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ALL are welcome!  If you have a question about accessibility, you can contact the organizers at least 48 hours prior to the event by email to Events@FriendsoftheStoneChurch.org.

2025 Spring Concerts

3 pm Sunday March 9, 2025

Cicilia Yudha, piano
"Old, New, Borrowed and Blue"
 J.S. Bach. Robert Schumann, Emilie Mayer, Margaret Bonds, Trisutji Kamal, and Maurice Ravel

3 pm Sunday April 6, 2025
Michael Poll, guitarist and Emi Ferguson, modern and baroque flutes
John Dowland, J.S. Bach, Telemann, Schubert, Takemitsu, and Fernando Rebay

7 pm Saturday May 3, 2025
Silents are Golden: Peter Krasinski, organ
"The Last Command" (1928 silent film) starring Emil Jannings, directed by Josef von Sternberg
with original accompaniment on the Johnson & Son organ


Community Concerts, free to the public on the following dates:

Weir River Jazz Ensemble Concert on the Lawn,  2 pm Sunday, June 8, 2025

Weir River Concert Band  Concert on the Lawn, Sunday, June 22, 2025

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 for Spring 2025 Concerts:

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

Partial support for our current concert season has been provided by the Mass Cultural Council. Support for Spring concerts, March 9, 2025 through June 22, 2025, including free community concerts, has been received 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.

About the Artists and Programs

3 pm Sunday March 9, 2025

Cicilia Yudha, piano  "Old, New, Borrowed and Blue"

J.S. Bach English Suite No. 2 in A minor, BWV 807
Robert Schumann Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 (1838)
Emilie Mayer Impromptu, Op. 44
Margaret Bonds Troubled Waters based in the spiritual "Wade in the Water"
Maurice Ravel Oiseaux tristes and Alborada del Gracioso
Trisutji Kamal Sunda Seascapes (excerpts)

Cicilia Yudha, pianist

A versatile solo pianist, avid chamber musician, and dedicated educator Cicilia Yudha has given performances, presentations, and master classes in the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia. She is a frequent soloist with the Duke University Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Harry Davidson. Navona Records released her debut CD Selected Piano Works by Robert Casadesus and Henri Dutilleux in September 2016. Her second CD, featuring two Piano trios by Emilie Mayer, was released in August.

As a creative artist, she has enjoyed collaborations with musicologist Ewelina Boczkowska, tap dancer Claudia Rahardjanoto, and Polish Folk Dance specialists Christine Cobb and Staś Kmieć. She has presented lecture recitals at National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy “From the Artist Bench” webinar series, TEDx Talks, the Ohio Music Teachers Association Conferences, the College Music Society (CMS) National Conferences, and CMS Regional Conferences. She regularly presents Preview Concert Lectures for the renowned Cleveland Orchestra at the Severance Center.

Passionate about music education and community service, Yudha is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music and is a recipient of the Steinway Top Teacher Award. She holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, and the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She served as faculty at the Dana School of Music Youngstown State University for over a decade. Currently, she teaches in Hudson, OH, where she lives with her husband and their two young children. She is also on faculty at Akron Music Institute and the University of Mount Union.

-- www.ciciliayudha.com

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

This concert will be a new collaborative program of unexpected delights.

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Suite for Lute BWV 995, arranged by Bach based on his composition for solo cello [classical guitar solo]

John Dowland (1563-1626) Songs [duo]

Ferdinand Rebay (1851-1914) Sonata in D Major [duo]

Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996), Air [duo]

Georg Philippe Telemann (1681-1767) Fantasie in E minor [flute solo]

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Arpeggione Sonata [duo]

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 soloists 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. This will be her second appearance, with Michael Poll at the Stone Church Cultural Center.

Michael Poll, classical guitarist and conductor

As a guitarist, MICHAEL POLL has performed across North and South America and in Europe. He is known for sensitive and 'masterful' performances' of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, heard on his album 7-Strong Bach. In 2022,  he conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Lancaster House in London, England. A 2010 Fullbright 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 a founder of SoundingLab, a charity that uses music to inspire young people to engage with mentorship and improve their educational outcomes. This will be Michael's second appearance with Emi Ferguson at the Stone Church Cultural Center.

7 pm Saturday May 3, 2025 
Peter Krasinski, organ
Silents are Golden: "The Last Command" (1928 silent film) with original accompaniment

Directed by Austrian-American director Josef von Sternberg, this film stars Emil Jannings. Jannings won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 1929 ceremony for his performances in this film and in The Way of All Flesh. 1929 was the only year multiple roles were considered. Evelyn Brent and William Powell co-star. This film was also nominated for 'best original story.' 

Organist Peter Krasinski

PETER KRASINSKI delights in uncovering the nuances and important messages in works made before sound tracks, His performances behind 'the Big Screen,' provide intriguing windows into history. narrated through his jovial personality and piercing insight into human nature.