Basses, Sopranos and Dinosaurs to Enliven Universalist Meeting House June 9

It is an unlikely story, actually more than one.

Franklin Massachusetts, famed as the home of the first free public lending library in America and the birthplace of reformer and "father of the public school movement," Horace Mann, these days is also home to Chicago native, Dr. Jon Ceander Mitchell, a retired music professor and orchestral conductor.

But Mitchell also has another side, an abiding interest in dinosaurs and paleontology, an interest which led him to learn the story of a self-educated 19th century Englishwoman who became one of the world's first paleontologists. Across the years, enthusiasm for this pioneer, Mary Anning by name, gave Mitchell the idea of celebrating her life through the medium of opera.

And so it is that June 9, 2024 will see the World Premiere
of his work, Mary Anning: Fossil Hunter, a Chamber Orchestra, at the intimate venue of the Franklin First Universalist Society on Chestnut Street.

But first, a bit more about Anning, a working-class girl of spirit and intelligence making her way through a class-ridden culture dominated by men with more wealth and education than she could ever hope to obtain. Living near the seaside town of Lyme Regis, Anning was not the first to find curios among the limestone cliffs, oddly shaped forms that were rocks – and yet bore a clear resemblance to shells and bones. Indeed, her whole family was involved in hunting for these objects, sold to tourists as a means of supplementing the family’s limited income.

But Mary went a further. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton when she was just twelve years old.

Chicago native Dr. Jon Ceander Mitchell holds the title Professor Emeritus of Music at University of Massachusetts Boston, where he served as Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra and Coordinator of Music Education for nearly a quarter of a century. He also founded and conducted the Boston Neo-politan Chamber Orchestra, a professional music ensemble. A well-known clinician on Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ludwig van Beethoven and Anton Rubinstein, he has over one hundred publications to his credit, including ten CDs with professional orchestras, and eight books. Now You Can Take Off Your Clothes: Vignettes of an American Conductor Lost in Translation, a humorous autobiographical account of international adventures, both on and off the podium, is his latest published book. He was the 2019 recipient of the CODA (College Orchestra Directors Association) Lifetime Achievement Award and currently serves on the boards of the International Conductors Guild and IGEB. He has stayed busy since retirement with guest conducting, composing, arranging, and other interests such as travel, genealogy and coin collecting – and now an opera!

The performance was made possible in part through funding provided by the Franklin Cultural District Committee.

The event is at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 9 at First Universalist Society of Franklin, 236 Chestnut Street, Franklin. Donations Accepted.  There will also be a 2:30 p.m. pre-opera talk by dinosaur specialist, Dr. David Fastovsky!