Welcome to Music at Eden’s Edge (MEE), the North Shore’s own resident chamber music ensemble. Our mission is to perform chamber music of the highest caliber for the broadest possible audiences; to commission and perform new works; and to foster appreciation and understanding of classical music through live professional programs in accessible and intimate concert settings, emphasizing artist-to-audience contact, education and community outreach.
For the past 30 years, MEE has focused on both musical performance and outreach. Our Winter Concerts and Summer Concert Series are presented in a way that opens new doors of understanding and dialogue with people who love music – whether they are seasoned concertgoers or those new to the special intimacy of live chamber music.
To make the performances as meaningful and memorable as possible, the musicians introduce each piece to the audience. This conversation really makes the music come alive. We also invite concertgoers into the heart of the music by sharing information about the work and its composer and his/her times, and the performance itself. In addition, we offer extended opportunities to continue this conversation through free receptions with the artists that follow most concerts.
This intimacy reflects the special nature of chamber music, which has often been described as a dialogue among performers. Chamber music is perhaps the most personal form of musical performance – each player is a soloist and yet he or she plays only one part of the whole. Performing without the leadership of a conductor, each ensemble member is fully responsible for carrying on his or her own part of the musical conversation, leading and supporting as the music demands. When that musical conversation includes the audience, magic happens – and that is the concert!
Our venues, carefully selected for their ambiance and acoustics, also emphasize this personal connection. The 30th Anniversary Season venues include the East India Marine Hall at Peabody Essex Museum; the Community House of Hamilton & Wenham, with its warm New England character; the gallery of the North Shore Arts Association on Gloucester’s charming Rocky Neck; the elegant Peabody Institute Library in Peabody Center; and the handsome and intriguing home of John Archer in Danvers.
Our 30th Anniversary Celebration kicks off with the 2011 Winter Concert, a fundraising event that takes place on Saturday, March 19 at 8 PM at the residence of John Archer in Danvers. Pianist Paul Orgel and violinist Maria Benotti will present an all-Beethoven program for this very special event. Please plan to join us – there is no admission fee, but we do ask you to bring a friend and your checkbook as the funds raised at this event will be used to support MEE’s community outreach programs for seniors, families and children! To learn more, click here.
The 2011 Summer Concert Series runs from June through September. Highlights include our 30th Anniversary Gala; the world premiere of a piece written for MEE clarinetist Stephen Bates; and a performance of Mark Berger’s String Trio No. 2 after T.S. Eliot, commissioned by MEE in 2007 and winner of the prestigious 2008 ISCM Award. Music of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Martinu, Harbison, Schumann and Dvorák round out a wonderfully eclectic and brilliant season of performances.
Besides our traditional concerts, we will present a special "Really Open Rehearsal" with a performance of Journey, A Seagoing Narrative with music with commentary by composer Howard Rovics in the elegant Sutton Room of the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody Center on July 18.
As an organization with deep roots in the North Shore, MEE has made community outreach a vital part of its mission. Our outreach centers around two key programs. The Youth Chamber Concert series is presented in nine public elementary schools in six communities: Newburyport, Gloucester, Ipswich, Beverly, Salem and Lynn. This unique, multiple-year partnership program is offered at no cost to the schools, bringing live performance and a broad spectrum of musical experience to enhance music education programs in the classroom and opening a world of discovery for kids who might otherwise not have the chance to experience classical music in such a close and personal way. To date, MEE has reached more than 35,000 elementary school children through its Youth Chamber Concerts.
MEE also reaches out to seniors, many of whom have been life-long lovers of fine music, meeting their need for live music while eliminating financial and physical barriers through the Senior/Family Concert Series. These daytime concerts are offered free to seniors and families with young children during the summer. They are a joyful meeting of old and new friends, both the people and also the music!
MEE is known for its creative programming that ranges from music of the Baroque to innovative 20th and 21st century works commissioned and premiered by this ensemble. Refreshing and innovative programming is a hallmark of MEE concerts. Discussion among the players produces the repertoire choices, with each performer championing certain works, and the group deciding on the final selections with an ear to the whole.
Among MEE’s New Music at the Edge commissions (2006 and 2008, respectively ) are two pieces composed by Howard Rovics that will be performed this summer as part of the 30th Anniversary Season Retrospective. They are Journey, A Seagoing Narrative with Music, based on Two Years before the Mast by American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and “Listening to the Sea Winds” set to the poetry of Vincent Ferrini, the late "Poet of Gloucester".
The centerpiece of this extraordinary program is our 30th Anniversary Gala on July 22 at the Peabody Essex Museum, where we will perform both of these evocative pieces surrounded by great maritime art and artifacts in the East India Marine Hall. On Saturday evening July 23, a repeat performance of this program offers a second chance to hear it. And where better to experience "Listening to Sea Winds", inspired by the poetry of the late "Poet of Gloucester", Vincent Ferrini, than Gloucester’s North Shore Arts Association!
The ensemble’s performances have been aired on all the major classical music stations in Eastern Massachusetts, including WGBH’s Chamberworks, New England Concert Hall on the former WCRB (now Boston’s All-Classical 99.5) and WBUR. MEE’s roster of member performers and also guest artists are well known nationally and perform frequently on the international stage.
An active Board of Trustees, an involved Board of Advisors, a small and dedicated staff, and many hours of volunteer time form the supporting structures for MEE’s organization. Generous support from foundations, corporate sponsors, large and small businesses, Local Cultural Councils, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and individual supporters also contribute to the organization’s success.
In fact, MEE’s concert series and outreach programs could not have been introduced, maintained and enhanced without the help of grants from private foundations, sponsors, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and local Cultural Councils, and individual patrons from all walks of life. MEE looks forward to continuing to expand its relationships with the corporate and small business community in order to continue great program development with community involvement.
If you would like to become more involved with MEE as a volunteer, advisor, sponsor or supporter, please click here for more information.
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