Ashuelot Concerts, a New Hampshire nonprofit founded in 2017, is bringing its International Concert Series of chamber music to western Massachusetts for the first time with shows at the Montague Retreat Center.
The first performance is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 6. This concert series, starting in November and running through next April at the 177 Ripley Road property, brings world-renowned chamber musicians who have taken the stage at the London Symphony Orchestra or Wigmore Hall to rural communities, according to Ashuelot Concerts’ Artistic and Executive Director Nicholas Burns. This gives communities the opportunity to experience intimate chamber music at accessible locations and price points.
The performances are offered in partnership with The HeARTbeat Collective, an arts nonprofit based at the Montague Retreat Center.
“There’s something really lovely about that, because even for a classical audience, this is a unique experience because they’re much, much closer to the players than they would be normally,” Burns said, noting that one performer, Edward Arron, is coming from the Lincoln Center in New York City to Montague to perform.
The performance on Friday, titled “Passion & Elegy: Romantic Piano Trios,” will feature Burns on piano; Louisa Stonehill, co-founder of Ashuelot Concerts, on violin; and Arron on cello. The trio will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor,” Niels Gade’s “Novelletten for Piano Trio, Op. 29,” and Maurice Ravel’s “Piano Trio in A minor.” The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.
On Saturday, Dec. 12, Burns and Stonehill will be back to perform pieces from Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich. Next year, the Aris Quartett chamber musicians will perform on Saturday, Feb. 6, followed by additional performances in March and April.
Burns said that this is the fifth season of Ashuelot Concerts bringing the International Concert Series to communities in New England, including shows in New Hampshire and Vermont, with Massachusetts being added for the first time. The Montague Retreat Center is an “ideal venue,” Burns said, because the barn’s aged wood offers an acoustic setting that supports the sound of the wood instruments played by the trio.
“You’ve got a situation where the room becomes part of the instrument, and congregating around music is a very essential human activity, and our modern version of it has drifted quite far away from what our ancestors have done for tens of thousands of years,” Burns said.
This “essential human activity” of congregating around music is a central element to this concert series, especially as modern music has moved to become a “vehicle of consumption” rather than something that is made for appreciation of the craft. That’s why this chamber music includes no microphones to amplify the instruments, Burns explained.
Burns said that this is a style of music that he noticed after coming to the U.S. from England in 2016 is hard to come by, while chamber music at a professional level is at its “absolute pinnacle” in London. After coming to the U.S., Burns said that unexpectedly, there was great interest in this style of performance from audiences he’d play for.
Inspired by these facts, Ashuelot Concerts was born, and has not only grown in interest from adult audiences, but has also become an educational opportunity for children, as Burns and Stonehill perform for schools in the communities where there will be concerts. In February, Burns said students at Bernardston Elementary School will get to join other New England schools whose students get to listen and learn about chamber music in this way.
“I think because we’re giving them the whole movement, we’re not patronizing the kids in any way, we’re not dumbing it down,” Burns said. “We’re saying, ‘Here’s something amazing. Here’s something to listen to. Here’s something to notice about the way you listen and the way your thoughts work,’ and then we tie it into practice and learning and all the rest of it, and it’s had a really profound impact.”
This sort of youth involvement in classical music is something that Ashuelot Concerts hopes to expand upon, with tickets available for young adults at $10, and free tickets for kids under 18 with an adult present. Other ticket prices also stay at a lower rate as well, keeping these performances accessible to the public compared to the same types of performances in major concert halls that would cost significantly more, Burns said.
Heading into Friday’s inaugural performance in Massachusetts, Burns said that from some of the “little experiments” done at the venue, there’s excitement for how the chamber music will blend with the rest of the setting.
“We’re very, very excited about it being a very special experience,” he said.
Tickets for Friday’s performance at the Montague Retreat Center start at $10 for those ages 18 to 30, $35 for general admission and $50 for premium seating. Children under 18 accompanied by an adult are admitted for free. Season tickets for the 2026-27 concert series are also available for purchase.
Tickets can be purchased online at ashuelotconcerts.org/montague. Information on other performances in New Hampshire and Vermont can be found at ashuelotconcerts.org/2026-27-season-tickets.
