PUTNEY — The Next Stage Arts Project begins its Community Artist Performance Series (CAPS) with Putney resident, pianist, and author Gordon Jones presenting an afternoon of Bach in a one-hour program of piano and harpsichord music followed by a reception and discussion with the artist.
The performance, on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 3 p.m., will include selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier, The Goldberg Variations, and selected fugues from The Art of Fugue.
A citizen of the United Kingdom, Jones has made a lifelong study of the keyboard music (organ, harpsichord, piano) of Bach.
He worked with Douglas Steele of Manchester, England, and with Edith Kilbuck of Portland, Ore. He studied music at York University, and sang in the English cathedral tradition, most recently in the choir of Bristol Cathedral, where he was a tenor lay-clerk.
He has lived and worked in Botswana, where he conducted the Gaborone chorus and orchestra, and in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he and his wife, Emily, founded and ran an international boarding school.
Jones now teaches art history at the Putney School.
Jones, the author of Bach's Choral Music: A Listener's Guide (Amadeus Press), will offer signed copies of the book.
The Community Artist Performance Series embodies the mission of the Next Stage Arts Project: to celebrate the diversity of artistic expression by fostering a collaborative, inclusive environment for audiences, performers, and community-based arts and educational organizations, and enhancing the village of Putney as a culturally and economically vibrant rural town center.
Each CAPS event will showcase one of the area's many outstanding talents from a range of performance genres, including music and spoken word.
The quarterly events will also provide the opportunity to interact with the artist at a reception following their performance.
Tickets ($15) for the Sunday concert and reception will also include admission to the film Amadeus at Next Stage on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m.
Tickets will be available at The Front Porch Café in Putney, online, and at the door.
All proceeds will benefit Next Stage's piano fund, which will help the organization purchase its own instrument for the concert hall.
Next Stage Arts Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing Putney's cultural and economic village center through the programming, development, and operation of the 160-seat Next Stage performing arts center.
The theater is in the former Putney Federated Church at 15 Kimball Hill..