Jefferson's Library

Thomas Jefferson’s passion for music was undeniable. The jury is out on whether he was a virtuoso on the violin but he has been described as having achieved a “gentlemanly proficiency" on the instrument that allowed him to participate in chamber music with the royal governor of Virginia.

He considered music to be a "delightful recreation" and the "favorite passion of my soul,” and musical tastes were sophisticated and diverse, encompassing Baroque composers such as Corelli and Haydn as well as French and Italian opera.

Aston Magna, America’s oldest annual summer festival devoted to music performed on period instruments, will explore Jefferson’s musical predilections as it opens its 52nd season with Music from Thomas Jefferson’s Library Saturday, July 12th at 3PM at St. James Place.

Sylvia Berry, on harpsichord and fortepiano; Kristen Watson, soprano, and Daniel Stepner, baroque violin, will play works by Geminiani, Balbastre, Arne, Purcell, Mozart and Weber, composers whose creative lives intersected with Jefferson’s.

Jefferson was familiar with instrumental tutorials, such as Geminiani's The Art of Playing the Violin, while Jefferson's daughter, Martha, studied harpsichord with Balbastre in Paris. Thomas Arne's operas, Artaxerxes and Alfred, were in Jefferson's music collection as was Henry Purcell’s song collection, Orpheus Brittanicus. A collection of dance tunes In Jefferson’s library includes some from Carl Maria Weber's opera, Der Freischütz and the country’s third president was an admirer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s compositions.

Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the door.

Aston Magna’s 2025 music festival will include three other concerts at Saint James Place: Late Mozart featuring the Adagio and Fugue, G Minor Viola Quintet, and Clarinet Quintet, on July 19th, From Castello to Canzano, Baroque to modern chamber music by Castello, Guillemain, Mondonville and living composers Mondry and Canzano, July 26th, and Fiddlers Four, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons plus works by Purcell, Pachelbel, Legrenzi and Telemann with a full baroque ensemble on August 3rd.

All are at 3PM. Tickets are available here.