Aston Magna Music Festival

08/07/2026

💛 What a night.

Last evening, Daniel, Julie, Laura, Cathy, and Sophie played and sang to a packed house at the Allen Center — and you could feel it, the whole room hanging on every note. Some of the most beautiful, expressive, and dramatic music of our season filled that space.

Thank you to everyone who came out. Gems from 17th-Century Venice — Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Salamone Rossi — has never sounded more alive.

🎻 One more chance to hear it — tomorrow in the Berkshires:
📅 Saturday, August 8 · 3 PM — Saint James Place, Great Barrington (free pre-concert talk at 2 PM)
$50 advance / $60 door · under-30s $15 · students & children free · EBT/WIC/ConnectorCare $2 (Card to Culture)
🎟️ https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

08/06/2026

🎶 Tonight! Our season finale, Gems from 17th-Century Venice.

Join us this evening in West Newton for an evening of Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Salamone Rossi and more — Artistic Director Daniel Stepner with the Aston Magna players and the radiant mezzo-soprano Sophie Michaux.

📅 TONIGHT · Thursday, August 6 · 7 PM
The Allen Center, 35 Webster St, West Newton (please note: not at Brandeis)
🎙️ Free pre-concert talk at 6 PM.

Tickets at the door: $60 · under-30s $15 · students & children free · EBT, WIC & ConnectorCare cardholders just $2 (Card to Culture).

Can't make it tonight? We do it once more in the Berkshires:
📅 Saturday, August 8 · 3 PM — Saint James Place, Great Barrington (pre-concert talk at 2 PM)

🎟️ https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

08/05/2026

🎶 Tomorrow night: our season finale, Gems from 17th-Century Venice.

There's nothing quite like hearing this music take shape in the room — mezzo-soprano Sophie Michaux rehearsing Monteverdi and Strozzi with our players, theorbo and viola da gamba glowing underneath. Tomorrow you'll hear it in full.

Artistic Director Daniel Stepner leads the ensemble through some of the most ravishing music ever written — Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Salamone Rossi, and more.

📅 Thursday, August 6 · 7 PM — The Allen Center, 35 Webster St, West Newton (please note: not at Brandeis)
📅 Saturday, August 8 · 3 PM — Saint James Place, Great Barrington

A pre-concert talk begins one hour before each performance.

⏰ Today is your last day for advance pricing — $50 in advance, $60 at the door. Under-30s just $15; students and children free. EBT, WIC & ConnectorCare cardholders: $2 at the door (Card to Culture).

🎟️ Tickets: https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

08/04/2026

In the rehearsal room this week 🎻 — putting the final touches on our season finale.

This Thursday and Saturday, Aston Magna closes its 53rd season with "Gems from 17th-Century Venice" — Artistic Director Daniel Stepner leads our musicians, with the extraordinary mezzo-soprano Sophie Michaux, in some of the most beautiful music ever composed: Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Salamone Rossi, Legrenzi, Marini, Rigatti, and Stradella. Venice at its most cosmopolitan — evocative, brilliant, lavish, and playful, all at once.

📅 Thursday, August 6 · 7 PM · The Allen Center, 35 Webster St, West Newton (please note: NOT at Brandeis)
📅 Saturday, August 8 · 3 PM · Saint James Place, Great Barrington
A pre-concert talk begins one hour before each performance.

🎟 https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

08/03/2026

What a way to close a remarkable week. 🎻

Yesterday in Great Barrington, Julia Glenn and our musicians brought "Seeking an Other — Music from Less Expected Places" to a beautiful, full-hearted finish — Baroque music from Bolivia, Scotland, and imperial China that few ever get to hear live. Thank you to everyone who joined us in West Newton and Great Barrington, and to Julia for a program we won't soon forget.

And we're not done yet — one last program this week. Our season finale, "Gems from 17th-Century Venice," brings the extraordinary mezzo-soprano Sophie Michaux and Artistic Director Daniel Stepner together for some of the most beautiful music ever composed.

📅 Thursday, August 6 · 7 PM · The Allen Center, West Newton (not Brandeis!)
📅 Saturday, August 8 · 3 PM · Saint James Place, Great Barrington
Pre-concert talks begin one hour before the concert.

🎟 https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

08/02/2026

Today at 3 PM 🎻 Join us in Great Barrington!

Julia Glenn's "Music from Less Expected Places" — the program the Boston Globe just featured, and that lit up the room in West Newton this week — comes to Saint James Place this afternoon. Baroque music from Bolivia, Scotland, and imperial China, brought to life by Julia Glenn, Daniel Stepner, Andrus Madsen, Andrew Koutroubas, and Nathaniel Cox.

📅 Today · Sunday, August 2 · 3 PM
📍 Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington
🥂 Free reception after — stay and say hello!

Walk-ups welcome at the door. Come join us for the last performance of Julia's remarkable program. 🎟 https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

08/01/2026

📰 Aston Magna in the Boston Globe! 🎻

The Globe's A.Z. Madonna profiled guest director Julia Glenn and her program "Music from Less Expected Places" — Baroque music from Bolivia, Scotland, and the imperial court in Beijing. ("Violinist Julia Glenn looked beyond the familiar for her Aston Magna program.")

If you missed Julia's electric concert in West Newton this week, you have one last chance — tomorrow in Great Barrington.

📅 Sunday, August 2 · 3 PM · Saint James Place, Great Barrington 🥂 free reception after
⏰ Last call: advance pricing ($50) ends TODAY (Saturday) at 3 PM, then $60 at the door.
🎟 Tickets: https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

📖 Read the Globe feature 👉 https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/29/arts/julia-glenn-aston-magna/

The annual summer festival features music performed on period instruments.

07/31/2026

Last night was on fire. 🔥🎻

Julia Glenn's "Seeking an Other — Music from Less Expected Places" filled the room with extraordinary energy and left the audience blown away. Baroque music that's rarely performed and largely unknown — written far from where you'd expect it, from the missions of South America to the imperial court in Beijing.

Julia Glenn, Daniel Stepner, Andrus Madsen, Andrew Koutroubas & Nathaniel Cox brought it to life — and you have one more chance to hear it.

📅 Sunday, August 2 · 3 PM · Saint James Place, Great Barrington 🥂 free reception after
⏰ Advance ($50) ends tomorrow (Sat) at 3 PM.
🔗 https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

07/29/2026

🎻 A European composer at the court of the Chinese emperor.

Press play — guest director Julia Glenn tells the extraordinary story of Teodorico Pedrini (1671–1746), an Italian missionary and musician who spent his later decades at the imperial court in Beijing, composing Baroque music there — some of the only Western music of its kind written in imperial China.

Hear it live in "Seeking an Other," alongside music from Scotland, South America, and colonial Mexico — tomorrow near Boston:

📅 Thu July 30, 7 PM · The Allen Center, 35 Webster St, West Newton (please note: NOT at Brandeis)
📅 Sun Aug 2, 3 PM · Saint James Place, Great Barrington 🥂 free reception after

💸 It's not too late to save money — buy early! Advance tickets are just $50 (vs. $60 at the door). Reserve now 👉 https://astonmagna.org/summer-festival/

07/28/2026

How did European Baroque music end up in the remote missions of Bolivia? 🎻

Press play — guest director Julia Glenn tells the remarkable story behind one corner of her program, "Seeking an Other." In the 17th and 18th centuries, Jesuit missionaries carried Baroque music deep into the missions of Bolivia, where it took root, blended with the voices of the communities who took it up, and left behind an astonishing archive of manuscripts the world nearly forgot.

Hear it live — alongside music from Scotland, colonial Mexico, and imperial China — when Julia's program comes to Aston Magna this week:

📅 Thu July 30, 7 PM · The Allen Center, West Newton
📅 Sun Aug 2, 3 PM · Saint James Place, Great Barrington 🥂 free reception after
🎟 Tickets in comments 👇

Newton Cultural Alliance