New Music Festival Coming To Greenwich In June

GREENWICH, CT — A new kind of music festival is coming to Greenwich this summer to help shed light on an often overlooked genre.

The Arpeggio Music Festival will take place over the first three weekends in June inside the auditorium of First Congregational Church of Old Greenwich at 108 Sound Beach Ave.

The theme for the inaugural year of the festival is "100 Years of American Music." The concerts will showcase over 50 different American composers, half of whom are still living.

Familiar names such as Bernstein, Gershwin, Ives and Copland will be featured, but there will also be some lesser known composers like Philip Glass, John Adams, Samuel Barber and Marc Blitzstein. The concerts will have a variety of music ensembles: brass quintet, string quartet, woodwind quintet, solo piano, opera singers, jazz and even a 70-piece concert band.

The concerts will begin at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $20, but those 17 and younger can attend for free. All are welcome to attend, regardless of Greenwich resident status.

Tickets are available at the door or online on the Arpeggio Music Festival website.

Festival Director Bill Bonnell, a Norwalk resident, has always had an affinity for music, especially for classical music and American composers.

"During the pandemic, I was kind of bored and kept thinking about trying to organize some concerts. I just finally decided to do it," he said, noting that he hopes the festival can be become an annual event. "I decided to focus on American composers, because I like a lot of the American composers and I find that they're not programmed that often in major programming. Major orchestras don't do a lot of American music, much less living composers. I thought that'd be a good place to start."

Bonnell, who played the French horn for years and is an avid opera and concert-goer, planned the festival last fall, putting together a program of different musicians.

"I've always sort of liked finding a little bit of unusual music, although all the music in these programs by these different groups is quite listenable and enjoyable," he said.

Bonnell said the venue at First Congregational Church of Old Greenwich is "very comfortable," and lends itself to this kind of music. It can hold about 100 people, and features a 9-foot Steinway concert grand piano, which was given to the church by the pianist Victor Borge, who lived in Greenwich.

After the concerts, Bonnell said attendees will have a chance to speak with the performers.

"I'm hoping people will think about coming to a few of them. I think the more concerts you hear, the better picture you're going to get about what's really out there in terms of American music," he said.

For detailed program information and musical groups performing go to the Arpeggio Music Festival website.