From Wednesday, July 10, through Wednesday, July 17, Midsummer’s Music presents the Prescient Youth series of concerts featuring breathtaking works from young composers and child prodigies. The pieces to be performed are Felix Mendelssohn’s Quintet in A Major, Op. 18, written in 1826, when Mendelssohn was just 17 years old, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Quintet in F Sharp Minor, Op. 10, written in 1895 when the composer was 20, and the world premiere of Quintet for Winds by Midsummer’s own Composer-in-Residence, 21-year-old Jacob Beranek. Featured Midsummer’s Music musicians include Heather Zinninger Yarmel, flute, JJ Koh, clarinet, Margaret Butler, oboe, Nathan Hale, bassoon, Fritz Foss, horn, David Perry, violin, Ann Palen, violin, Stephanie Preucil, violin/viola, Allyson Fleck, viola, Walter Preucil, cello, and Jeannie Yu, piano.
Wisconsin-born Jacob Beranek first came to the attention of Midsummer’s Music when he attended a performance in 2015. His enthusiasm for composition – especially Czech music – was so infectious that he was offered the first Composer-in-Residence role with the organization. He has been commissioned to write three new pieces, including his Wind Quintet, for the season. Recent performances of his music have taken place in London, Prague, Nashville, and Philadelphia, and his work has garnered international recognition in competitions such as the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, Edwin Fissinger Choral Composition Prize, National Federation of Music Clubs Emil & Ruth Beyer Awards, and The Gesualdo Six Composition Competition, in which he received first place for ages 21-and-under worldwide. Midsummer’s Music is grateful to the MMG Foundation for their continued support of the Composer-in-Residence position.
Like Beranek, Felix Mendelssohn and Coleridge-Taylor spent a great deal of their childhoods performing and composing. Shortly after composing his Quintet in A Major, Mendelssohn wrote, perhaps his most recognizable work, Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Coleridge-Taylor entered the Royal Academy of Music at age 15. A pioneer of African American Folk music, English-born Coleridge-Taylor toured the United States in the early 1900’s.
Following is the Prescient Youth concert schedule:
Wednesday, July 10, 7:00pm, Woodwalk Gallery, with an optional 5:00pm pre-concert picnic
Thursday, July 11, 7:00pm, Salon Concert in a Sister Bay private residence
Friday, July 12, 7:00pm, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Sunday, July 14, 3:00pm, Kress Pavilion, with an optional post-concert wine pairing at Fireside Restaurant
Wednesday, July 17, 7:00pm, Salon Concert in a Fish Creek private residence
Concurring with the Prescient Youth concerts is the final concert showcasing extraordinary quintets of Mozart and Brahms on Wednesday, July 3, at 7:30pm at Björklunden. Featuring Mozart’s Quintet for Horn and Strings in E-flat Major, K.407, and Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A Major, K.581, and Brahms’ Quintet No. 2 for Strings in G Major, Op. 111, performed by Midsummer Music artists Fritz Foss, horn, Daniel Won, clarinet, Jeannie Yu, piano, David Perry, violin, Ann Palen, violin, Stephanie Preucil, violin/viola, Allyson Fleck, viola, and Walter Preucil, cello.
The final three concerts of the Clara, Robert, and Felix series exploring the fascinating Piano Quintets of Clara and Robert Schumann and their friend and mentor, Felix Mendelssohn, will be performed from July 5 – 7 by Midsummer’s Music musicians David Perry, violin, Walter Preucil, cello, and Jeannie Yu, piano.
Following are the remaining Clara, Robert, and Felix concert performances:
Friday, July 5, at 7:00pm, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Saturday, July 6, at 3:00pm, The Clearing Folk School
Sunday, July 7, at 3:00pm, Kress Pavilion
Tickets are $29 for adults, $10 for students, and children 12 and under are free. Premium prices apply for salon/home concerts, dinner concerts and other special events. 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 for this series or the rest of the season which continues through September 2.
Midsummer’s Music draws on the extraordinary talent of musicians from the Chicago Symphony, Chicago’s Lyric Opera, Milwaukee Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, China National Symphony and the Ravinia Festival, among others.
Midsummer’s Music was co-founded in 1990 by Jim and Jean Berkenstock, long-time Door County summer residents and principal orchestral players with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. What began as two concerts among friends has become one of the Midwest’s most anticipated chamber music series, bringing thousands of chamber music enthusiasts from around the globe to the magical Door County Peninsula.