The summer of 2025 marks 60 years since Monadnock Music began to bring free, live classical music to the Monadnock region.

“Our mission from the very beginning has been to bring classical music to the villages in the region with these free concerts,” said Artistic Director Rafael Popper-Keizer.

Monadnock Music has planned a full summer of events in celebration of its 60th anniversary, starting with a June 3 concert at 7 p.m. at The Park Theatre in Jaffrey featuring the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, a nationally acclaimed mixed-voice choir. Tickets are $20, $15 for members and $10 for students.

“We’re very excited about this. The collegium has performed for us before, and they are absolutely incredible. We are still finalizing this; it was very last minute,” Popper-Keizer said. “It will be an eclectic and dynamic program of both old music and new music.”

The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum concert is one of two ticketed Monadnock Music concerts this summer. On Sunday, July 20, Monadnock Music will present “Light and Shadow,” a ticketed concert at Bass Hall featuring mezzo-sopranos, a string quartet and piano.

Other events this summer include annual supper clubs, which are themed around food and music, a family concert at The Friendly Farm petting zoo in Dublin on June 28, and nine free village concerts. This summer’s concerts include performances in Jaffrey, Dublin, Rindge and Peterborough. For a complete listing, go to monadnockmusic.org/classical-music-concert-event-schedule.html#summer.

The first free chamber music event of the year is June 19 at noon at the Depot Square Park amphitheater in Peterborough.

“The chamber concert on June 19 is an arrangement of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ symphony for string sextet. It’s a majestic tribute to the beauty and power of the natural world. There is a storm scene in the middle, with very vibrant images. I thought, ‘I have to do this down by the river in Depot Square,’” Popper-Keizer said.

Executive Director Laina Barakat said she encourages people to think of Monadnock Music’s nine free summer concerts “as a whole series.”

“Our free village concerts are really the heart of everything we do; they’re the heart and soul of Monadnock Music. We have found so many exceptional venues around the area; some are underused and excellent acoustics. We hope people will treat our concert series like a full festival and go to every single one,” Barakat said.

According to Barakat, Monadnock Music’s free concerts are a way for people to experience high-quality classical music without committing to a long drive or expensive tickets.

“It’s a great thing to do with friends from out of town. It’s very accessible, the concerts are not very long, they’re in these amazing locations, and it’s free,” Barakat said. “We try to get people to come out to all nine of them.”

Recent cuts to the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts will affect grants the organization has relied on in the past, according to Barakat.

“We are very fortunate we have strong community support. We really rely on our members and people signing up for memberships,” she said. “The cuts to arts funding are really concerning, because the arts are such a crucial part of people surviving. The arts support people’s mental health; it allows them to connecting with others. The arts are not an extravagance – they are essential to being human.”

The Monadnock Music Festival started in 1966 in Nelson, when summer residents James and Jocelyn Bolle began to bring musicians to their summer home. Bolle, who was the state’s second artist laureate, founded and was conductor of the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra for 29 years. Jocelyn Bolle served as Monadnock Music’s first artistic director and was instrumental in the growth of the organization for many years.

“Jim Bolle was a composer, and he was very avant-garde. He would have his friends come up and they would stay for weeks and play music,” Popper-Keizer said.

The concerts began in the Nelson Meetinghouse, and soon spread to the historic meetinghouses in Harrisville and Hancock. Bolle directed Monadnock Music for 42 years.

“As far as I know, we were the first organization of this kind in the region, the first to offer this repertoire of classical music, ” Popper-Keizer said.

Popper-Keizer, who has been with Monadnock Music for 23 years, was the organization’s first artist to receive a full residency, for cello. He became artistic director in 2019.

“Jim Bolle hired me straight out of the New England Conservatory of Music for an opera gala, and then they asked me to stay for the season. I was fortunate enough to get to work with Jim for his last six years at Monadnock Music,” Popper-Keizer said. “I’ve seen an an amazing sea change over time with the organization as we have adapted to continue the original mission of the group; and it’s been an honor to carry on that tradition.”

Popper-Keizer said that while Bolle favored more contemporary American classical music, he also “knew his history.”

“He just knew so much about music. Things have evolved over time; now it’s as much about honoring the past as putting our stamp on it. Jim liked nothing better than finding a new piece of music and performing it, possibly for the first time,” he said.

Popper-Keizer, a cellist who performs with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra an the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, says he finds performing with Monadnock Music some of the most-meaningful work he does.

“Music is all about connection; its about finding something you love sharing with people. Just playing for a few people at a time or at these little concerts in schools and churches and in historic buildings, making that close connection, is incredibly meaningful. It’s this weird mix of personal and private-you’re focusing on your work, but you’re also projecting outward,” he said.

For a complete schedule of the 60th anniversary summer of Monadnock Music, go to monadnockmusic.org.