Sarasa Ensemble stirs up delicious works from 17th-century Bologna in ‘alla Bolognese’ program February 27-March 1, 2026
Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble performs the fourth concert-set of its 2025-26 Concert Series “Connection” with alla Bolognese on the weekend of February 27-March 1, 2026. Not only renowned for its famous ragù, Bologna was the hotspot for many pioneering 17th-century musicians who paved the way for the flowering of instrumental music in Europe. The program includes delectable works for cornetto, violin, cello, and organ by Isabella Leonarda, Cazzati, Arresti, Gabrielli, Antonio & Giovanni Bononcini, Torelli, Piccinini, Ferrari & Montalbano.
Sarasa will present alla Bolognese at three public performances, and as a mini-concert at Cambridge Senior Center, as well as to incarcerated teens at Massachusetts’ Department of Youth Services facilities as part of Sarasa’s award-winning ‘Music Unlocked’ program.
Concert Information:
With Elicia Silverstein, violin; Nathaniel Cox, cornetto/theorbo/Baroque guitar; Jennifer Morsches, cello; John McKean, organ
- Friday, February 27, 2026 at 7pm at Brattleboro Music Center, Brattleboro VT (tickets at bmcvt.org)
- Saturday, February 28, 2026 at 7pm at Friends Meeting House, Cambridge
- Sunday, March 1, 2026 at 3:30pm at Follen Church, Lexington
Tickets:
$30 at the door: student and senior discounts available, children under 18 are free, and discounted tickets may be purchased ahead online. Tickets to Cambridge & Lexington performances available here, Brattleboro tickets here.
More info at www.sarasamusic.org, admin@sarasamusic.org, or (978) 766-9408
All concerts will be available to stream free 10 days later on the Sarasa website.
About the Sarasa Ensemble:
For over 28 years, Sarasa Ensemble has shared wide-ranging, inspiring musical repertoire with the greater Boston community, while simultaneously spearheading an award-winning outreach program for incarcerated teens in conjunction with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services.
The Sarasa Ensemble is a collective group of international singers and instrumentalists who perform classical music of outstanding quality for diverse communities, with distinctive programming spanning the 17th to the 21st centuries on both period and modern instruments. It has received critical acclaim for its “informed and impassioned music-making” and is hailed for its “great clarity” and “irresistible energy.” Drawing on a pool of more than 125 world-class musicians from the United States, Europe, Canada, Brazil and Japan, the ensemble varies in size according to the particular program of each of its concerts. Sarasa has toured throughout New England performing on many renowned music series, such as the Boston Early Music Festival Series, the University of Vermont Lane Series, as well as at New York’s Frick Collection, the Morgan Library, and the 92nd Street Y.
Sarasa’s unique and award-winning outreach program has encompassed over 175 free presentation concerts and 65 residencies at teen detention centers in the Boston metropolitan region. Sarasa was unanimously awarded the Department of Youth Services Commissioner’s Community Partner Award for service to the community in September 2018, was featured on WBUR’s The Artery in 2019, and was granted an Early Music America Engagement Award in 2022, and again in 2025. Outreach presentations and residencies in the 2024-25 Concert Season were supported by a Challenge America grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2025-26, Sarasa is supported by the Boston Foundation, the Otto & Marianne Wolman Foundation, and the McKenzie Family Charitable Trust.
