Concert & Event Schedule
Program and artist roster for all concerts and events are subject to change.
Spring
Romance & Spring
Thursday, April 9, 6:30pm
(doors 6pm)
Spring Hill Studio ~ 358 Spring Hill Road, Sharon NH
Elisabeth Small, violin
Mary Towse-Beck, piano
Acclaimed violinist Elisabeth Small joins pianist Mary Towse-Beck for an evening of Spring and Romance. Celebrating the season of renewal, the program features Beethoven’s beloved Spring Sonata, along with lyrical romances by Clara Schumann and New Hampshire composer Amy Beach. The concert takes place at Spring Hill Studio in Sharon NH—an intimate and beautiful setting, perfectly suited for an inspiring and uplifting evening of hopeful music
The works of local artist, Jessie Pollock, will be on display.
Doors open at 6pm; concert begins at 6:30pm. The program length will be an hour with no intermission. Reception to follow with Prosecco and Cupcakes.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven - Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 ("Spring Sonata")
Allegro
Adagio molto espressivo
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo
Clara Schumann - Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22
Andante molto
Allegretto
Leidenschaftlich schnell
Amy Beach - Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23
Astor Piazzolla - Chanson de la Naissance
60 minutes total running time with music and audience interaction
Tickets include complimentary Prosecco and Cupcakes
Elisabeth Small, violin
Elisabeth Small's multi-faceted career has touched upon a wide realm of possibilities for a violinist: university professor, symphonic player, soloist, chamber musician, studio musician, clinician, presenter and adjudicator. She continues to enjoy performing, leading masterclasses and teaching. Now, Belmont University School of Music Professor Emerita, Small’s former students grace concert halls the world over, and their recordings have achieved both Grammies and CMA Musician of the Year awards. Small received her Bachelor and Master degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Dorothy DeLay. www.elisabethsmall.com
Mary Towse-Beck, piano
Pianist Mary Towse-Beck is equally at home as both soloist and collaborative artist. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Australia, appearing at illustrious venues such as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Barbican in London. She has been a featured artist on public radio in the United States, Canada and on Australian National Radio. Mary received her Bachelor and Master of Music from Indiana University and has also studied at Eastman School of Music. She studied and received coaching from many renowned teachers including Jerome Rose, James Tocco, Edward Auer, Rebecca Penneys, Josef Gingold and Janos Starker.
Jesse Pollock, fine artist
Enjoy the work of Jessie Pollock on display at Spring Hill Studio
“Jessie Pollock’s richly textured landscape paintings and luminous photo-based images are romantic, sensuous, and evocative. They suggest the passage of time and evoke nostalgia for times past. Intensely appealing for their tactile surfaces and radiant light, Pollock’s paintings transcend the reality of a specific time or place. Though modern in their materials and sensibility, these works send us back to a way of life now vanishing.”
-Susan Strickler, Director, Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH
May
The Thing in the Spring
The Music of Katie Semro
Saturday, May 16, 1:00pm
(doors 12:00pm)
Nova Arts ~ 48 Emerald St, Keene NH
Monadnock Music is once again collaborating with Nova Arts for their annual music festival The Thing in the Spring (now in its 18th year). We believe this partnership highlights a beautiful synergy between our organizations' missions to bring high calibre music to rural areas. Both organizations promote deep listening and music appreciation. This special collaboration brings classical music to the eclectic line-up The Thing in the Spring always delivers.
Please come and enjoy not only Saturday's offerings, but the whole weekend's events.
Monadnock Music performs at 1:00pm, but stay for the afternoon and evening of music!
Katie Semro, composer
Katie Semro is a composer whose music rides a beautiful line between modern and romantic aesthetics. It is intelligent without being obscure, clear without being simplistic, and cohesive without being predictable. Listening to her music is like taking a walk in a fresh landscape, you haven’t been there before, but you never feel lost.
Semro’s music has been performed throughout North America. She was a Gabriela Ortiz Composing Fellow at the OAcademy Music Conservatory and received an Artist Diploma in 2025. She also studied privately with composer Elena Ruehr. Currently, she is working on several chamber ensemble commissions and one for wind ensemble for the University of Toronto. Her piece Fallout for solo violin, was released in September 2025 and is available wherever you listen. Her works are emotional journeys that grapple with the joys and struggles of transformation, the anguish of lost dreams, and the light and the dark that we all carry with us.
Semro found her way to composing through spoken word audio and electronic music. In 2023 she released an EP of electronic music, Gone, based on the emotional effects of our intangible losses. She has also collaborated with several visual artists, creating music and audio to accompany their works. Her audio art has been exhibited at Sound Scene Fest at the Hirshhorn Smithsonian Museum, and she won third prize in the 60 Sec Radio Competition in 2023. She is also a composer mentor for Music-COMP.
She lives in a cozy house along the Gridley River in Sharon, NH with her husband and two children.
2026 Season Preview Celebration
Friday, May 22, 6:00pm
Milliken Manor ~ 580 Mountain Rd, Jaffrey NH
Join us for a fundraiser to help support our 2026 Season
Once again, the NEA is not able to support the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, so Monadnock Music is without pivotal funding for our free summer Village Concerts. Come toast our 61st Season and help support our mission through a $75 ticket. The event will include special guest performers, champagne toast, and light bites in the stunning Milliken Manor at the foot of Monadnock.
Monadnock Music String Quintet
Featuring highly celebrated chamber musicians Gabriela Diaz, now the permanent second violinist in the world-famous Kronos Quartet, violist Caitlin Lynch of the acclaimed Aeolus Quartet, violinist Charles Dimmick, concertmaster of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Portland Symphony Orchestra, and violist Stephanie Fong, who performs regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
An exclusive first look at the summer season, with selected works from each of the upcoming concerts around the region. Your ticket price directly supports the vibrant music and world-class musicians that make up our village concerts from June to August.
From Dublin, baroque virtuoso Willem de Fesch's sparkling Duet for two Violins. From Nelson, a sonorous string trio by Salina Fisher, a celebrated young composer from New Zealand. From Francestown, the ravishing Adagio from Robert Schumann's poetic First String Quartet. From Peterborough, a haunting Sarabande by Peterborough native Molly Herron, which contemplates memory, perception, and musical legacy. From the outdoor Listen and Lunch series, the haunting Lyric for Strings by preeminent Black American composer George Walker. And from our opening concert in Harrisville, the exuberant first movement of Johannes Brahms' Viola Quintet in G major, one of his most universally beloved late masterpieces.
The program highlights Monadnock Music's dual commitment to bringing new life to well-known historical works and to showcasing lesser known and emerging artists.
Program:
Willem de Fesch: Duet in E minor for two violins (1716)
Salina Fisher: Mata-Au for string trio (2021)
Robert Schumann: Adagio from String Quartet #1 in a minor (1842)
Molly Herron: First Sarabande 'forgotten fragments carefully catalogued' (2017)
George Walker: Lyric for Strings (1946)
Johannes Brahms: Allegro con brio from Viola Quintet #2 in G major (1890)
Program length is approximately 50 minutes with no intermission.
SUMMER
Summer Season 2026
Schedule at a Glance
Concerts and events listed in bold are ticketed. Programs and artist roster are subject to change.
Friday, May 22, 6pm | Season Preview ~ Milliken Manor, 580 Mountain Rd, Jaffrey NH - $75
June
Tuesday, June 2, 6pm | Spring Supper Club - Raylynmor Opera ~ Location announced shortly - $100/$85
Sunday, June 21, 3pm | Inextinguishable Joy ~ Harrisville Community Church, 13 Canal St, Harrisville NH - FREE
Sunday, June 28, 3pm | Solo Piano Recital ~ First Congregational Church, 47 Main St, Hancock, NH - FREE
July
Thursday, July 2, 7pm | Elegance and Folly ~ Emmanuel Church, 924 Dublin Rd, Dublin NH - FREE
Saturday, July 11, 7pm | Weary Blues ~ Cheney Hall, Franklin Pierce University, Rindge NH - FREE
Sunday, July 12, 3pm | Weary Blues ~ Congregation Ahavas Achim, 84 Hastings Ave, Keene NH - FREE
Saturday, July 18, 6pm | The Wind in the Willows ~ Nova Arts, 48 Emerald St, Keene NH - FREE
Sunday, July 19, 3pm | The Wind in the Willows ~ Peterborough Town House, 1 Grove St, Peterborough NH - FREE
Thursday, July 23, 12pm | Listen & Lunch ~ Depot Square Park, Peterborough NH - FREE
Saturday, July 25, 7pm | Two of a Kind ~ Park Hill Meetinghouse, 7 Esty Rd, Westmoreland, NH - FREE
Sunday, July 26, 4pm | Two of a Kind ~ Old Meeting House, 1 New Boston Rd, Francestown, NH - FREE
August
Saturday, August 1, 4pm | Memory and Transformation ~ Mariposa Museum, 26 Main St, Peterborough NH - FREE
Saturday, August 1, 6pm | Summer Supper Club - Memory and Transformation ~ Location announced shortly - $100/$85
Thursday, August 6, 7pm | To Meet Again ~ Nelson Congregational Church, 830 Nelson Rd, Nelson NH - FREE
Saturday, August 15, 6pm | Opera Around the World! - Monadnock Music Summer Gala
~ Peterborough Town House, 1 Grove St, Peterborough NH – TICKETED
June
Spring Supper Club
Raylynmor Opera
Tuesday, June 2, 6:00pm
Location announced shortly
Join us for a private dinner with guests from Raylynmor Opera! In anticipation of their performance of The Marriage of Figaro, select cast members will perform a selection from the opera and break bread with us. This Supper Club is in anticipation of the Raylynmor / Monadnock Music Gala collaboration at the end of the season!
Limited to 25 guests
Inextinguishable Joy
Village Concert
Sunday, June 21, 3:00pm
Harrisville Community Church ~ 13 Canal St, Harrisville NH
We open our 61st season with a haunting arrangement of a traditional folk tune from Norway, beautifully arranged by the Danish String Quartet for their album Wood Works. Mozart’s brooding, anxious K. 421 – the only of his mature string quartets cast in a minor key – gives way to the radiant joy and exuberance of Johannes Brahms’ Viola Quintet. One of his most beloved late masterpieces, Brahms had originally intended this quintet to be his final composition – although he later returned from retirement to pen several more major works, unable to quell the music in his heart.
Program
Traditional – Vigstamoin
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – String Quartet in D minor, K. 421 (1783)
Johannes Brahms – Viola Quintet in G major, op. 111 (1890)
Program length is approximately 90 minutes including intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
Solo Piano Recital
Village Concert
Sunday, June 28, 3:00pm
First Congregational Church ~ 47 Main St, Hancock NH
Yelena Beriyeva, piano
We welcome back esteemed Georgian-American pianist Yelena Beriyeva for a solo recital in Hancock. Ms. Beriyeva made her solo debut at the age of 5 with the Tbilisi State Symphony Orchestra. Since then, she has performed extensively as a recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral soloist in Rep. of Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. She has appeared as soloist under the batons of such renowned conductors as Ludovic Morlot and Philippe Entremont.
Program length is approximately 80 minutes including intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
July
Elegance and Folly
Village Concert
Thursday, July 2, 7:00pm
Emmanuel Church ~ 924 Dublin Rd, Dublin NH
We present a kaleidoscope of Baroque sonatas for trio and duo, including a selection from Corelli’s landmark “Sonatas da camera”, which profoundly influenced instrumental music throughout Europe for several generations. Written one year earlier, Isabella Leonarda’s solo violin sonata showcases the imagination and brilliance of one of Italy’s most prolific female composers, a superiora from an Ursuline convent who wrote most of her works after the age of 50. Also showcased: the elegance of Boismortier’s unusually scored trio sonata, featuring the solo pairing of violin and cello; Dutch violin virtuoso Willem de Fesch’s brilliant duo; and Bach’s warm, rich sonata gamba sonata (commonly played, as tonight on cello). The program concludes with Vivaldi’s fiery, mercurial set of variations on the popular 15th century tune “La Follia” (The Madness).
Program
Arcangelo Corelli – Trio Sonata in B-flat major, op. 4 #9 (1694)
Isabella Leonarda - Sonata duodecima in D minor (1693)
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier - Trio Sonata in D major, op. 50 #6 (1734)
Willem de Fesch - Duet for two violins op. 1a #2 in e minor (1716)
Johann Sebastian Bach - Sonata in D major, BWV 1028 (c. 1730)
Antonio Vivaldi - Trio Sonata in D minor op. 1 #12 "La Follia" (1703)
Program length is approximately 85 minutes including intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
Weary Blues
Village Concert
Saturday, July 11, 7:00pm
Saturday and Sunday
Cheney Hall, Franklin Pierce University ~ Rindge NH
We welcome esteemed operatic baritone Aaron Engebreth back to the stage for a concert of soulful melancholy and high drama. The human voice is intertwined with the sound of the cello in Dorothy Rudd Moore’s jazzy setting of “Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes, Walter Rabl’s stark, dramatic late Romantic Four Songs, Mikhail Glinka’s wistful Lullaby, and Sonja Béets’ starkly gorgeous Melancholia. Featuring also Samuel Barber’s youthful, turbulent Cello Sonata and a ballad of doomed love and a tale of divine retribution by Robert Schumann.
Program
Dorothy Rudd Moore - Weary Blues, for baritone, cello, and piano (1972)
Robert Schumann - Stirb, Lieb' und Freud, op. 35 #2 (1840)
Robert Schumann - Belsazar, op. 57 (1840)
Samuel Barber - Cello Sonata op. 6 (1932)
Sonja Béets - Melancholia for baritone and cello (1999)
Walter Rabl - Four Songs for baritone, cello, and piano, op. 5 (1899)
Mikhail Glinka – Lullaby (1840)
Program length is approximately 85 minutes including intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
Weary Blues
Village Concert
Sunday, July 12, 3:00pm
Saturday and Sunday
Congregation Ahavas Achim ~ 84 Hastings Ave, Keene NH
We welcome esteemed operatic baritone Aaron Engebreth back to the stage for a concert of soulful melancholy and high drama. The human voice is intertwined with the sound of the cello in Dorothy Rudd Moore’s jazzy setting of “Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes, Walter Rabl’s stark, dramatic late Romantic Four Songs, Mikhail Glinka’s wistful Lullaby, and Sonja Béets’ starkly gorgeous Melancholia. Featuring also Samuel Barber’s youthful, turbulent Cello Sonata and a ballad of doomed love and a tale of divine retribution by Robert Schumann.
Program
Dorothy Rudd Moore - Weary Blues, for baritone, cello, and piano (1972)
Robert Schumann - Stirb, Lieb' und Freud, op. 35 #2 (1840)
Robert Schumann - Belsazar, op. 57 (1840)
Samuel Barber - Cello Sonata op. 6 (1932)
Sonja Béets - Melancholia for baritone and cello (1999)
Walter Rabl - Four Songs for baritone, cello, and piano, op. 5 (1899)
Mikhail Glinka – Lullaby (1840)
Program length is approximately 85 minutes including intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
The Wind in the Willows
Village Concert
Saturday, July 18, 6:00pm
Saturday and Sunday
Nova Arts ~ 48 Emerald St, Keene NH
“The Wind in the Willows”, the timeless children’s story by Kenneth Grahame, comes to life in Mark Isaac’s magnificent setting of selected vignettes for narrator, harp, piano, percussion, strings, and winds. The suite was written for Australia’s HUSH Music Foundation, which produces recordings of music to calm patients, their families, and caregivers in Children’s Hospitals. Full of color, charm, humor, and wonder, this weekend’s performances are certain to delight children and adults alike.
Program length is approximately 45 minutes with no intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
The Wind in the Willows
Townhouse Concert
Sunday, July 19, 3:00pm
Saturday and Sunday
Peterborough Town House ~ 1 Grove St, Peterborough NH
“The Wind in the Willows”, the timeless children’s story by Kenneth Grahame, comes to life in Mark Isaac’s magnificent setting of selected vignettes for narrator, harp, piano, percussion, strings, and winds. The suite was written for Australia’s HUSH Music Foundation, which produces recordings of music to calm patients, their families, and caregivers in Children’s Hospitals. Full of color, charm, humor, and wonder, this weekend’s performances are certain to delight children and adults alike.
This year, our Town House Concert is completely FREE and open to the public, and it is Family Friendly.
Program length is approximately 45 minutes with no intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
Listen & Lunch
Thursday, July 23, 12:00pm
Depot Square Park ~ Peterborough NH
In Peterborough’s outdoor noontime summer concert series, we give a tantalizing preview of Saturday and Sunday’s upcoming string quartet concerts, featuring works by Robert Schumann and George Onslow. We present also a sampling of works by three amazing composers: Basque Romantic wunderkind Juan Crisostomo Arriaga, who took the Paris Conservatoire by storm at age 15 and died of poor health a few days before his twentieth birthday; Laura Valborg Aulin, a Swedish composer and pianist of the late nineteenth century who was highly regarded during her lifetime; and American icon George Walker, the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Program:
Juan Crisostomo Arriaga - Allegro from String Quartet #1
George Walker - Lyric for Strings
George Onslow - Allegro from String Quartet #29
Laura Valborg Aulin - Andante con moto from String Quartet in e minor
Robert Schumann - Allegro and Scherzo from Quartet #1
Program length is approximately 55 minutes with no intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
Two of a Kind
Village Concert
Saturday, July 25, 7:00pm
Saturday and Sunday
Park Hill Meetinghouse ~ 7 Esty Rd, Westmoreland NH
A pair of dazzling string quartets by two brilliant composers, written only a few years apart. From Germany, Robert Schumann, the consummate poet of music, whose creative work is characterized by intense emotional and rhetorical expression. From France, George Onslow, a gifted and prolific composer whose music is full of virtuosity and effortless grace. Although quite different in their philosophy – Schumann looking always toward the future, and Onslow rooted in the traditions of the past – both works are teeming with beauty and imagination.
Program
Robert Schumann - String Quartet #1 in a minor
George Onslow - String Quartet #29 in d minor
Program length is approximately 75 minutes including intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
Two of a Kind
Village Concert
Sunday, July 26, 4:00pm
Saturday and Sunday
Old Meeting House ~ 1 New Boston Rd, Francestown NH
A pair of dazzling string quartets by two brilliant composers, written only a few years apart. From Germany, Robert Schumann, the consummate poet of music, whose creative work is characterized by intense emotional and rhetorical expression. From France, George Onslow, a gifted and prolific composer whose music is full of virtuosity and effortless grace. Although quite different in their philosophy – Schumann looking always toward the future, and Onslow rooted in the traditions of the past – both works are teeming with beauty and imagination.
Program
Robert Schumann - String Quartet #1 in a minor
George Onslow - String Quartet #29 in d minor
Program length is approximately 75 minutes including intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
August
Memory and Transformation
Village Concert
Saturday, August 1, 4:00pm
Mariposa Museum ~ 26 Main St, Peterborough NH
An afternoon of works by three remarkable living composers: Andrea Tarrodi, whose intensely lyrical “Miroirs” evokes themes of identity and duality; Peterborough native Molly Herron, in a set of three entrancing meditations on the evolution of memory and musical tradition; and Osvaldo Golijov, in a profoundly moving reflection on the transformation of chaos into peace. We are delighted to present this program in the intimate space of Peterborough’s Mariposa Museum, which is perfect for capturing both the richness of the music as well as its moments of near-total silence.
Program
Andrea Tarrodi - String Quartet #1 "Miroirs"
Molly Herron - Three Sarabandes
Osvaldo Golijov – Tenebrae
Program length is approximately 45 minutes with no intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
Summer Supper Club
Memory and Transformation
Saturday, August 1, 6:00pm
Location announced shortly
Join us for a private dinner following "Memory and Transformation." This dinner will feature special musical guests from the performance, and the menu is inspired by themes of transformation. You are in for a culinary journey where your meal will literally transform before your eyes!
Limited to 25 guests
To Meet Again
Village Concert
Thursday, August 6, 7:00pm
Nelson Congregational Church ~ 830 Nelson Rd, Nelson NH
Our final village concert opens with Penderecki’s mournful Ciaccona, a work so beloved by the composer that he arranged it for at least four different instrumental configurations (and more than half a dozen others have been made since his death!) Salina Fisher’s dynamic, whirling Mata-Au is both a Māori name meaning “surface current” and a Japanese phrase meaning “to meet again”. From the brooding depths of Weinberg (one of Shostakovich’s talented acolytes and dear friends) to the warmth and charm of early Beethoven, with miniature delights by Tchaikovsky and Enescu, join us as we say farewell to our summer concert season with gratitude and joy.
Program
Krzysztof Penderecki - Ciaccona for violin and viola
Salina Fisher - Mata-Au for string trio
Mieczysław Weinberg - String Trio op. 48
Pyotr Tchaikovsky - Allegretto moderato, TH 152
Ludwig van Beethoven - String Trio in D major, op. 9 #2
George Enescu – Aubade
Program length is approximately 85 minutes including intermission.
Free and Open to the Public!
Opera Around the World!
Monadnock Music Summer Gala
Saturday, August 15, 6:00pm
Peterborough Town House ~ 1 Grove St, Peterborough NH
From Italy, to Germany, to France, and beyond... our Gala this year features a unique partnership between two music institutions in the Monadnock Region. Joining forces to expand our audiences and extend our fundraising abilities, Monadnock Music is partnering with Raylynmor Opera to produce a Gala you will never forget!
Tickets On Sale Soon!
