The popular Musical Masterworks chamber music series opens its 27th season tonight and Sunday with performances taking place, as always, in Old Lyme's First Congregational Church — which might be thought hereabouts as the Fenway Park of hallowed classical music sanctuaries.

With cellist/music director Edward Arron at the helm, this weekend's inaugural program also features pianist Orion Weiss, violinist Jesse Mills, violist Max Mandel and double-bassist Shawn Conley. They'll finesse Hummel's Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Opus 87;  Dohnányi's Serenade in C Major for String Trio, Opus 10; and Vaughan Williams' Piano Quintet in C minor.

"This will be a very distinctive concert," says Arron by phone last week. "It's odd in that we have a double-bass, and with the Williams quintet we're playing a piece most haven't heard before. It was written within a year of the Dohnányi, so there's a theme in terms of date-of-composition, but they have almost nothing else in common. And then Hummel was a contemporary of Beethoven, so all together I think it will be a fun and distinctive program."

The Masterworks' calendar includes five different programs — each with Saturday/Sunday presentations, see schedule — as well as an independent special event. On November 3, the series presents "MMModern!," a contemporary chamber music concert starring brass quartet The Westerlies — an outfit billed as having "the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band and the charm of a family sing-along."

As for the regular Arron-conceived programs, he says, "Each season presents a different conceptual challenge or opportunity. Maybe, as I'm working it all out, a composer reappears over several programs and a theme emerges. In that case, the composer inevitably gets presented in different contexts, so that's interesting. Other times, a season will be different show by show. And I feel like this season's concerts will each be very different."

In addition to Musical Masterworks, Arron is creative director for the Festival Series in Beaufort, S.C. and Chamber Music on Main at the Columbia Museum in Columbia, SC. Additionally, he curates the "Edward Arron and Friends" series at the Caramoor International Music Festival, and is the co-artistic director along with his wife, pianist Jeewon Park, of the new Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. He's also a member of the touring Ehnes Quartet is part of the music faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Following are excerpts from the conversation with Arron, edited for space.

On how he negotiates his schedule:

Well, I'm clinging to consciousness. (laughs). I taught a full day yesterday and then played a concert with a colleague and then drove to New York to judge a classical music guild. I'm quite beaten up right now. All of this, though, is a dream come true for me. Organizing chamber music concerts and getting invited to play all over the world – and a long-forestalled dream to teach at the college level – this all happened at once. I'll report on it and talk about it, but I definitely won't complain. It's completely enjoyable.

On programming a chamber music series for Musical Masterworks as opposed to seasons for his other organizations:

Wherever you are, you want each program to resonate with the subscribers and to have a life of its own reflected through the chemistry of the players onstage. Over time, through-lines start to appear that will ultimately color a season.

In Old Lyme and at Musical Masterworks, I've gotten to know the audience so well, and that becomes an amazing part of the process. Onstage at Musical Masterworks, I recognize people in the audience – people I've met and had conversations with. I get a sense of what will please them or cleverly surprise them – and that's a very subtle sensibility that varies from one town to the next.

On the atmosphere and logistics of the First Congregational Church – where the sightline and acoustics and the building's physical location in the community are very evocative and even "New Englandy":

The church is a very special venue. You get the light from outside that changes over the course of the five weekends we play there – and it takes on a life of its own. I look forward to each: the colors of fall, the excitement of the holidays, the dead of winter, the rebirth of spring ...

The other thing is that we're so close to the audience and the acoustics are so immediate that the crowd can really feel the essence of what we're up there trying to convey. They can see and feel as well as hear the passion of the moment and hear the subtleties and dynamics – and a chemistry occurs between musicians and audience that's hard to replicate in other places.

On the idea that the increasing pace of the world — social media, 24/7 news cycles, constant information overdose — affects the attention span in terms of longer-form art forms like film, books and music:

It's something I lament about this world. I was talking with colleague my dad's age. He remembers when he was younger that going to a chamber concert was a big deal; a night outthe. Now there's a glut of information and stimuli coming at us at all time and it feels like people constantly distracted. I can look at it in a couple of ways. Do I program shorter concerts so the audience stays focused? Or do I embrace this art form that can be completley transportive? Musical Masterworks has a perhaps little different demographic than folks who stare into a device all day long. But even the younger folks in Old Lyme often say thanks for taking me away for a while. So, particjularly in Old Lyme, I'm not going to apologize for the length of a concert or a piece of music. I think the people here trust the composer and performers to keep them engaged. I'll go a step further. Anyone capable of hearing can be moved and affected by the pieces of music we play in this series.

MUSICAL MASTERWORKS 2017-18 SEASON

All Musical Masterworks concerts take at 5 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday in the First Congregational Church, 2 Rope Ferry Road, Old Lyme; $40 individual concerts, $5 students with ID, $150 season subscription, $100 mini subscriptions; $25 special Nov. 3 MMModern Concert. musicalmasterworks.org.

5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22

Orion Weiss, piano; Jesse Mills, violin; Max Mandel, viola; Edward Arron, cello; Shawn Conley, double bass

Hummel: Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Opus 87

Dohnányi: Serenade in C Major for String Trio, Opus 10

Vaughan Williams: Piano Quintet in c minor

6:30 p.m. Nov. 3, 5:30 p.m. appetizers and drinks

MMModern! with The Westerlies

5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3, pre-talk one hour before performances

Ehnes Quartet: James Ehnes, violin; Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin; Richard O'Neill, viola; Edward Arron, cello

Haydn: String Quartet in G Major, Opus 76, No. 1

Bartók: String Quartet No. 2, Sz. 67

Beethoven: String Quartet in C Major, Opus 59, No. 3

5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018

Rieko Aizawa, piano; Todd Palmer, clarinet; Edward Arron, cello

Beethoven: Trio in B-flat Major, Opus 11

Chopin: Nocturne in F-sharp Major for Solo Piano, Opus 15, No. 2

Chopin: Waltz in c-sharp minor for Solo Piano, Opus 64, No. 2

Poulenc: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano

Svante Henryson: Off Pist for Clarinet and Cello (1996)

Glinka: Trio pathétique in d minor

Piazzolla: Spring from Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

5 p.m. Saturday, March 10 and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 11, 2018

Jeewon Park, piano; Chee-Yun, violin; Edward Arron, cello

Amy Beach: Dreaming for Cello and Piano

Mozart: Sonata in B-flat Major for Violin and Piano, K. 378

Bernstein: Piano Trio (1937)

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in c minor, Opus 66

5 p.m. Saturday, April 28 and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 29, 2018, pre-talk one hour before concerts

Adam Neiman, piano; Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin; Aaron Boyd, violin; Dimitri Murrath, viola; Edward Arron, cello

J.S. Bach: Sonata No. 4 in c minor for Violin and Keyboard, BWV 1017

Schubert: String Trio in B-flat Major, D. 581

Taneyev: Piano Quintet in g minor, Opus 30

If you go

What: Musical Masterworks opens 2017-18 season

When : 5 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday

Where: First Congregational Church, 2 Rope Ferry Road, Old Lyme

How much: $40, $5 students

For more information: musicalmasterworks.org