Seventh Annual Holiday Concert Will Return To Trinity Church December 28

A unique opportunity for music lovers to enjoy a marvelous concert right after the Christmas holiday but before New Year’s Eve presents itself when the Concert Society Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Newtown resident Richard E Serbagi, gives its Seventh Annual Holiday Concert at Trinity Episcopal Church on Friday, December 28, at 8 pm.

The 24-piece chamber orchestra will be joined — by popular request — by soprano Maria Ferrante, who will sing several selections form oratorio and opera.

Miss Ferrante is admired for her lilting soprano voice and her supple and colorful approach to a broad variety of repertoires.  After hearing her sing of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly the critic of The Boston Globe, Richard Dyer, enthused: “Maria Ferrante broke my heart.”  Her “combination of delicacy and intensity … brought tears to my eyes … In her honesty, imagination and investment, she was infinitely superior … her eyes and hands and body know how to sing, and with her voice she can act.”

Making her Newtown debut will be pianist Graciela Arguedas, performing Mozart’s 21st Piano Concerto in C major, K.467. Miss Arguedas recently appeared on the same stage with Whoopie Goldberg at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Arts, where Ms Goldberg narrated Peter and the Wolf and Miss Arguedas performed the Mozart No. 21 Piano Concerto there and will reprise her performance in Newtown.

Also new on this year’s program will be an appearance by the Newtown High School Singers under the direction of choral director John Harned.

Richard Serbagi, a resident of Newtown for the past 25 years (and an avid golfer at Newtown Country Club), studied cello at New England Conservatory in Boston and 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.

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, then 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 20 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….”

Mr Serbagi, who has lived in Newtown since 1989, loves that the Holiday Concert series has been popular in here.

“It’s fantastic to play a concert right in my hometown, and to have it appreciated,” he told The Newtown Bee in 2005. “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.”

On the program for December 28 is Handel’s Concerto for Two Hunting Horns HWV 331, a tribute to 40 years of service to Newtown Schools honoring Joan Ferris Popovic, serenaded by the High School Singers;  Mozart’s Piano Concerto; selections from Bach, Mozart, Handel and Puccini from Miss Ferrante;  and the Serenade for String Orchestra by Tchaikovsky.

This concert has quickly become one of the favorite holiday traditions in Newtown and each year sees the pews and the organ loft of Trinity Church filled with delighted and enthusiastic concertgoers. A gala reception follows the concert, to which the musicians and all ticket-holders are invited.

Tickets are $30 each and are available at various venues in Newtown but will not be sold in the church or on the day of the performance;  they will be sold in advance only. The following locations have tickets available for purchase: C.H. Booth Library, Drug Center Pharmacy, Flagpole Realtors, Naser’s Salon, Newtown Savings Bank (main branch, on Main Street), and Newtown Country Club.

Tickets are also available by mail order. Send your check together with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Newtown Friends of Music, PO Box 295, Newtown CT 06470-0295. For additional information call Ellen Parrella, president of Newtown Friends of Music, at 426-6470 or visit NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org

The concert is sponsored by Newtown Savings Bank, Savings Bank of Danbury, Union Savings Bank, People’s United;  Studley, White & Associates; Hall & Savarese PC; The Hand Center, and others. The proceeds from the sale of tickets are earmarked for the Newtown Friends of Music School Outreach Programs.