The Electric Earth summer concert series launches for the season Sunday, June 29, at 4 p.m. at the First Church in Jaffrey, with a performance of Brahms’ “Quintet” for clarinet and strings. 

“This is the first time this work will be performed at Electric Earth, and we are very excited for it,” said Electric Earth co-artistic director and co-founder Jonathan Bagg.

The concert will feature the work of Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, who died in March.  Musicians will be Rane Moore on clarinet, Rieko Aizawa on piano, Jesse Mills and Anna Elishvili on violin, Thomas Kraines on cello, Jonathan Bagg on viola and Laura Gilbert on flute. 

“Starting this past March and going through December, our 2025 programs bring a rewarding mix of familiar and unfamiliar names,” Bagg said. “Our roster of performers includes some of the most-exciting performers before the public, such as the internationally prominent Catalyst, Verona and Borromeo string quartets. We will also host the Horszowski Trio, who have come each year since our founding; David McCarroll, concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and Mihae Lee and Emely Phelps on piano, just to name a few,”

Students and children can attend all Electric Earth concerts for free, and every event is followed by a reception with food and drink. 

“On Saturday, to kick off the summer  we will have strawberry shortcake, which is the perfect thing for this time of year,” Bagg said.

Laura Gilbert, co-founder and co-artistic director, said the timing of the performance of  Gubaidulina’s work is fortuitous. 

“We planned this long before she passed away, so it is very poignant that we are featuring her works now,” Gilbert said. “Gubaidulina was a Soviet-era woman composer. She was a huge personality. She had a huge influence on a lot of performers, especially in Europe, and she just had this synergy with performers.  She was a great composer.”

The summer’s musical lineup includes familiar favorites as well as composers and works who may be new to many. 

“The audience has their favorites, but we are also always trying to bring in new music. After so many years, we have established a good level of trust with our core audience. Even people who may have been put off by new things  at some point trust us enough to come, because they know it will be worth it for them,” Gilbert said. 

On Thursday, July 17, at 7 p.m. at The Park Theater in Jaffrey, Electric Earth will present  “East Winds,” a woodwinds concert featuring Laura Gilbert on flute, Stephen Taylor on oboe, Benjamin Fingland on clarinet, William Purvis on horn, Adrian Morejon on bassoon, Gabriela Diaz on violin, Jonathan Bagg on viola, Thomas Kraines on cello and Mihae Lee on piano.

“The July 17 concert is the first of our two upcoming collaborations with  with Maine’s Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival, and we’re thrilled to be performing this in the Monadnock region, ” Bagg said.  

On Saturday, Aug. 2, at 7 p.m. at the First Church of Jaffrey, Electric Earth will present “Ladies on the Move,” a celebration of women composers partly inspired by New Hampshire composer Amy Beach.

The concert, which was funded by what Gilbert says was “one of the last National Endowment for the Arts grants,” was originally planned to happen during the centennial  of women’s suffrage in 2020,  but was canceled due to the pandemic. 

“We are really happy that we are finally able to do our ‘Ladies on the Move concerts. It was such a disappointment that we were not able to bring those concerts to fruition in 2020 aa we had planned. But now it is the 105th anniversary of suffrage, so we’re making it happen, and we’re celebrating now,” Gilbert said.

The Aug. 2 concert will feature two contemporary Monadnock region composers, Katie Semro of Sharon and Elise Grant of Dublin.  

“What we decided  to do was to actually include these two living female New Hampshire composers, Elise Grant and Katie Semro, as well as Chen Yi, who is a celebrated Chinese-American composer,” Gilbert said. 

Musicians include violinists David McCarroll and Shanshan Yao, cellist Angela Park, pianist Emely Phelps and Gilbert and Bagg.

On Aug. 8 at 7 p.m.,  the Juanito Pascual Jazz Trio will perform at the Temple Congregational Church

“Following up last year’s spectacular flamenco evening, guitarist Pascual will be showing us a different side of himself  with an evening of jazz,” Bagg said. 

The concert will feature bassist Brad Barrett and Jose Moreno on percussion.

On Thursday, Aug. 14, at 7 p.m. at the First Church in Jaffrey, musicians from the Sebago-Long Lake festival will return to perform works by Brahms, Ravel, and Reger. The concert will feature Gilbert on flute, Emilie-Anne Gendron on violin, Todd Phillips on violin, Matthew Sinno on viola, Mihai Marica on cello and Mihae Lee on piano.

For a complete schedule of upcoming Electric Earth concerts or to purchase tickets, go to electricearthconcerts.org/events.