Ed Swanborn, FPC Music Director	Lucy Chapman, violinist	Natasha Brofsky, cellist	Robert Stallman, flutist

All-Bach chamber concert presented as part of 375th anniversary celebration

            An all-Bach chamber music concert, featuring distinguished musicians from Boston, New York and Philadelphia, was performed on Oct. 21, 2007, at First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, in Duxbury. The candlelight concert, organized by harpsichordist and First Parish Church music director Edwin Swanborn, was part of the church’s 375^th anniversary celebration. More than 250 music lovers from Duxbury and the surrounding area attended.

            First Parish Church, known for outstanding acoustics of its 1840 Greek Revival sanctuary, was the home of the acclaimed Candlelight Concert Series of chamber concerts, organized by Swanborn, from 1977 to 1990. Flutist Robert Stallman, one of the most popular performers of that series, returned to perform his own flute transcription of Bach's “Italian” Concerto and as a soloist in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, a highlight of the concert.

            Stallman was a protégé of world-famous flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and studied at the New England Conservatory, Tanglewood and the Paris Conservatory. He has performed as a soloist with internationally known orchestras and chamber ensembles, and he has made a number of acclaimed recordings, some of them with harpsichordist Swanborn.

             Also featured in the Brandenburg and as soloist in Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major was violinist Lucy Chapman, chair of the strings and chamber music departments at New England Conservatory, another returning soloist from the Candlelight Concert Series. Chapman has played solo and chamber music concerts in the United States, Europe and Asia and has been the first violinist of the Muir Quartet.

           FPC Music Director Swanborn is a harpsichordist and organist known nationally for  the “elegance and authority”  of his early music performances.  He was founder-director of the Boston Baroque Chamber Players and is currently pianist for the Zamir Chorale of Boston and serves on the music staff of Northeastern University. He has played solo and chamber music engagements in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Israel and Europe.

            Natasha Brofsky, assistant chair of the strings department at New England Conservatory, was the soloist in Bach’s Sonata for Cello and Harpsichord in G major and performed with the other soloists in Bach's Trio Sonata in C major.  She is the cellist of the award-winning Peabody Trio and has performed in important chamber music series throughout the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The soloists were joined by an ensemble of strings and harpsichord for the three concertos. The program was followed by a reception with the musicians in the Parish Hall.