Winchendon Music Festival To Celebrate 10th Anniversary Presenting Five Concerts, May To October, 2025

The Winchendon Music Festival, led by Founder and distinguished American musician Andrew Arceci, who performs on viola da gamba, violone, and double bass, will celebrate its 10^th Anniversary season with five concerts, starting May 31, 2025. The Festival is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Arceci’s father, Robert J Arceci MD PhD, originally from Winchenden, who died in 2015.

Featuring performances by international artists from a variety of genres including classical, folk, jazz, historical performance, and world music, the festival’s season will start with Mr. Arceci performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 on the double bass, joined by noted musicians including clarinetist Thomas Carroll, horn player Elisabeth Axtell, bassoonist Sally Merriman, violinist Rebecca Nelson, violist Anna Griffis, and cellist Cullen O’Neil. The festival will also feature an array of outstanding musicians, including pianist John Arcaro & band, cellist Ismar Gomes & pianist Wan-Chi Su, singer-songwriter Chris Moyse, the folk collective Floyds Row, and the Worcester Jazz Orchestra. Full program details follow:

Arpeggione Ensemble  

Saturday, May 31, 2025, 7pm | Murdock-Whitney House (151 Front St., Winchendon, MA 01475)

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, performed by Thomas Carroll (clarinet), Elisabeth Axtell (horn), Sally Merriman (bassoon), Rebecca Nelson (violin), Anna Griffis (viola), Cullen O’Neil (cello), and Andrew Arceci (bass).

 

John Arcaro & Band

Monday, June 2, 2025, 7pm | Murdock-Whitney House (151 Front St. Winchendon, MA 01475)

Berklee College of Music professor, John Arcaro, leads a program of works from the “Great American Songbook”, complemented by contemporary jazz compositions.

 

Duo Sorolla: Ismar Gomes, cello & Wan-Chi Su, piano

Tuesday, June 3, 2025, 7pm | Murdock-Whitney House (151 Front St. Winchendon, MA 01475)

Works by Reynaldo Hahn de Echenagucia (1874-1947), Constantino Vicente Gaito (1878-1945), Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), Gaspar Cassadó i Moreu (1897-1966), and Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (1921-1992). 

  

DOUBLE BILL: Chris Moyse, singer-songwriter & Floyds Row

Friday, October 3, 2025, 7pm | The Flower Shop (172 Central St. Winchendon, MA 01475)

Folk collective, Floyds Row, explores the connections among early, classical, folk, newgrass, and world genres––works arranged and/or composed by Hailey Fuqua (soprano), Asako Takeuchi (violin), Jacques Lee Wood (violoncello & banjo), Andrew Arceci (bass & mandolin), George Lykogiannis (accordion & piano), and Mike Williams (percussion).

 

Worcester Jazz Orchestra

Saturday, October 4, 2025, 2pm | Winchendon Amphitheater (86 Ingleside Dr. Winchendon, MA 01475)

Ever popular, the big band plays works by Glenn Miller (1904-c.1944), Buddy Rich (1917-1987), and others.

Called a "thoughtful interpreter of historically informed early music" by Stephen Brookes in The Washington Post, Andrew Arceci has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. During the 2019-2020 academic year, Mr. Arceci was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Mr. Arceci has taught at several institutions, including Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College (Director, Collegium Musicum), and Worcester State University. Additionally, he has given lectures, masterclasses, and/or workshops at Illinois Wesleyan University, the International Baroque Institute at Longy (Bard College), the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, the Narnia Arts Academy (Italy), Institutum Romanum Finlandiae (Italy), Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan), and Burapha University (Thailand).

Mr. Arceci studied double bass, viola da gamba, and art history at Peabody Conservatory – Johns Hopkins University and went on to study early music at The Juilliard School and at Magdalen College in Oxford. 

Founded in 2016, the Winchendon Music Festival, dubbed "a world-class event in the small north Worcester County town" by Richard Duckett in the Telegram & Gazette, is dedicated to the memory of Andrew Arceci’s father, Robert J. Arceci, a pediatric oncologist with a passion for the arts.

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at 212-772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.

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