Manchester Summer Chamber Music returns after missing three seasons. Pictured: co-founders Sage Cole (l) and Lorna Tsai, in front of the Barn at Castle Hill, site of most MSCM performances.
By Keith Powers
Small festivals suffered the worst.
“We didn’t even have enough people to check vaccination status,” says co-artistic director Sage Cole, who shares leadership of Manchester Summer Chamber Music with Lorna Tsai. The co-founders have a new summer season starting Aug. 5, having been hit harder than most during the pandemic.
MSCM has been closed for three seasons—it simply got too complicated to continue. But concerts in the Barn near Crane Beach are back, and the MSCM audience has obviously been waiting.
The summer season—five events, mostly on Saturday evenings in the rustic Barn at Castle Hill in Ipswich—is heading toward complete sell-outs. Advanced ticket sales—“amazingly, much more robust than ever before, and earlier too—June and July,” Cole says—are the surest indicator that Cole, Tsai and their fellow musicians have found a way into people’s hearts, that they’ve been missed, and that audiences are eager to return.
“It was a lot of things,” Cole says about the three-year hiatus. “Our musicians stay with families, and we didn’t feel comfortable asking people to do that. We don’t have that much staff. The board needed to recruit new members too, and they did that.”
MSCM has always had a relaxed feel. Cole, a New York violin freelancer, and Tsai, longtime principal second violin of the Calgary Philharmonic, both grew up on the North Shore. They began MSCM in 2009 to reconnect with home, and to perform with colleagues they had met along way.
Concerts generally include one-movement samples of works (there are house concerts in Manchester with pianist Ryo Yanagitani as well, lecture/demonstration programs for a small group). The Barn, situated on the Castle Hill grounds, lends itself to picnics, or a wandering stroll through the vast estate.
This summer, in addition to Yanagitani, returning guests include violinists Keiko Tokunaga, Emma Frucht and Estelle Choi; cellists Jacques Lee Wood and Verena Sennekamp.
Sage and Tsai will not perform this summer—“so we don’t feel as frantic. It might be a trend,” Cole says. “Lorna and I wanted to give ourselves space to be artistic directors, and host the programs.
“It feels celebratory,” Cole says. “Everything about this has been exciting—the return of the audiences, the musicians’ response. And it’s also a memorial for all the friends we lost since 2019. It’s not the first time people are getting back together, but it is our first time.”
Manchester Summer Chamber Music runs through Aug. 19 in the Barn at Castle Hill in Ipswich.
Imani Winds—Mark Dover, Brandon Patrick George, Monica Ellis, Kevin Newton, Toyin Spellman-Diaz—performs Aug. 16 in Dennis, part of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival. Shervin Lainez photograph
AROUND NEW ENGLAND: Newburyport, Cape Cod, Portland, Salt Bay, Lake Champlain
The Newburyport Chamber Music Festival runs through Aug. 13. Director David Yang always makes a visit worthwhile—and never dumbs down the repertory. Jon Deak serves as composer-in-residence this summer, which has the open rehearsals, house concerts and just plain concerts as well. The Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival continues through Aug. 18, with the Emerson, Isidore, Danish and Borromeo quartets, the Lee Trio and Imani Winds, along with artistic directors Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse. North Country Chamber Players began its pay-as-you-wish season July 15/16, with five weekends of concerts in Franconia. Landmarks Orchestra concerts, now much broader than just Wednesday picnics at the Hatch Shell, run through Aug. 23. Portland Chamber Music Festival has programs Aug. 11 through 19. Violinist Anthony Marwood guests on the final two concerts.
Salt Bay Chamberfest runs Aug. 7–19 in Damariscotta. Goddess is the theme, early music abounds. Programs and guest artists look top-notch for cellist Wilhelmina Smith’s festival, in its fourth decade. Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival looks like the last summer festival to open, running Aug. 19–27 at St. Michael’s College. Soovin Kim and Gloria Chien direct.
Monadnock Music runs through the end of August, culminating in a gala featuring aerialists Duo Shadow. Marlboro Music Festival runs through Aug. 13, with programs as usual announced at the last minute.