A small but appreciative audience listened raptly Tuesday night to a genre of music totally different from the previous weekend’s Scarecrow Festival headliners.
Three professional musicians from the Astralis Chamber Ensemble, based in Florida, performed primarily “new music” in the superb acoustics of First Presbyterian Church’s intimate, honey-colored sanctuary. The audience included members of City Council, Washington High School class officers and students, and choir directors, organists and singers from several local church choirs.
The trio of musicians, experts on flute, trumpet and piano, appeared to make not a single mistake in the course of the entire program. Similar to European cities famous for their outstanding classical music—for example, Prague and Vienna—the Astralis group’s Washington C.H. performance lasted just about one hour.
The Perse Harlow Trust provided the funds “to bring culture [classical or semi-classical music] to Fayette County.”

