Program for Sunday, December 22, 2019

The Beasts of Bethlehem is a cycle of Christmas songs for alto and harp, composed by Carol Wood and based on poems by the great American poet X. J. Kennedy

Shortly after earning his B.Mus. degree in 1982, Thom Dutton was a featured singer at a wedding. It happened that his accompanist was a harpist, and that was his first enchantment with the harp. He moved from New York to Massachusetts the following year; unable to transport his piano with him, he began playing the harp instead. Thus began a span of thirty years playing the harp at more than 1,400 performances.

Over the years, Thom Dutton has been recognized with multiple awards. His honors include the Judge’s Overall Performance Award for Outstanding Musicianship at the New England Regional Folk Harp Competition and twice silver medalist at the Mid-Atlantic Folk Harp Competition. He has also received awards for playing incidental music for live theatrical productions: The Evelyn Lawson Award from the Association for Community Theater Excellence for “Eleemosynary” and a Certificate of Recognition Honoring Outstanding Achievement from the Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theaters for “Three Tall Women”. Thom has recorded five critically acclaimed CDs and has published more than a dozen books of harp music.