he Midsummer’s Music resident string quartet plays Dvořák, Haydn, and Jessie Montgomery.
Sister Bay, Wis. (September 18, 2021) – Midsummer’s Music’s resident string quartet, the Griffon String Quartet, presents its first live concert of the ensemble’s September-to-May season on Saturday, September 25, in Birder Hall at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. The pay-what-you-can program, which begins at 2:00pm, will feature Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5, “Lark,” Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, and Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, “American.”
Haydn’s piece received the moniker, “Lark,” because of the soaring, circling violin melody in the first movement, which opens with an elegantly prancing staccato. Contemporary composer, violinist, and educator Montgomery wrote Strum, which she describes as “the culminating result of several versions of a string quartet I wrote in 2006.” Czech composer Dvořák wrote his “American” quartet while visiting the town of Spillville, Iowa, on holiday during his tenure at New York’s National Conservatory of Music.
Concert reservations are recommended. Free tickets for the concert are available through the St. Norbert website: snc.edu/tickets or by calling 920-403-3950.
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 between Midsummer’s Music, the Fine Arts Institute at East High in Green Bay, and St. Norbert College in De Pere. 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.