Sister Bay, Wis. – June 14, 2018 – Midsummer’s Music continues its 28th season with a unique twist on the Million Dollar Quartet.
In 1956, an amazing event occurred. Four of the greatest rock stars of the century gathered for a singular evening of music making, an impromptu jam session at Sun Studios in Memphis. This one gathering created the name, the “Million Dollar Quartet,” which more recently has been immortalized in a musical by the same name.
Yet, historical documents from over two hundred years ago indicate that there was a similar gathering of a fabulous four. Instead of Johnny Cash, Franz Joseph Haydn was on violin. Instead of Elvis, Mozart played viola. Johann Vanhal (cello) and Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (violin) instead of Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. They met in the plush Viennese residence of Stephen Storace and his sister, Nancy, somewhere around 1784. We know about this evening from Michael Kelly, a singer from England, and guest that evening who noted the event in his reminiscences.
Midsummer’s Music has recreated a hypothetical version of the evening including a work by Mozart that he had recently completed and dedicated to Haydn. Herr Storace, as fly-on-the-wall that evening, has accepted Midsummer’s invitation to attend this re-creation and to tell us, via actor Mark Moede, how this historic evening progressed.
As a part of Midsummer’s continuing reference to the Celebrate Water initiative, Haydn’s “Frog” Quartet reminds us, through its croaking sounds, that all species require water, and for some like the frogs, even for procreation!
Concerts are 7:00 pm June 23 at Sister Bay Moravian Church; 7:00 pm June 27 at Woodwalk Gallery; 7:00 pm July 1 at a private home in Egg Harbor; 7:00 pm July 2 at the Old Gibraltar Town Hall in Fish Creek; and 7:00 pm July 19 at a private home in Sister Bay. The concert will also be performed at 7:15 pm on June 26 for a special fundraising event at the Meyer Theatre in Green Bay to benefit the Fine Arts Institute at East High.
Most concerts are $29 for adults, $10 for students, and children 12 and under are free, and concerts are usually followed by a reception to meet the musicians. Salon concerts at private homes are $60 for adults and $40 for students. For the June 26 fundraising concert in Green Bay, VIP tickets, which include a pre-concert reception and auction, are $95; adults are $29, students are $10, and children 12 and under are free. Woodwalk Gallery invites concertgoers to bring their own picnics at 5:00 and requests picnic table reservations by calling 920-629-4877. Subscriptions consisting of four concert tickets and flex-packs of six or eight tickets are available. Tickets, subscriptions and flex-packs can be ordered online at midsummersmusic.com or by phone at 920-854-7088.