Midsummer’s Music Awarded Women’s Fund Grant

Midsummer’s Music received $2,500 from the Women’s Fund of Door County to support performances with music by women composers.

Sister Bay, Wis. (July 15, 2023) – Midsummer’s Music is pleased to announce that it was awarded a $2,500 grant from the Door County Community Foundation’s Women’s Fund in support of its dedication to presenting music by women composers and for its “Women to be Heard” concert program. The grant was made possible from the following Door County Community Foundation funds: the Women’s Fund Endowment of Door County, the Marion Peterson Memorial Fund, the Sally and Michael O’Brien Family Fund, the Bernard S Bloom Family Fund, and the Bev and Tom Lisle Fund.

Midsummer’s Music, Wisconsin’s oldest summer chamber music series, excels in presenting works by lesser-known composers—often women composers and composers of color who have not been lifted to the pantheon of greatness that few composers attain, but whose works are some of the most inspired pieces of chamber music. For its 2023 summer season, Midsummer’s Music’s Women to be Heard program, which played in June, showcased works by German composers Ilse Fromm-Michaels and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and Austrian composer Johanna Müller-Hermann.

Allyson Fleck, Midsummer’s Executive Director and Assistant Artistic Director, expressed her appreciation: “Women to be Heard was a wonderful week of concerts, education, and social gatherings. We are grateful to the Women’s Fund for its support. At the concerts and coffee talk, we experienced music ‘to be heard’ performed by women musicians who are nationally and internationally renowned. Our audiences were enthused by the music, and attendees of all ages and genders engaged in great discussions. Thank you, Women’s Fund, for your support!”

Additional women composers in Midsummer’s 2023 season are African American Nkeiru Okoye and Hungarian Dora Pejacevic. The 2023 season ensemble is 52 percent comprised of women musicians: flautist Heather Zinninger; oboist Lindsay Flowers; clarinetist Alicia Lee; pianist Jeannie Yu; violinists Suzanne Beia, Sahada Buckley, and Ann Palen; violists Sally Chisholm, Allyson Fleck, Catherine Lynn, and Kayla Patrick; and cellists Paula Kosower and Mara McClain.

Visit midsummersmusic.com to see the complete 2023 summer season schedule and to view the digital program book to learn more about the composers and musicians. Order tickets online or call 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.