Midsummer’s Music executive director and associate director teach the History of Western Music at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
Sister Bay, Wis. – February 25, 2022 – Midsummer’s Music’s Executive Director Allyson Fleck, DMA, and Associate Director Noah Schaffrick led 26 adult students in the History of Western Music course at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Sturgeon Bay. The sold-out class ran weekly for three sessions starting February 8, 2022.
Fleck and Shaffrick structured the course to be packed with captivating musical examples, providing familiarity with different periods of music: Early Music, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque; Classical and Romantic; and Romanticism and the 20th Century—and Beyond.
The Early Music to Baroque session focused on ancient Greece, sacred and secular music, troubadours and trouvères, the development of music, and composers Thomas Tallis, Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrielli, Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg PhilippTelemann, and George Frideric Handel. Fleck and Shaffrick spotlighted works from the Bach family, Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven during the Classical and Romantic session. The final class on Romanticism and the 20th Century—and Beyond covered pieces by Franz Schubert, Niccolo Paganini, Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, national styles, and modern-day composers from Igor Stravinsky to Midsummer’s own Jacob Beranek, Will Healy, Quinn Mason, and Paul Frucht.
Well-crafted and comprehensive PowerPoint presentations documented such topics as the elements of music, the role of the church, types of instruments, the development of music notation, and musical modes and overtones. Cleverly embedded links within the presentations provided many interactive opportunities for students to hear examples from a remarkably wide range of periods, styles, and composers. The ample video links included Midsummer’s Music performances with violinists David Perry and Ann Palen, violists Sally Chisholm and Allyson Fleck, and cellist Greg Sauer.
When asked for her assessment of the course, Fleck described her experience saying, “No matter what age, you are never too young or too old to learn. Teaching gives me a gift of many returns. This class is inspirational, challenging, and fun! While class questions can be simply about a composer’s dates or symphony titles, they can quickly change to what exactly influenced the musical style, or how do musicians describe timbre? What economic traits affected performing arts? And so on. I am grateful for the opportunity to present and to be challenged. A highlight for me was performing a mirror duet with Noah. This is a composition in which the music is written left to right and top to bottom. When flipped upside down (or read on the opposite side of a table) it is a perfect duet. To find out how that is possible, I encourage anyone interested to enroll the next time we teach this class.”
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.
For more information visit www.midsummersmusic.com.
High-resolution photos can be downloaded at https://midsummersmusic.com/photos/.
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For Calendar Listings:
Name: Gather with the Griffon
Description: Intended for the senior members of our community, these sessions are designed to engage the mind and spirit through music and conversation. A generous grant from the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation funds a portion of the Griffon’s B Double Sharp programming to present miniconcerts for the aging or disabled, as well as their caregivers.
Dates: March 9, 2022, April 13, 2022, May 11, 2022
Time/Location: 11:30am, First Presbyterian Church, 200 S Ashland Ave., Green Bay, WI 54303
Name: Griffon String Quartet: Community Concert for Sunshine Resources
Description: The Griffon String Quartet plays for Sunshine House clients in this free community concert
Date: March 10, 2022
Time/Location: 11:00am, Sunshine Resources, 55 Yew St., Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235s
Name: Griffon String Quartet Spring Concerts
Description: Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K.464; Hindemith’s String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 2
Date 1: March 18, 2022
Time/Location: 5:00pm, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 2336 Canterbury Ln., Sister Bay, WI 54234
Date 2: March 19, 2022
Time/Location: 2:00pm, Brown County Library, 515 Pine St., Green Bay, WI 54301
Date 3: March 20, 2022
Time/Location: 3:00pm, Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor, WI 54209
Name: Griffon String Quartet Plays for the 88 Key Society
Description: Members of the Midsummer’s Music 88 Key Society are invited to participate in this high tea featuring cellist James Waldo.
Date: April 2, 2022
Time/Location: 2:00pm, Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor, WI 54209
Name: Griffon String Quartet Concert
Description: The Griffon String Quartet presents a special performance at St. John’s on the Lake in Milwaukee. Repertoire: Florence Price’s Five Folksongs in Counterpoint; Paul Hindemith’s String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 2
Date: April 30, 2022
Time/Location: 2:00pm, St. John’s on the Lake, 1800 N Prospect Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53202
Name: Griffon String Quartet—All Florence Price Concerts
Description: The Griffon String Quartet plays music by African American composer Florence Price.
Date 1: May 14, 2022
Time/Location: 7:00pm, Ephraim Moravian Church, 9970 Moravia St., Ephraim, WI 54212
Date 2: May 15, 2022
Time/Location: 3:00pm, SWY231, 231 N 3rd Ave., Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235
Name: Griffon String Quartet—Green Bay Rotary Banquet
Description: The Green Bay Rotary “Free Enterprise Banquet” is in its 35th year where they honor a local business or community leader. The Griffon String Quartet will perform from 5:30 – 6:30pm.
Date 1: May 16, 2022
Time/Location: 5:30pm, Green Bay Radisson Hotel and Conference Center, 3050 Airport Dr., Green Bay, WI 54313
Name: Griffon String Quartet Concerts
Description: The Griffon String Quartet 2021/2022 season end performances.
Haydn: String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 33/2 “the Joke”
Webern: Langsamer Satz
Beethoven: String Quartet No.10 in E-flat Major, Op. 74 “Harp”
Date 1: May 27, 2022
Time/Location: 7:00pm, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay, WI 54234
Date 2: May 28, 2022
Time/Location: 2:00pm, Brown County Library, 515 Pine St., Green Bay, WI 54301
Date 3: May 30, 2022
Time/Location: 3:00pm, Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor, WI 54209
Name: Griffon String Quartet Fundraising Gala
Description: A fundraising gala to benefit the Griffon String Quartet and its mission
Date 1: May 29, 2022
Time/Location: 3:00pm, Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor, WI 54209