Arkell Pavilion
Emi Ferguson, Principal Flute of the distinguished Handel & Haydn Society and recipient of the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, joins early music specialist Arthur Haas (harpsichord), Philip Setzer (violin) and the MMF Young Artists Strings to open the season with Bach’s lively Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. Music inspired by Shakespeare, Dryden, and Milton shapes the program in songs from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Oedipus, as well as Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, featuring the internationally acclaimed soprano Sherezade Panthaki, a radiant phenom for whom “it becomes increasingly difficult to find words that will adequately convey the multifold splendor of her singing” (San Francisco Chronicle). Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings, which owes its literary inspiration to Goethe’s Faust, while also paying homage to Handel, governs the Arkell Hall stage on the second half of the program.
View the full festival schedule HERE.
For its 51st season, the Manchester Music Festival brings big talent and bold stories to the Arkell Pavilion at Southern Vermont Arts Center, for “Music and Storytelling,” July 10-August 7, 2025.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Philip Setzer, famously of the Emerson String Quartet, this year’s Festival presents a range of celebrated artists, including Emmy Award Winner David Strathairn; GRAMMY Award-winning soprano Christine Goerke of The Metropolitan Opera; Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet, New York Philharmonic; Emi Ferguson, Principal Flute, Handel & Haydn Society; Michael Stephen Brown, Piano and Avery Fisher Career Grant Recipient; Paul Neubauer, Viola, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Sherezade Panthaki, Soprano, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; Paul Watkins, Cello, Emerson String Quartet; Gregg August, Bass, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; and the MMF Young Artists.
Audiences will experience iconic works: Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata, Mendelssohn’s Octet, Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, and so much more, including free family concerts. Fifty-one years on, the Festival continues to be a cultural cornerstone and one of Vermont’s must-visit summer music events. Discover more at mmfvt.org.
Enjoy dinner at SVAC’s curATE café before the performance. Visit OpenTable for reservations or call 802.362.9100.
