Arcadia Players is about to begin its 20th season of dynamic, historically informed performances in venues from Deerfield to Springfield. Three large-scale concerts this year feature the Arcadia Players Orchestra, four programs explore intimate chamber repertories, and Ian Watson breaks new ground in his annual organ recital!

Our season opens on September 20 at Smith College’s Sweeney Concert Hall in Northampton, with a selection of Telemann’s Paris Quartets for flute, violin, viol and harpsichord, works that are at once charming and masterful. The following Saturday the Arcadia Players Chamber Ensemble plays—and sings—Beethoven at Deerfield Academy’s Caswell Library.

On Saturday, October 11, at Sweeney Concert Hall, Ian Watson will conduct Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and his Concerto No. 4, with Monica Jakuc Leverett as fortepiano soloist. She also joins tenor Peter W. Shea in Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte. Our November 15 concert at Wesley United Methodist Church in Hadley presents Cantabile with a consort of viols in music for Evensong by Weelkes, Byrd, Gibbons and other composers of the English Golden Age.

Another season highlight is Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, on Saturday, December 20, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Northampton and at Christ Church Cathedral in Springfield the following afternoon. The vocal ensemble and soloists, with the Arcadia Players Baroque Orchestra, will fill these spaces with Monteverdi’s brilliant settings of the Psalms, Concertos, and the Magnificat.

At Helen Hills Hills Chapel on Saturday, January 17, and at the White Church in Deerfield the next afternoon, we will brighten the winter with a semi-staged performance of Handel’s pastoral masque Acis and Galatea. This performance commemorates the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death, as does our season finale, Israel in Egypt. Join us for this powerful work, a choral oratorio that dramatizes the Biblical telling of the Israelites’ captivity, the plagues and the Exodus. The performance is March 28 at United Congregational Church in Holyoke.

Also at United Church on the afternoon of February 21 will be Ian Watson’s annual organ recital, which promises large-scale English works played on the sanctuary organ. Save the date, and see our Tickets Page for information on season subscriptions which may well allow you to hear all eight programs!