“A Season for Jean” runs June through October.
Sister Bay, Wis. (May 2, 2024) – Midsummer’s Music, Wisconsin’s oldest summer chamber music series, celebrates its 34th season of presenting exceptional chamber music in the vacation paradise of Door County, Wisconsin. Concerts hailed as “exciting, pulse-pounding and riveting” are performed in cultural, historical, and scenic locations, including art galleries, museums, churches, historic sites, and private homes, with several venues offering panoramic views of Lake Michigan and the waters of Green Bay. The 2024 season – beginning June 13 and running through the October Autumn Music Fest – is in memory of MM co-founder, inspiring flutist, board member, and dedicated volunteer coordinator, Jean Berkenstock, and features dozens of concerts performed by world-class musicians from the Chicago Symphony, Chicago’s Lyric Opera, Milwaukee Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, the Spoleto Festival, China National Symphony, the Ravinia Festival, and the renowned Pro Arte Quartet, among others.
The concerts include standard repertoire as well as gems from a diverse array of composers that attract a growing, dedicated following every year, plus thousands more via Wisconsin Public Radio, Chicago’s WFMT Radio, Performance Today, the Violin Channel, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Providing unique cultural and scenic musical experiences, the 34th season spotlights such favorites as Beethoven, Mozart, Dvořák, and Brahms, coupled with pivotal works by their surprising contemporaries, historical women composers, and more.
Composer-in-Residence Will Healy returns with a free-wheeling program inspired by Bach. Selections from The Musical Offering and Healy’s arrangement of Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme lead to Bach-inspired works by Healy himself. He will then be joined by his colleague, violinist George Meyer, for their freshly inspired collaborations that remind us all of our debt to “The Old Wig” (as Bach’s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel affectionately called him).
Among myriad offerings, the summer season’s opening night is at 7:00pm on June 13 at Egg Harbor’s Kress Pavilion with special guest host Norman Gilliland from Wisconsin Public Radio; three Bastille Day Celebration concerts offer music–wine pairings by professional sommelier Jay Hutchinson; an elaborate dinner concert is at the Fish Creek home of Marianna Beck and John Wilson; a Salon Concert with a gourmet reception is at the Courtney/Reschka residence in Sister Bay; and the annual Labor Day Gala at Björklunden in Baileys Harbor is on the afternoon of September 2. In September and October, programs feature Door County-favorite Eric Lewis, the Griffon String Quartet, and the Pro Arte Quartet, plus others.
Returning Midsummer’s Music musicians are Heather Zinninger, Flute; Lindsay Flowers, Oboe; JJ Koh and Alicia Lee, Clarinet; Fritz Foss, Horn; David Perry, Eleanor Bartsch, Suzanne Beia, Sahada Buckley, George Meyer, Roy Meyer, and Ann Palen, Violin; Sally Chisholm, Allyson Fleck, and Catherine Lynn, Viola; Paula Kosower, Cole Randolph, and Mara McClain, Cello; Jeremy Attanaseo and Kris Saebo, Bass, Jeannie Yu and Will Healy, Piano;. Additional musicians are Judy Farmer, Bassoon; Rebecca Royce, Harp; Dawn Wohn, Violin; and Ana Kim and Jesse Nummelin, Cello.
The complete 2024 summer season brochure can be downloaded at www.midsummersmusic.com.
Tickets are $39 for adults, $19 for students, and children 12 and under are free when accompanied by a paying adult. Premium prices apply for opening night, the dinner concert, the salon/home concert, the music–wine-pairing concerts, and other special events. Flex-packs of six tickets for the price of five tickets are also available. Tickets can be ordered 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.
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