Music Worcester Celebrates 150 Years of Music Excellence!

Worcester, MA, September 10, 2009 -- Music Worcester, one of the venerable jewels in Worcester’s crown of non-profit arts organizations turns 150 years old this year. The celebratory season begins with the world renowned Orequestra de Sao Paulo, featuring famed percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and conducted by Kazem Abdullah on Friday, October 16, 2009. An opening night, pre-concert Brazilian dinner is being held as well as a pre-concert lecture by Steven Ledbetter, scholar, writer, lecturer, and conductor who served as Musicologist and Program Annotator for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  A host of the region’s political and cultural leaders have been invited and special celebratory surprises are in the final planning stages.

Music Worcester, originally known as the Worcester County Music Association, presenter of the Worcester Music Festival, is the longest, continually running Music Festival in the nation.  In 1858, The Worcester Music Festival began as a week long music celebration of choral and symphony performances and has evolved over the years into a nine-month, 20-concert season featuring world-renowned orchestras and symphonies, guest soloists, chamber music, ballet, world music and dance, and jazz and choral masterworks. Music Worcester has made "a tradition of excellence" its hallmark and has been recognized by the Library of Congress and honored by President Eisenhower with a congratulatory letter on its 100^th anniversary in 1958.

Over the years, Music Worcester has hosted a multitude of musical greats including Itzhak Perlman, Leontyne Price, Yoyo Ma, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Dave Brubeck, Patrice Munsel and Renata Scotto and other divas from the Metropolitan Opera, as well as many other music legends. The performance schedule this year includes the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic, Porgy and Bess, the Monterey Jazz Festival, Band of Irish Guards, Pipes and Drums of Royal Regiment of Scotland, The Israel Ballet performing Don Quixote, and the Worcester Chorus performing Handel’s Messiah among it’s fully rounded program.

In the current economy, with many non-profit arts organizations succumbing to budget woes from audience decline, grant funding cuts and aggressive competition, the fact that Music Worcester has survived and thrived through the Civil War, (consider that in 1858 when the Worcester Music Festival began its long and illustrious legacy, slaves were still actively being bought and sold in the United States!) two World Wars, the great Depression, the Vietnam Conflict and countless other world-changing events, is a testament to the fine programming and management with a passion for music that explains its longevity. Says Executive Director, Stasia Hovenesian, who has overseen the ebb and flow at Music Worcester for 36 years, “…it is the intention of Music Worcester that this celebratory season shall not be the culmination of one hundred and fifty years…it shall be the beginning of another even greater musical history that shall gain unparalleled recognition throughout the world of music.”

Since 1858, Music Worcester, Inc. has had a rich tradition of offering the finest music programming and currently offers a full season of artistically diverse and world-renowned, international music and dance performances. Concerts are performed at Mechanics Hall, Tuckerman Hall and the Hanover Theatre. For more information on this season’s program, opening night dinner and lecture or for tickets, go to www.musicworcester.org or call 508.754.3231.  

Music Worcester is located at 323 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608.

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CONTACT: Cherie Ronayne,

Director of Public Relations

cherie [at] musicworcester [dot] org