3 pm Sunday April 6, 2025
Emi Ferguson, flute and Michael Poll, guitar

International prize winners and beloved stars, Emi Ferguson and Michael Poll will present an original collaborative program showcasing their remarkable talents, ignited by the spark of friendship. "Voices of the Heart" is a rare opportunity to hear them together. Of their April, 2022 Gilbertville performance, The Boston Music Intelligencer reviewer Anne Davenport wrote, "The three larger works stood out for their power and beauty....interpersed among many small gems." She described their playing as 'loving. dance-like, and 'with such verve that the audience burst into applause' [before Piazzolla's Histoire du Tango ended.]

Program

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Suite for Lute BWV 995

John Dowland (1563-1626) Songs

 Ferdinand Rebay (1851-1914) Sonata in D Major

Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996), Air for solo flute

Georg Philippe Telemann (1681-1767) Fantasie in E Minor for solo flute

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Arpeggione Sonata

About the Artists

MICHAEL POLL, classical guitarist and conductor

As a guitarist, MICHAEL POLL has performed across North and South America and in Europe. His debut guitar recording, 7-String Bach, was called 'masterful' by Gramophone Magazine. It has been streamed over a million times and featured on the BBC. Poll, who makes his home for part of the year in London, England, has performed across North and South America and in Europe. He has entertained five sitting Lord Mayors of the City of London as well as the Speaker of the Parliament.

As a conductor, Poll is Associate Conductor of the Central City Opera in Colorado. He has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Lancaster House in London, and in the 2024-25 season, he returned to make two recordings with the orchestra. In 2025, he will collaborate for the first time with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. A 2010 Fulbright and a 2012 Marshall Scholar, he holds a BA in music summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was concurrently a visiting student at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2012 Poll received the Graduate Performance Diploma from the Pederewski Academy of Music in Poland, in 2014 the MPerf degree from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where he was awarded a doctorate in 2022. He is active in the initiative SoundingLab, a charity that uses music to inspire young people to engage with mentorship and improve their educational outcomes.

EMI FERGUSON, flutist, singer and composer

Hailed by critics for her "tonal bloom" and "hauntingly beautiful performances, English-American performer and composer EMI FERGUSON stretches the boundaries of what is expected of modern-day musicians. Emi's unique approach to the flute can be heard in performances that alternate between the Silver Flute, Historical Flute, and Auxiliary Flute, playing repertoire that stretches from the Renaissance to today. Emi is very proud to be a 2023 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

She can be heard live in concerts and festivals around the world as a soloist and with groups including AMOC, Ruckus, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Handel and Haydn Society for whom she is Principal Flute, and the Manhattan Chamber Players. Emi has been named the new music director of Camerata Pacifica Baroque in Southern California, dreaming up programs of and inspired by Baroque music. Emi was a featured performer, alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, and James Taylor at the 10th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony of 9/11 at Ground Zero, where her performance of Amazing Grace was televised worldwide. Her performance that day is now part of the permanent collection at the 911 museum.

Emi has recorded two solo albums: Amour Cruel as a flutist, composer, singer and arranger; and Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, which has topped several charts.

Youth under 18 are admitted free to all concerts presented by Friends of the Stone Church.

Holders of the Massachusetts Card to Culture, a program of the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, are entitled to request one or two free tickets at the box office. Reservations are not required to use the Card to Culture. If you are planning to obtain a free ticket and wish to make a reservation, you may contact us by email to Events@FriendsoftheStoneChurch.org at least 48 hours prior to the start of the event. Thank you.

Business Sponsor  

CAPTRUST's financial planners in Boston provide expert investment advisory and wealth management to clients of all types.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Mass Cultural Council and by grants from the Local Cultural Councils of Barre, Hardwick-New Braintree, North Brookfield. Oakham and Petersham. Local Cultural Councils are local agencies supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.