2020 New Year’s Day Concert - A Feast of Baroque Favorites – From Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Washington Friends of Music presents the 8th annual New Year’s Day concert and after-party on January 1 at 4pm at the Historic Meetinghouse, First Congregational Church in Washington, CT.

The New Baroque Soloists Orchestra will be welcoming the New Year with trumpets, oboes, organ, strings, and timpani. The twelve-member orchestra is comprised of outstanding solo musicians and members of orchestras in New York and New England.

The celebratory concert is studded with many popular pieces, several of which are arranged by Artistic Director Douglas Myers who also plays trumpet and horn.

The uplifting program includes highlights from “Water Music” by Georg Friedrich Handel, Four Seasons’ “Winter” by Antonio Vivaldi and the finale, a piece from Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto. The concert opens with “Overture for a Celebration” by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Two highly-regarded members of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra will be performing solo pieces. Vincent Lionti is playing a concerto for solo viola by Georg Philipp Telemann. Cellist Samuel Magill will perform “Largo” from “Sonata for Violoncello” by Henry Eccles.

A sought-after chamber and orchestral musician, oboist Lillian Copeland is presenting ”Adagio” from “Oboe Concerto in c minor” by Alessandro Marcello. Ms. Copland has performed with the

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, among others.

We welcome back Song-A Cho who will play “Largo” from “Winter” by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Her accolades are many, including a winner of the Guderyahn String Competition and a recipient of the Edward John Noble Foundation Award from the distinguished Juilliard School.

New to the orchestra are Mikio Sasaki and Glenn Rhian:

Mikio Sasaki earned his degree in trumpet at Juilliard School and Yale School of Music. He began playing trumpet at age 7, studying with his father, Ray Sasaki. He has performed with the Saint Louis Brass Quintet, Broadway’s Matilda, Hudson Valley Philharmonic and as soloist with the Austin Symphony. 

Timpanist Glenn Rhian is a graduate of the Juilliard School and the San Francisco Conservatory. He was winner of the “Morris Goldenberg Award.”

During the performance the musicians will share brief anecdotes on the composer, the instruments, and provide historical context in an entertaining fashion.

After the concert, the audience is invited to a festive party with the musicians and plenty of bubbly and delicious hors d’oeuvres.

This is the 8th year the New Baroque Soloists are performing in Washington. The recent Summer Concert Festival drew a record audience.

Admission includes the concert and the party - $30 in advance, $35 at the door. Children are admitted free. Tickets can be purchased online (see above), by phone 860.868.9174 as well as at the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington and County Wine and Spirits in New Preston. 

Please note that the seating is limited.