Etchings ’26: Old Friends, New Fellows

On a warm Northampton evening, the festival family gathered at a local restaurant and pub for what has quietly become one of the most meaningful rituals of Etchings: our welcome dinner. The patio buzzed long before the first drinks arrived - fellows greeting one another for the first time and our team weaving between conversations. Our guest composers, who have shaped the ensemble’s history over the years, one by one arriving.

Melinda Wagner, John Aylward, and David Sanford, each carry their own gravitational field and together mark a trio of intergenerational composers connected in their love and curiosity for what the emerging composers of the day are bringing to the table. Connecting with the fellows always feels like a way of connecting our own lives with the future of music, which leads inherently to a reflection on the Century’s-old traditions that have carried all these styles and genres into the now.

Michael Djupstrom’s gregarious nature put the fellows at ease. A prelude to his incisive, dedicated coachings, teachings and presentation that would lead through the week. And Kate Soper and Julia Werntz engaged the fellows as well with stories and warm introductions. The evening presaged a week without hierarchy or top-down structures but rather a circular exchange of curiosity and experience.

As the evening stretched on the fellows began to feel — as any good dinner would — that they belonged. And indeed, the first toast at Etchings marks a moment where we hope the newcomers become part of the lineage and returning fellows rejoin the circle.