The Midsummer’s Music resident string quartet plays Mozart, Shaw, and Beethoven.
Hailed for their “superb playing, palpable chemistry, spirit, and emotional connection,” Midsummer’s Music’s quartet in residence, the Griffon String Quartet, announces three mid-October community outreach concerts in Northeast Wisconsin. The pay-what-you-can programs will feature Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat Major.
Mozart’s piece is the first of the “Haydn Quartets,” a set of six quartets honoring Joseph Haydn, who is generally viewed as the father of the string quartet form. New York composer Caroline Shaw was trained primarily as a violinist from an early age. She wrote that her “Entr’acte was written in 2011 after hearing the Brentano Quartet play Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 – with their spare and soulful shift to the D-flat major trio in the minuet. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.” Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat Major, Op. 127, is the first of his legendary “late quartets,” six string quartets that comprise his final and perhaps greatest musical achievement.
The concerts begin October 15 at 7:00pm at SWY231 in Sturgeon Bay, followed by October 16 at 2:00pm at First Presbyterian Church in Green Bay, and ending with a 3:00pm performance on October 17 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Sister Bay.
Concert reservations are recommended. Free tickets are available through the Midsummer’s Music website – midsummersmusic.com – or by calling 920-854-7088 during business hours.
One of the most vibrant and engaging quartets of their generation, the Griffon String Quartet was formed in the fall of 2018 as a collaboration led by Midsummer’s Music. The quartet is a groundbreaking project to enrich the lives of children and adults throughout northeast Wisconsin through concerts, workshops, and music education outreach. Members of the Quartet include violinists Ji-Yeon Lee and Vinicius Sant’Ana, violist Blakeley Menghini, and cellist Ryan Louie. Extraordinary musicians who have performed with orchestras and ensembles around the globe in the finest halls from Carnegie Hall and Brazil’s Teatro Municipal de São Paulo to Ukraine’s Lviv Philharmonic Hall, and won prestigious music competitions and awards, they are equally dedicated to music education and inspiring the next generation of music lovers. Each member of the Griffon String Quartet has advanced degrees and significant professional experience, both as educators and performers, and the ensemble has been recognized for “their youthful vigor, which is absolutely infectious!”
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.
Griffon String Quartet Autumn Concerts
Friday, October 15, 2021, 7:00pm, SWY231, Sturgeon Bay, WI
Saturday, October 16, 2021, 2:00pm, First Presbyterian Church, Green Bay, WI
Sunday, October 17, 2021, 3:00pm, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay, WI
Griffon String Quartet Holiday Concerts
Friday, December 17, 2021, 5:00pm, SWY231, Sturgeon Bay, WI
Saturday, December 18, 2021, 2:00pm, Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor, WI
Sunday, December 19, 2021, 2:00pm, Brown Co. Library, Green Bay, WI