Midsummer’s Music, Wisconsin’s oldest summer chamber music series, continues its 2024 concert season with a program featuring three great classical composers: Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Josef Haydn, and Robert Schumann. The program’s three performances run July 5 to 7 at venues in Ellison Bay, Egg Harbor, and Sturgeon Bay in Door County, WI.

Schumann’s Märchenerzählungen (“Fairy Tales”) is a trio for clarinet, viola, and piano and is one of his final compositions. He believed that listeners would find it “highly romantic.” Beethoven’s “Ghost” (Trio No. 5 in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1, for piano, violin, and cello) gets its name from the haunting sound of the piano’s soft tremolando that underlies parts of the slow movement. Haydn’s Trio in C Major for piano, violin, and cello is not so scary, but its intensity and flair can leave audiences breathless. Written during his second visit to London, it is one of his last and best trios in a genre he pretty much invented.

Musicians for the “Beethoven, Haydn, and Schumann: Fairy Tales and Ghosts” program are clarinetist Alicia Lee, pianist Jeannie Yu, violinist David Perry, violist Allyson Fleck, and cellist Mara McClain.

Concerts are at 7:00pm, July 5 at Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church in Ellison Bay, sponsored by the James & Nancy Huebner Charitable Fund; 7:00pm, July 6 at the Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor, sponsored by Joan & Stefan Anderson; and 5:00pm, July 7 at Hope United Church of Christ in Sturgeon Bay, sponsored by Sandy Zingler. The 2024 concert series is sponsored by the Jean Berkenstock Family Fund and the Susan DeWitt Davie Legacy Fund, and the season is dedicated to the memory of Jean Berkenstock.

A complete 2024 summer brochure can be downloaded at www.midsummersmusic.com.

 Tickets are $39 for adults, $19 for students, and children 12 and under are free with an adult. Premium prices apply for special events. Flex Packs of six tickets for the price of five tickets are also available. Order tickets at www.midsummersmusic.com or by phone at 920-854-7088.

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.

Alicia Lee (credit Austin Hargrave): https://midsummersmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/alicia-lee-2.jpg

Beethoven, Haydn, and Schumann: Fairy Tales and Ghosts program graphic: https://www.midsummersmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/beethoven-haydn-schumann-calendar-featured-image.png

High-resolution photos can be downloaded at https://www.midsummersmusic.com/photos/.

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For Calendar Listings:

David Perry Leads Mendelssohn Octet—and More!

Octet in C Minor, Op. 15a (1850)                Woldemar Bargiel

Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20                        Felix Mendelssohn

June 21, 7:00 pm: Sister Bay Moravian Church, Sister Bay

June 23, 5:00 pm: Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

June 27, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

 

Dvořák and Brahms

Quintet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 5                  Antonín Dvořák

Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34                            Johannes Brahms

June 22, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

June 28, 7:00 pm: Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church, Ellison Bay

June 29, 7:00 pm: Wilson/Beck Residence Dinner Concert, Fish Creek

June 30, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

 

Beethoven, Haydn, and Schumann: Fairy Tales and Ghosts

Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales), Op. 132               Robert Schumann

Trio in C Major, Hob. XV:27                                              Franz Josef Haydn

Trio No. 5 in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 (“Ghost”)         Ludwig van Beethoven

July 5, 7:00 pm: Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church, Ellison Bay

July 6, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 7, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

 

Bastille Day Celebration: Join the party at each concert!

Suite en parties, Op. 91 (1927)                                        Vincent d’Indy

Suite Basque, Op. 6 (1901)                                                Charles Bordes

Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10                                               Claude Debussy

July 11, 7:00 pm: Music/Wine-paring concert—Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 12, 7:00 pm: Sister Bay Moravian Church, Sister Bay

July 13, 7:00 pm: Music/Wine-pairing concert—Björklunden, Baileys Harbor

July 14, 5:00 pm: Music/Wine-pairing concert—Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

 

Bach to the Future

Selections from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079                                        Johann Sebastian Bach

Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 [Will Healy, arr.]                           Johann Sebastian Bach

Root Position (MM Commission, 2023/2024)                                                Will Healy

Selections Featuring Will Healy and George Meyer

July 18, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 19, 7:00 pm: Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church, Ellison Bay

July 21, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

 

Grieg Piano Concerto and Jeannie Yu

Crisantemi                                                                                    Giacomo Puccini

Quartet in G Minor, Op. 14 (1860)                                       Emilie Mayer

Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16 [Per Tengstrand, arr.]      Edvard Grieg

July 20, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 25, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 26, 5:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

July 27, 7:00 pm: Muse, Sturgeon Bay

 

Bruch and Brahms

Quartet in D Major, Op. 11, No. 1 (1795)                Adalbert Gyrowetz

Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. Posthumous (1918)  Max Bruch

Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111                             Johannes Brahms

July 28, 5:00 pm: Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

August 2, 7:00 pm: Courtney/Reschka Salon Concert with Grand Reception, Sister Bay

August 3, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

August 4, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

 

Romance and Rapture

Obsidian, rippled, moonlight, gleams (2019)         Sakari Dixon Vanderveer

Quintet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 124                              Mélanie Bonis

Sextet in C Major, Op. 37 (1935)                                 Ernst von Dohnányi

August 27, 7:00 pm: Birch Creek Music Performance Center, Egg Harbor

August 28, 7:00 pm: Björklunden, Baileys Harbor

August 31, 3:00 pm: The Clearing Folk School, Ellison Bay

 

Beethoven Septet

Sextet (1898)                                                     John Ireland

Septet in E-flat Major, Op. 20                      Ludwig van Beethoven

August 29, 5:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

August 30, 7:00 pm: Sister Bay Moravian Church, Sister Bay

September 1, 5:00 pm: Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

 

David Perry, Jeannie Yu: Chausson Concerto!

Quintet in F Major (1905)                                                              Théodore Dubois

Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, Op. 21      Ernest Chausson

August 25, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

September 2, 3:00 pm: Labor Day Gala, Björklunden, Baileys Harbor

 

Coffee Talks: Free, engaging, informal lectures on music topics by Midsummer’s Music ensemble members, staff, and friends.

July 11, 1:00pm, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim: Impressionism and Depression: Music and Society in France 1870–1914 with Peter Conroy, PhD

July 19, 1:00pm, Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church, Ellison Bay: J.S. Bach Reimagined: Generations of Transcriptions with Will Healy, Composer-in-Residence