZ at AM 640 and 91.7 FM, 
the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, The Loomis Communities, in 2012 by the 
Hadley Cultural Council, and in both 2012 and 2013 by the Cultural Councils of Amherst and South Hadley and the Northampton Arts Council, 
local agencies supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. Arcadia Players is the Ensemble in Residence at 
The Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies.

Arcadia Players
Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Ensemble
P.O. Box 1563
Northampton, MA 01061
413 586-8742 (413 58-MUSIC)
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