Midsummer’s Music Presents Eric Lewis, Will Healy, Four World Premieres

Virtuoso guitarist and Door County favorite Eric Lewis teams up with Midsummer’s Composer-in-Residence Will Healy to present two incredible concerts with four world premieres.

Midsummer’s Music, Wisconsin’s oldest summer chamber music series, continues its 2023 concert season with an electrifying program starring Door County favorite Eric Lewis, a virtuoso guitarist and banjoist, and Will Healy, its own Composer-in-Residence and a classical/jazz/hip-hop maverick. Working with musicians from Midsummer’s Music’s ensemble and NYC-based composer George Meyer, the magical results include four world premieres.

The two Eric Lewis Meets Will Healy concerts are a delightful and unexpected twist to a season punctuated by such greats as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, and Beethoven—to name just a few. The concerts begin with Healy and Meyer performing movements from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata No. 6 in G Major for violin and piano. Lewis follows up on guitar with Bourée from Bach’s Suite E Minor. He continues his set with at least three additional pieces, one of which, “For Rose Mary,” is the first of the program’s world premieres. Healy and Meyer return before intermission with three more original works, including “Let the Record Show,” the second world premiere.

Following intermission, Healy unveils the world premiere of his “Root Position” for piano, violin, viola, and cello – commissioned by Midsummer’s Music – and Meyer presents his “Trio” for two violins and cello. The program concludes with a selection of pieces chosen by the ensemble, including the unnamed fourth world premiere performed by Lewis, Healy, and Meyer.

In addition to Lewis, strings, Healy, piano, and Meyer, violin, the program musicians are Sahada Buckley, violin, Allyson Fleck, viola, Mara McClain, cello, and Drew Banzhaf, bass.

Performances are 7:00pm, July 13, at Egg Harbor’s Kress Pavilion, in memory of Tommy Burroughs and sponsored by Dick & Annie Egan, with supporting sponsors MMG Foundation and Sandy Zingler; and 7:00pm, July 14, at Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church in Ellison Bay, sponsored by Tim & Sue Stone, with supporting sponsor MMG Foundation.

A complete 2023 summer brochure can be downloaded at www.midsummersmusic.com.

Tickets are $38 for adults, $17 for students, and children 12 and under are free with an adult. Premium prices apply for 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.

For more information visit www.midsummersmusic.com.

High-resolution photos can be downloaded at https://www.midsummersmusic.com/photos/.

Eric Lewis: https://www.midsummersmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Eric-Lewis.jpg

Will Healy: https://midsummersmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/will-healy-red-background-cmyk.jpg

George Meyer: https://www.midsummersmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/george-meyer-cropped.jpg

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For Calendar Listings:

Remembering Rachmaninoff, Remembering Tchaikovsky

Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11, “Accordion”                                                    Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky

Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 9, “In Memory of a Great Artist”       Sergei Rachmaninoff

June 29, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

June 30, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

July 1, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 2, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

 

Brahms in the Spotlight

Movements for String Quartet                                       Nkeiru Okoye

Quintet in G Major                                                              Sir Arthur Somervell

String Quintet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 88, “Spring”     Johannes Brahms

July 6, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 7, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

July 8, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 9, 5:00 pm: Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

 

Eric Lewis Meets Will Healy

Door County favorite Eric Lewis joins forces with Midsummer’s own Composer-in-Residence Will Healy to create a truly one-of-a-kind program. Being presented only twice, you do not want to miss a single note of this incredible collaboration, including a world premiere by Will!

July 13, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 14, 7:00 pm: Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church, Ellison Bay

 

Emperor Concerto & Jeannie Yu

Quartet in D Major, Op. 8                                                                                     Bernhard Henrik Crusell

Symphony No. 95 in C Minor (Salomon arr.)                                                 Joseph Haydn

Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, “Emperor” (Lachner arr.)         Ludwig van Beethoven

July 15, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 16, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

July 19, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 21, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

 

Haydn (Michael) & Mendelssohn

String Quintet in C Major, P. 108                        Michael Haydn

Phantasy Quartet                                                     Ernest John Moeran

Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 87                Felix Mendelssohn

July 20, 7:00 pm: Old Gibraltar Town Hall, Fish Creek

July 22, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 23, 5:00 pm: Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

July 26, 7:00 pm: Sister Bay Moravian Church, Sister Bay

 

Schubert Trio

Piano Trio No. 2                                          Dmytro Klebanov

Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat, D. 898           Franz Schubert

July 27, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 28, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

July 29, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 30, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

 

19th Century French Rapture

Quintet in C Minor, Op. 42                      Louis Vierne

Quintet No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 7            Charles-Marie Widor

August 23, 7:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

August 24, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

August 25, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

August 26, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

 

Splendid Stories

Four Two-Bit Contraptions                           Jan Bach

En Saga, Op. 9 (Gregory Barrett arr.)       Jean Sibelius

Quintet in G Major, Op. 77                           Antonín Dvořák

August 27, 5:00 pm: Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

August 29, 7:00 pm: Björklunden, Baileys Harbor

August 30, 7:00 pm: Mutchler Residence Salon Concert, Sturgeon Bay

August 31, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

September 3, 3:00 pm: The Clearing Folk School, Ellison Bay

 

Celebratory Fireworks!

Piano Quartet in D Minor, Op. 25           Dora Pejacevic

Café Music                                                      Paul Schoenfeld

Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 13           Richard Strauss

September 1, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

September 2, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

September 4, 3:00 pm: Labor Day Gala, Björklunden, Baileys Harbor