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. |
2025-2026 Concert Season
Andrus Madsen in Concert Saturday, September 6 3pm at South Church, Amherst Artistic Director Andrus Madsen will play a program of 17th-century South German and Austrian keyboard music on harpsichord and on South Church's splendid 1896 Casavant organ. The concert will focus on composers, including Johann Pachelbel, whose music leans heavily toward expression and color. While a Bach Chorale Prelude might come across like a well-crafted sermon, a Pachelbel work feels more like an intimate conversation. This is music of deep joy, profound sadness, and heartfelt tenderness. Vicente Lusitano and his Circle
Saturday November 15, 2pm Music Room, Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke Motets for 4, 5 and 6 male voices by Lusitano, Gombert, Willaert, and Cristóbal de Morales Lusitano, a 16th-century Portuguese cleric, is considered the first classical composer of African ancestry ever to be published. His beautiful vocal music has only recently become known to modern performers and audiences. The sacred polyphony from this era is extraordinarily rich but is seldom performed. In addition to Lusitano's own works, this program offers music by three of the most influential composers of the day, masters whose music Lusitano certainly knew. Please join us for a pre-concert talk at 1pm. Andrus Madsen will discuss Lusitano’s life, times, and the re-discovery of his music. The Music Room at the Wistariahurst Museum is one of the region's finest concert venues, ideally suited for this repertoire.Seating is limited and advance ticket purchases are advised. There is ample free parking on the street and at the nearby Senior Center. Presented in cooperation with Newton Baroque. A German Holiday: Works for Advent and Christmas by Bach and Zelenka
Saturday December 20 3pm Grace Episcopal Church, Amherst The showpiece of this concert will be the Missa Dei Filii (Mass for the Son of God) by Jan Dismas Zelenka, this often overlooked composer's most ebullient choral work. Zelenka's music is original, distinctive, and offers dazzling rewards to the listener. Accompanying the Mass on the program are selections from the Cantatas for Advent and Christmas by Zelenka's admirer, Johann Sebastian Bach. Music for Good Friday for viols and voices
Saturday March 28, 2026 3pm Abbey Chapel, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley This concert will feature the profoundly moving Karfreitag Lieder (Good Friday Songs) by 17th-century Czech composer Samuel Capricornus, along with Tenebrae Lessons by Giovanni Paolo Colonna. Sopranos Tess Wakim and Agnes Coakley Cox will sing with Arcadia Viols in a concert that promises to move your heart. Presented in cooperation with Newton Baroque. Making Overtures
Saturday May 2, 2026 2:30pm Wesley Methodist Church, Hadley Overtures and Overture Selections by Telemann, Bach, Zelenka and Fischer The centerpiece of this joyous concert will be Telemann's own "Water Music," the glorious Hamburger Ebb' und Fluth (Hamburg Ebb and Flow), a musical homage to the city where the composer lived and worked for over 40 years. Telemann's tribute captures various moods of the Elbe River as it makes its way through the city, while also honoring a variety of water-deities and even celebrating the local boatmen with some boisterous sailors' dances. |