NEW SALEM — The 1794 Meetinghouse on South Main Street typically lies dormant during its offseason, with the occasional passing vehicle or woodland creature providing the only soundtrack. But that silence was broken Thursday afternoon by the welcoming sound of the concert and theater venue’s piano on the stage.

The man at the keys was Montague resident Matthew Duncan, who became the 1794 Meetinghouse’s new executive director in January.

“So far it’s been great,” he said. “The winter is the slow season, so I haven’t seen a lot of action, but the board is very helpful and very friendly.”

Duncan, 53, replaces Brad Foster, who stepped down at the end of 2024 to focus on his work teaching and handling accounting and financial management for nonprofits. Foster will continue being the 1794 Meetinghouse’s financial and grant administrator.

“So, this [position] came up. Brad was retiring and so … I applied and they took me on, based I think mostly on my experience doing the Montague music festival — we call it ‘Good Music Makes Good Neighbors.’ We’ve been running it since 2015, off and on if there’s not a pandemic,” Duncan said with a chuckle, adding that Foster has assisted with the transition and has been enormously helpful. “I’ve always sort of been involved with arts organizations on some level and I like the idea of sort of becoming the point person for a particular space, rather than just trying to find spaces.

“It’s programming and grant writing, but also taking care of this building, in whatever sense you can do that,” he added. “It’s been a pretty steep learning curve.”

The upcoming 1794 Meetinghouse season, which spans June through September, is already booked solid.

“Matthew and the board are busy preparing for the upcoming 1794 Meetinghouse season, which begins in June,” Jan Doody, secretary of the venue’s board of directors, said in a statement. “It will be another exciting season featuring a range of artists.”

Duncan, who grew up near St. Louis, initially spent many years performing variety and circus shows and teaching at camps. For nearly a decade, he ran a circus camp for Iñupiat children in Utqiagvik, Alaska.

“But it was a lot of traveling and eventually you don’t want to travel anymore,” he said.

A statement posted to the 1794 Meetinghouse’s Facebook page mentions the new hire is primarily a pianist but he also plays accordion, percussion instruments of all kinds, and more.

“He’s been a street performer, worked in theme parks, aboard cruise ships and at festivals around the world,” the post reads. “He also has experience programming concerts that appeal to a wide audience.”

Duncan is also the accompanist for Healing Harmonies, a choir in Sunderland made up of singers living with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders.

Duncan set down roots in western Massachusetts in 2015, as his wife teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he went back to school, becoming a French teacher for six years. He now works various gig jobs, including providing music for dance classes at Smith College in Northampton and serving as a substitute church organist. He also was once his wife’s teaching assistant for a semester.

He already organized a concert featuring Quabbin Valley Pro Musica, the community chorus associated with the 1794 Meetinghouse, though the concert was held at the Athol Congregational Church.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.