Midsummer’s Music Ltd. presents the Hunt Quartet in two free winter concerts. The group plays Friday, December 15, at 7:00 pm at Sister Bay Moravian Church, and Saturday, December 16, at 3:00 pm at Hope United Church of Christ in Sturgeon Bay. The highly acclaimed group, which already played two excellent programs in Door County this year, is the elite graduate string quartet for the Mead Witter School of Music.
The repertoire for the first half of the concert includes Quartettsatz in C Minor by Franz Schubert and String Quartet No. 4, Op. 18, by Ludwig van Beethoven. Schubert composed the Quartettsatz in December 1820. It is the first movement of a string quartet that he never completed, and it is regarded as one of the first products of his “mature phase” of composition. Beethoven’s string quartet is the only quartet from his Opus 18 set to be cast in a minor key. C minor would come to be a key Beethoven reserved for highly dramatic works, including – most famously – the Fifth Symphony.
The second half of the concert features such familiar holiday pieces as White Christmas, Carol of the Bells, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent night, and selections from the Nutcracker Suite, among others, as well as opportunities for the audience to sign along.
Receptions with tasty treats follow both concerts, and concertgoers can mingle with the musicians. Concert seating is open and without reservations or tickets.
On Friday, December 15, the quartet will perform an assembly at Sunrise Elementary School in Sturgeon Bay in the morning, and a mini concert for children at the Boys & Girls Club of Door County in the afternoon.
The Hunt Quartet members are extremely talented, having won prizes individually all over the world. Collectively they are one of the outstanding young ensembles gaining a growing reputation by leaps and bounds. They’ve selected a particularly exciting program for us.
Members include three doctoral candidates – Chang-En Lu, violin, Blakeley Menghini, viola, and Kyle Barret Price, cello – and one master’s degree fellow – Vinicius “Vini” Sant’Ana, violin – who work closely with UW-Madison faculty, including the Pro Arte Quartet and cellist/Professor Uri Vardi as their principal coach. They have appeared in concert throughout the Midwest and on WPR in Madison. Chang-En, Blakeley, Kyle and Vini are also with the Madison Symphony where they participate as a quartet in the “Up Close and Musical” outreach program, visiting area schools to teach students about fundamentals of music and the string quartet. Famous artists who have worked with the quartet include violist Nobuko Imai, violist Lila Brown, and members of the Takacs String Quartet. Midsummer’s Music Festival’s violinist Olga Draguieva is a former member of the Hunt Quartet.
Midsummer’s Music thanks Door County Medical Center, the Raibrook Foundation, Innovative Printing, OneTouchPoint, Tea Thyme, and the Foxglove Inn for their support in bringing the Hunt Quartet to Door County to perform for children and for the two community concerts.
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