Join us on Sunday, October 10, at 2PM for an in-person concert by the Thoreau Way Ensemble!

Founded by violinist and Sudbury resident Nicola Payne in 2016, the Thoreau Way Ensemble is a group of professional musicians from the Boston area. Performing members are: Nicola Payne (violin), Rebecca Thornblade (cello) and Noralee Walker (viola). In performing chamber music, the ensemble seeks to encourage positive community engagement through acts of beauty and culture.  

Nicola Payne grew up in Sudbury and has a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music, as well as a Master of Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Nicola has performed with orchestras throughout the United States and Spain, including the Kansas City Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic where she served as Principal Second Violin, Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Evansville Philharmonic, Owensboro Symphony where she was Concertmaster, and New World Symphony in Miami Beach where she served as Assistant Concertmaster and Principal Second Violin. Nicola has also been Principal Second Violin of the Peter Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonsville, Oregon since 2004. She has had the privilege of performing in Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.  She has worked under the batons of many world-class conductors including Sir Georg Solti, Michael Tilson Thomas, James DePreist, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Teddy Abrams, and Larry Rachleff.  Nicola performs locally with Orchestra of Indian Hill, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Lexington Symphony. Currently a resident of Sudbury, Nicola has a full studio of over 30 violin and viola students ranging from beginner to advanced. The extremely proud mother of triplet boys (who are all string players), Nicola also enjoys skiing, traveling, hiking, and gardening.

Rebecca Thornblade, a grand prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, has had an active and versatile career as a chamber music and orchestral cellist. Rebecca has played with many ensembles throughout the country which include the award-winning Fry Street and Avalon quartets and as principal cellist of the New World Symphony in Miami and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Rebecca has worked with many renowned quartets such as the Vermeer, Juilliard, Orion, Takacs and members of the Cleveland and Emerson Quartets. She was featured on WGBH’s “Classical Performances” with pianist Gilbert Kalish and has collaborated with flutist Carol Wincenc and pianist Randall Hodgkinson. Rebecca is currently a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with Opera Boston, Odyssey Opera, the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Cantata Singers. She has appeared as a chamber musician with Lyrica Boston, the Suzuki School of Newton’s Artist Concert Series, the New Gallery Concert Series, The Radius Ensemble, The Firebird Ensemble and the Worcester Chamber Music Society. In addition to her private teaching studio, she is on the Music Performance Faculty in cello at Wellesley College. Rebecca was a member of the chamber music faculty at Point Counterpoint in Vermont for seven years. She received her Bachelor’s in Music from the Oberlin Conservatory as a student of Norman Fischer and Peter Rejto and her Master’s in Music from the Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick.

Noralee Walker, Boston-born violist, is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a Master of Music Degree in Viola Performance from the Yale School of Music and a Performer's Certificate from the former HARID Conservatory of Music (now Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL). She has played with a variety of ensembles including the New England String Ensemble, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms Society of Boston (formerly Boston Classical Orchestra),and the symphonies of Springfield (Ma) and Vermont. In the summers she has performed at such festivals as Yellow Barn, Aspen, Tanglewood, Music on the Hill (RI), the Vermont Mozart Festival, and the Millenium Strings Concert Series (Glibertsville, NY).. She is a founding member of the Aryaloka String Quartet, a group dedicated to the experience of live music as a communion with the noble spirits of composer, performer, and audience. Noralee enjoys teaching students of all ages and is fascinated by mind/body connections in playing and teaching music. She is the founder of Musicians in Motion 21, a collaborative group of Mind/Body practitioners dedicated to teaching performers tools to reduce and heal injuries and make music with greater ease. She is the String Department Chair of the Winchester Community Music School and has taught at the Tufts University Community Music Program, Belmont Hill School, and Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (formerly GBYSO). She loves to garden and is a certified White Belt Instructor in the Nia Technique, a fitness fusion of yoga, martial arts, and dance. She makes her home in Maynard, Massachusetts with a large, odd-eyed Scottish Fold cat.

The concert will be held in-person in the Community Room.