starting as a memorial to his father, Andrew Arceci’s Winchendon Music Pageant has grown right into a group enterprise

The Murdock-Whitney Home, Winchendon Historical past & Cultural Centre

Andrew Arceci is an American viola da gamba, violone, and bass participant who studied on the Peabody Conservatory, The Juilliard College, and at Oxford. His UK performances have included the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Oxford Baroque, and Brighton Early Music Pageant. Andrew can also be the creative director and founding father of the Winchendon Music Pageant. 

Andrew Arceci (Photograph: Jeffrey Hornstein)

Winchendon is a small New England city with a inhabitants of round 10,000, situated roughly two hours by automobile from Boston. Andrew’s household is from the world, and although his household moved round loads when he was a baby, Winchendon was the one fixed. Ten years in the past, Andrew’s father, a paediatric oncologist, was killed in an accident whereas using his bike and was buried in Winchendon. Andrew organised a memorial weekend of live shows, together with one that includes his mom’s cousin, a jazz musician. There was ample curiosity for them to repeat the weekend the next 12 months. Since then, the pageant has developed and is now celebrating its tenth anniversary.

The live shows are very a lot a group enterprise; they’re free to the group and depend on help. Andrew feedback that every 12 months, they must show themselves to draw help for the following season. Audiences come not solely from Winchendon but additionally from the encircling areas, together with Worcester. As Andrew works as an expert musician, he tries to coordinate with colleagues and pull them to Winchendon, and performers benefit from the intimate nature of the pageant’s live shows. Coordinating schedules could be difficult, however he finds it thrilling when issues pull collectively. 

Andrew encourages performers to debate each the items they’re performing and their travels, sharing details about themselves and their devices. He feels that the communal side of the pageant’s efficiency wouldn’t work in an enormous metropolis. In Winchendon, the venues are all intimate, so it’s straightforward for performers to talk to the viewers.

Over time, they’ve reached most of the individuals within the space thinking about classical music and jazz, and these programmes do properly. In addition they embody World Music programmes, and Andrew feels that this selection offers individuals an opportunity to discover completely different genres. World Music offers them an opportunity to current different languages, different approaches to music making which can be typically not out there in small cities. 

The Arpeggione Ensemble on the Murdock-Whitney Home at Winchendon Music Pageant 2025

Once I chatted to Andrew, they’d simply introduced three live shows throughout June 2025, Beethoven’s Septet on interval devices, together with Andrew himself, the jazz vocalist John Arcaro and his quintet, and a cello and piano duo performing Spanish and Latin American music from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

In October, they’re presenting additional live shows. One is a double invoice that includes singer songwriter Chris Moyse, and the people collective Floyds Row [as part of a New England tour]. And one other pageant date in October options the Worcester Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece massive band taking part in music by Glen Miller, Buddy Wealthy and others.

Floyds Row options a mixture of Early Music, Classical, people and Blue Grass performed by a mixture of performers, together with Andrew, all thinking about outdated tunes which can be typically nonetheless round at the moment. The ensemble originated when Andrew was in Oxford (UK) in 2012, and their first collaborations led to their debut recording The Oxford Classes (2018). The group additional developed after Andrew moved again to the USA, and the ensemble continues to tour with a line-up that varies in keeping with every undertaking’s repertoire. 

Additional forward, the pageant has a joint undertaking with the Worcester Refrain, director Chris Sheppard. The refrain has a grant which is enabling them to programme Bach’s music over ten years, and they’re partnering with varied organisations, together with the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston. They are going to be bringing the choir to Winchendon in January 2026, performing three cantatas from the Christmas Oratorio with interval instrument Winchendon Gamers, and taking the efficiency to Worcester as properly. Such initiatives are thrilling, however a problem to coordinate prematurely.

The pageant doesn’t at the moment have a web site, although that is at the moment on the record. They rely very a lot on their mailing record, press protection and social media, however phrase of mouth continues to be very helpful. Andrew admits that the pageant developed a sure method; there was no plan. They’ve managed to carry on for ten years, and Andrew is happy that it’s profitable.