Hidden Sounds Music Event

Village, 1401 Church St., Ambridge, PA 15003. The event, jointly sponsored by the Harmony Museum, Harmony, PA and Old Economy Village, will include Harmonist music, recently released by Grammy-Award-winning cellist Eugene Friesen, along with a behind-the-scenes look of some of the musical heritage of the Harmony Society. The event is free, but reservations are requested via e-mail to Friends of Old Economy, c-jaweber@pa.gov. Light refreshments will be served.

The Hidden Sounds Musical Program is one of several cooperative efforts between the three “homes” of the Harmony Society. “We are glad to work with the Harmony Museum for the return of our behind-the-scenes programming at Old Economy Village,” says Jason Weber, Executive Director of Friends of Old Economy. “Many people know of the Harmony Society because of the religion, industry, and agriculture. But they also were very musical, and it is wonderful that we can continue to bring that musical legacy to life.” Guests to the event will see instruments from the museum collection, view music written by members of the society, and have a chance to play a square grand piano in the historic Feast Hall building

The Harmony Society became one of 19th century America’s most successful communal groups in various businesses, especially in production of woolens and linens. They founded the borough of Harmony in Butler County in 1804, and after ten years of progress, they relocated to Indiana Territory to found the town of New Harmony. The Harmony Society returned to Pa. in 1824 to establish their final home, Economy, (now Ambridge, Pa.) along the Ohio River. The society started practicing celibacy while in Harmony, and as members aged and died, the Society was dissolved in 1905.