Beethoven, Bach & Serbagi: Concert Society Will Return

With Holiday Concert On December 30

By Shannon Hicks

Richard Serbagi thinks much of the popularity and success behind the holiday concerts that have been performed by The Concert Society of Putnam & Northern Westchester, of which Mr Serbagi is the conductor, has a lot to do with the generosity of Newtown’s businesses and residents. The concerts have been performed for the past four holiday seasons and have always been fundraising events for local nonprofit groups.

“I think because it focuses on benefiting the different organizations in the community — the library [last year], Newtown Scholarship [Association, in 2002 and 2003], and the outreach program for [Newtown] Friends of Music [in 2001] — and these are all beautiful programs,” Maestro Serbagi, who is also a Newtown resident, said this week.

Maestro Richard E. Serbagi (pronounced “SIR-ba-gee”) and The Concert Society of Putnam & Northern Westchester will return to Trinity Episcopal Church for the 5th Annual Holiday Concert on Friday, December 30. The concert will begin at 8 pm, and the evening will conclude with a reception for the musicians and all ticket-holders.

Tickets are $35 and must be purchased or reserved in advance. Ticket sales will not be conducted at the door. Tickets can be purchased at Newtown Savings Bank, C.H. Booth Library, and Flagpole Realty.

This year’s concert will raise much-needed funds for Kevin’s Community Center, a Newtown-based medical clinic that opened in August 2003 after being founded by Dr and Mrs Ziah Michael Taweh. The center was named for and inspired by the couple’s 3-year old son Kevin, who died in a home accident the previous year. Its mission is to provide free health care for Newtown residents over the age of 16 who are uninsured or underinsured and who have limited financial resources.

The clinic is located in Newtown’s Municipal Building at 31 Peck’s Lane and is staffed by volunteer doctors, nurses, and a corps of dedicated volunteers. Services include primary care, prescription medications, and free specialty care offered through a network of referrals that includes more than 100 specialists from the greater Danbury area and the Danbury Office of Physician Services who donate their time.

Kevin’s Community Center is trying to fill a need that many residents do not realize is so great: In Newtown alone approximately 800 families, or 3,800 adults, have no health care coverage at all.

“This concert in particular,” Mr Serbagi continued earlier this week, “it’s so incredibly moving as far as I’m concerned.

“The fact that 48 percent of the American population is without health insurance, and here is Dr Taweh forming this community center for the benefit of Newtown residents without medical insurance. To give others free medical treatment is really very poignant, I think, and it deserves all the support it can muster.”

Friday evening’s program will include Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Mjaor for Two Trumpets, Strings and Continuo, Girolamo Frescobaldi’s Variations on a Theme for String Orchestra, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Kantate BWV 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, Tchiakovsky’s Waltz from The Serenade for Strings, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in C minor, Op 37.

The orchestra will be accompanied by pianist Andrew Armstrong and once again joined by the guest soprano Maria Ferrante.

Mr Serbagi laughs when asked about the fifth appearance by Ms Ferrante for the Newtown event.

“They want her, it’s as simple as that,” he said. “I’ve said in the past that I should have something different, but they want her. So I contact her and ask her, ‘Alright Maria, what are you going to sing this time?’

“They want her back, and this year she’s going to do a wonderful, very famous Bach cantata.”

Also performing next Friday evening will be the pianist Andrew Armstrong, a Connecticut native who performed at Trinity with the Concert Society three years ago.

Mr Armstrong will perform “one of the great piano concertos of Beethoven,” said Mr Serbagi. The work, Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor, Op 37, was the subject of a recent discussion between Mr Serbagi and the bassist Joseph Russo (a member of the Concert Society).

“He told me ‘The right hand of God must have been on that man when he wrote that piece of music,’” recalled Mr Serbagi. “It’s just astonishing, a beautiful piece of music.”

Mr Serbagi selects the works to be performed in Newtown concert each year, and admits that it can be a tricky part of each concert.

“It’s often a challenge to form a program that an audience is going to be delighted with,” said Mr Serbagi. “I think all year about that. I don’t dwell upon it, but I think about it as I listen to music or as I perform music, ‘What can I program for Newtown for this year’s holiday concert?’

“It’s theater, and it’s putting the right pieces together that the people will enjoy, and will walk away from the performing having had a delightful experience. That’s important during the holiday season,” he continued.

Members of the concert society, who regularly perform as many as six concerts annually, also enjoy what they bring to Newtown.

“[The musicians] love the concerts, and they love the environment,” said Mr Serbagi. “They love the fact that we do these benefits.

“They love to feel appreciated. They’ve worked very hard to play in town, and to play beautifully. Like all of us who work hard at something, they love to be recognized for their work.”

The Concert Society began more than 30 years ago when pianist Arthur White invited a number of professional musicians to form a chamber music group and perform in one another’s homes. Among the players were several first chair musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Richard Serbagi, a cellist at the American Ballet Theater. They held concerts in the homes of interested music-lovers and from those emerged the nucleus of the Concert Society and plans for regular concerts.

The first season opened in 1971-72 in Memorial Hall in Carmel, N.Y., at the Shrub Oak Little Theater and was successful enough to encourage continued effort. Soon the society had a season of six concerts in Putnam County and a repeat six performances in northern Westchester County. The ongoing series of chamber music concerts was established and The Concert Society of Putnam & Northern Westchester was founded.

By its third season, the Concert Society acquired the financial support of the New York State Council for the Arts as well as generous donations from individuals. It also secured the talent of music director Walter Hagen, violinist at the Metropolitan Opera and the Gordon String Quartet, who was interested in developing a chamber orchestra.

David Gilbert of the Manhattan School of Music, and conductor of Greenwich Symphony, conducted the Concert Society Chamber Orchestra for the next several years. For the last 18 years, Mr Serbagi has been the society’s artistic director and conductor.

Having moved through several venues, the society found St Luke’s Church in Somers, N.Y., and it became the ideal performance space because of its superior acoustics, central location, and ambiance. The group has offered treasured favorites, introduced new works, and presented contemporary musical forms, most recently jazz and Celtic songs. The orchestra has performed works by John Corigliano, Richard Moryl, and David Amram, all one-time residents of the area and delighted to have professional musicians perform their newly written compositions.

The society has maintained a standard of excellence over the years that critics recognize. Robert Sherman, writing in The New York Times, commented, “The Concert Society stands apart from virtually all other presenting organizations in the country because it has its own nucleus of top notch professionals, along the lines of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, rather than importing artists or groups for its concerts…. Their imaginative programming … among other enticements, includes ambitious works….”

Richard Serbagi studied cello at New England Conservatory in Boston and at The Royal Manchester College of Music in England. As a member of the US Air Force at the time of the Korean conflict, he was called to join the newly formed 7th Army Symphony Orchestra, stationed in Stuttgart, which performed in Leipzig, Bremerhaven, Duesseldorf, Munich, and numerous smaller German towns, led by the venerable Dimitri Metropolis.

Back in the United States, Mr Serbagi played with the Utah Symphony under the direction of Maurice Abravanel, American Ballet Theater, and Chicago Opera Ballet. For several years, Mr Serbagi performed with the Symphony Orchestra of Puerto Rico at Pablo Casals Festival.

After a nerve condition in his left arm limited his ability to play, he went on to take his master’s in education at Western Connecticut State University. For the past 20 years, he has conducted the orchestra program at New Canaan High School.

For the 2002 season Mr Serbagi was invited to conduct the Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra in Puerto Rico in a program that featured American composers of the 20th Century.

Mr Serbagi, who has lived in Newtown since 1989, loves that this concert series has been popular in town.

“It’s fantastic to play a concert right in my hometown, and to have it appreciated,” he said. “The town has always been wonderful. The bands, the people [who] have gotten behind these performances and have solicited banks and others to support the series.

“So here we have this wonderful town that’s saying Yes, we will support this concert and Yes, we will support these groups the concerts raise money for.

“That,” said Mr Serbagi, “is a wonderful gesture.”