Six new musicians join the Midsummer’s Music ensemble for the 2019 summer season!

Sister Bay, Wis. – August 9, 2019 – 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. Each year, in order to provide complete instrumentation for pieces ranging from solos to octets and larger ensembles, Artistic Director James Berkenstock invites professional musicians to play during the growing concert seasons. The following musicians were warmly welcomed to the established Midsummer’s Music ensemble for the 2019 season.

French Horn player Fritz Foss enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and music educator. Assistant Principal/Utility Horn of the prestigious Lyric Opera of Chicago since 2012, he also performs with the Chicago Philharmonic. Foss has been a member of the Vermont Symphony and Colorado Symphony and has performed around the globe including appearances with the Malaysian Philharmonic, Jerusalem International Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Boston Pops, Kansas City Symphony, and Grand Rapids Symphony. Winner of the New World Symphony’s Concerto Competition, he appeared with them as soloist in Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 2. Foss has toured throughout the U.S. as a member of the Paramount Brass Quintet and appears on their recording Shepherd’s Hey that includes works by Percy Grainger, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. He has been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division, Boston Conservatory, Tanglewood Institute, and Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, and he currently performs and coaches woodwind quintets at Madeline Island Chamber Music. Foss played Mozart’s Quintet for Horn and Strings in E-flat Major, K. 407, during the Mozart and Brahms Quintets program and Jacob Beranek’s Quintet for Winds during the Prescient Youth program.

Bassist Andrew Keller, as a chamber, orchestral and opera musician, has performed on three continents. A 2018 Global Academy fellow with the New York Philharmonic, he has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Houston’s KINETIC and the Hear and Now contemporary ensemble. International and U.S. festival appearances include Switzerland’s Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival, where he was a three-time fellowship recipient, and he performed with the Aspen Festival Orchestra and the Aspen Chamber Symphony. Keller toured Seoul, South Korea, as a member of the Indiana University Chamber Orchestra. A Minnesota native, Keller earned his Bachelor’s degree at Indiana University, and received his Master’s degree from Rice University. Andrew joined the ensemble for Louise Farrenc’s Quintet No. 2 in E Major, Op. 31, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Sextet in D Major, Op. 110, during the Mendelssohn Bravura program.

Hailed by The Columbus Dispatch as having “gorgeous sound and dynamic nuance,” JJ Koh joined the Madison Symphony Orchestra as Principal Clarinet in 2016. For the 2018-2019 season, he serves as Assistant Principal E-flat Clarinet with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and he holds a position with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Koh has been a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and performed with the Toronto Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Lexington Philharmonic, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and New World Symphony. He is principal clarinetist of KammerMahler, and he premiered Kaleidoscope by Perry Goldstein, which was released by New Dynamic Records. Summer festival appearances include the National Repertory Orchestra, Lake George Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival, where he held a Fellowship for five summers. JJ joined the Midsummer’s ensemble for Quintet in F Sharp Major, Op. 10, by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Quintet for Winds by Jacob Beranek during the Prescient Youth program; Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 27, by František Škroup for the Czech and Triple Czech program; and he will play in Serenade III, H 218, by Bohuslav Martinů in the upcoming Mendelssohn Octet program.

Lindsay Flowers Koh is Principal Oboist of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra and English Hornist of the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra. Formerly, she performed with the New Mexico Philharmonic and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. There she served as a Civic Fellow under the mentorship of the Chicago Symphony Association and Yo-Yo Ma, with whom she appeared on WFMT radio and in venues across the city. As passionate lovers of chamber music, Mrs. Flowers Koh and her husband, JJ, are founding members of the Arundo Donax Reed Quintet, Bronze Medal Winners of The Fischoff National Chamber Competition. She also appeared on KammerMahler’s world premier chamber recordings of Mahler’s Fourth and Ninth Symphonies. Lindsay enjoys teaching at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Lindsay performed alongside Midsummer’s Music oboist Margaret Butler on Handel’s Concerto Grosso in F Major, Op. 3, No. 4 – HWV 315, Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Trio No. 5 in F Major, and Tomaso Albinoni’s Concerto Grosso in C Major, Op. 9, No. 9, during the Baroque Brilliance concerts.

Violinist Vinicius Sant’Ana was introduced to Midsummer’s Music in 2017 as a member of the UW-Madison’s Fox Quartet, which performed several times in Door County in concerts presented by Midsummer’s. Since then, Vini has become a member of the Midsummer’s Music resident string ensemble, the Griffon String Quartet. He recently earned his Master of Music degree at UW-Madison. In 2016, he earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota. As a member of The UND String Quartet and the Red River Trio, Vinicius toured China, Japan, Czech Republic, Brazil, and the U.S. Sant’Ana has received several awards, including the São Paulo Young Artist Competition, Grand Forks Symphony Competition, and Bismarck Symphony Competition. Active as an orchestra musician, he performs regularly with Dubuque and La Crosse Symphony Orchestras, and he has performed with such leading Brazilian orchestras as the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Mato Grosso Symphony Orchestra, and Municipal Theater Orchestra of São Paulo. As a concertmaster of the Pão de Açúcar Chamber Orchestra from 2007 to 2012, Vinicius played in major concert halls of Brazil and abroad. During Fall 2014, Vinicius was invited by the Pão de Açúcar Chamber Orchestra to play as a soloist and concertmaster in their debut at Carnegie Hall. Vini performed on Felix Mendelssohn’s Quintet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 18, during the Prescient Youth program, and he will play in the Ashokan Farewell (Ken Burns’ Civil Ware Theme), by Jay Ungar, Serenade III, H 218, by Bohuslav Martinů, Quartet, Op. 107, by Ignaz Lachner, and Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, by Felix Mendelssohn in the upcoming Mendelssohn Octet program.

Alyona A. Waldo, pianist, instantly charmed the audience and fellow musicians this season. A native of Voronezh, Russia, she has pursued an accomplished and versatile career as a chamber musician, collaborative pianist, and educator. Alyona has performed in numerous recitals across the U.S. and China as a member of the cello/piano team A.W.Duo. As a chamber musician, her highlights include repeat appearances for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, performances with cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, and concerts at numerous venues around NYC, including Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Polish, Russian and French Consulates, and Merkin Hall at Lincoln Center. In New York, Alyona was pianist of the Listen Closely chamber music initiative, a collective that regularly organized public concerts of historical and newly commissioned works for the people of uptown Manhattan. As a collaborative pianist, Alyona worked for the La Lingua Della Lirica Festival in Novafeltria, Italy, and served as staff pianist for the Mannes Prep Division in New York. In Russia, Alyona was winner of Second Gavrilin Governor’s International Competition and the finalist of The Third International Gnessin Piano Competition in Moscow. She has made multiple appearances as concert soloist with the Voronezh Academic Symphony Orchestra. Alyona performed with the Midsummer’s Music ensemble in the following programs: Czech and Triple Czech: Vítězslav Novák’s Trio in D Minor, Op. 27, “Quasi una ballata”, František Škroup’s Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 27, and Antonín Dvořák’s Trio in F Minor, Op. 65; The Piano Virtuoso as Composer: Muzio Clementi’s Trio in D Major, Op. 28, No. 2, Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Trio No. 2 in F Major, Op. 22, and Carl Czerny’s Quartet in C Minor, Op. 148.

To order tickets and see the schedule of the remaining 2019 concerts running August 25 through September 2, visit www.midsummersmusic.com.

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.