Play Every Town #62: Vernon

VERNON, Vt. – In May of 2022, David Feurzeig embarked on his Play Every Town project: 252 free concerts in each of Vermont’s 252 towns to combat climate change through the power of community and music. With this project, David will become the first musician to perform in every Vermont municipality. He will travel in his solar-charged electric vehicle throughout the state, offering free concerts to bring attention to the interrelated issues of climate and community, while bringing the joy of music to his audiences.

Feurzeig, a professor of music at UVM since 2008, specializes in wide-ranging, genre-defying recitals that bring together music of an astonishing variety of musical styles, from ancient and classical to jazz, avant-garde, and popular traditions. These striking juxtapositions, peppered with informative and humorous commentary, create eye- and ear-opening programs that will change how you hear all kinds of music.

Each program is locally tailored. In Vernon, David will play music of Jean-Baptiste Lully from the year 1672, when the town was first chartered by Massachusetts, and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, published in 1802, the year the town changed its from Hinsdale to Vernon (to distinguish it from the other half of the original town, which ended up in New Hampshire on the eastern side of the Connecticut River). Music by the 8-year-old Mozart dates from 1764, the year the Governor Hunt House was built. And in recognition of the year the Hunt House’s Baldwin Acrosonic piano was manufactured, as well as of recent meteorological events, David will play “Here’s That Rainy Day” from 1953, paired with Debussy’s “The Sunken Cathedral,” composed in the aftermath of the Great Flood of Paris, in recognition of the rising flood threat Vermont faces from climate change. The Buchanan Brothers’ 1946 hit “Atomic Power” acknowledges the town’s most famous feature, the decommissioned Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant. As with every concert in the project, this one will include its own unique sonata by Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata no. 62, for this 62nd concert in the project.

Follow David on his journey on Instagram, find up-to-date events for your town via Facebook, or visit the website at www.playeverytown.com.