Read the Boston Globe article about MEE.
Welcome to Music at Eden’s Edge (MEE), the North Shore’s own resident chamber music ensemble. Now in its 29th season, MEE has come to represent the highest standards of musical performance artistry. Our concerts feature extraordinary musical artists performing in some of the area’s most beautiful and distinctive settings. MEE is known for its creative programming that ranges from music of the Baroque to innovative 20th and 21st century works commissioned and premiered by this ensemble. Refreshing and innovative programming is a hallmark of MEE concerts, which combine rarely heard works with beloved favorites of the chamber music repertoire.
To make the performances as meaningful and memorable as possible, the artists introduce each piece to the audience, really making the music come alive. In addition, a free reception with the artists follows most concerts. That intimacy reflects the special nature of chamber music, which has often been described as a dialogue among performers. It is perhaps the most personal form of musical performance – each player is a soloist and yet only one part of the whole. Performing without the leadership of a conductor, each ensemble member is fully responsible for carrying on his or her own part of the musical conversation, leading and supporting as the music demands.
Music at Eden’s Edge performs in venues chosen for ambience, intimacy and acoustics. Venues for the 2010 Summer Concert Series, which runs from June through September, are the North Shore Arts Association in Gloucester, Willowdale Estate at Bradley Palmer State Park, Community House of Hamilton and Wenham, the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody and the home of John Archer in Danvers. This year, for the first time, MEE will also present a “Really Open Rehearsal” prior to the Summer Concert Series, to be held at the historic Salem Athenaeum in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem-based composer John H. Wallace will speak about Structures, the New Music at the Edge commission by MEE for 2010, and the performers will offer their insights into making this music happen in a real rehearsal.
MEE also performs an annual Family Concert in late winter/early spring. This year, for the first time, this concert takes place in Newburyport, at the historic First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist Church on Pleasant Street. Proceeds from the Family Concerts benefit the free outreach concerts presented throughout the year by MEE: summer afternoon concerts of the Senior/Family Series and the spring Youth Chamber Concerts in North Shore public schools.
As an organization with deep roots in the North Shore, MEE has also made community outreach an important part of its mission. Outreach programs include the Senior/Family Concert Series, daytime concerts free to seniors and families with young children, offered in the summer, and the Youth Chamber Concert series, presented in public elementary schools throughout the region with a unique, multiple-year partnership program at no cost to the schools.
The ensemble’s performances have been aired on all the major classical music stations in Eastern Massachusetts, including WGBH’s Chamberworks, New England Concert Hall on the former WCRB (now Boston’s All-Classical 99.5) and WBUR. MEE’s roster of member performers and also guest artists are well known nationally and perform frequently on the international stage.
MEE’s mission is “To perform concert series of live chamber music of outstanding professional quality for the broadest possible general public; to increase appreciation and understanding of classical chamber music through artist-to-audience contact in concerts and workshops."
An active Board of Trustees, an involved Board of Advisors, a small and dedicated staff, and many hours of volunteer time form the supporting structures for MEE’s organization. Generous support from foundations, corporate sponsors, large and small businesses, Local Cultural Councils, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and individual supporters also contribute to the organization’s success.
In fact, MEE’s concert series and outreach programs could not have been introduced, maintained and enhanced without the help of grants from private foundations, sponsors, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and local Cultural Councils, and individual patrons from all walks of life. MEE looks forward to continuing to expand its relationships with the corporate and small business community in order to continue great program development with community involvement.
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