Sister Bay, Wis. (February 2, 2023) – In 2022, Midsummer’s Music partnered with the Ephraim Historical Foundation and Ephraim Moravian Church to present three concerts featuring music by African American composer Florence Price. Admission to the concerts was collected to establish a music scholarship fund for people of color.
Concertgoers donated $1,749 to provide scholarships to Griffon String Quartet students. “Thanks to these funds,” said Midsummer’s Music Executive Director Allyson Fleck, “we can offer scholarships to three students.” Scholarships include the loan of a violin, viola, or cello.
On January 19, the Griffon String Quartet hosted its first 2023 group lesson for children at the Boys & Girls Club of Door County, which was funded in part by the scholarships and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional group lessons for northeast Wisconsin students will be announced.
Griffon String Quartet members work with children in northeast Wisconsin via the quartet’s Einstein Series, a highly interactive program for school-age children. Students participate in private or group lessons or educational outreach programs. The quartet visits schools and classrooms to perform and discuss string quartet music, relating it specifically to relevant topics in their studies and their lives.
One of the most vibrant and engaging quartets of their generation, the Griffon String Quartet was formed in the fall of 2018 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. Extraordinary musicians who have been Griffon members 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 Japan’s Suntory Hall, and won prestigious music competitions and awards. All are equally dedicated to music education and inspiring the next generation of music lovers. Members of the Griffon String Quartet have 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.
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