The 2023 Labor Day Concert Series runs August 23 through September 4.
Midsummer’s Music, Wisconsin’s oldest summer chamber music series, continues its 33rd 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.
Its Labor Day concert series – running August 23 through September 4 – incorporates 12 concerts performed by world-class musicians, drawing on extraordinarily talented artists 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 feature standard repertoire as well as gems from rarely heard composers, and they attract a growing, dedicated following every year, plus thousands more via Wisconsin Public Radio, Chicago’s WFMT Radio, Performance Today, the Violin Channel, and social media giants Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Providing unique, diverse, and scenic musical experiences, the Labor Day series concerts spotlight composers Antonín Dvořák, Jean Sibelius, Charles-Marie Widor, Paul Schoenfield, and Richard Strauss, while continuing Midsummer’s tradition of championing the works of female and lesser-known composers such as Dora Pejačević, Jan Bach, and Louis Vierne.
Upcoming concerts include the only Salon Concert of Midsummer’s 2023 season, an intimate performance of the Splendid Stories program – with music by Jan Bach, Jean Sibelius, and Antonín Dvořák – on the evening of August 30 at the Mutchler residence in Sturgeon Bay. The gracious homeowners invite concertgoers to a pre-concert reception starting at 6:00pm and featuring tours of their gorgeous gardens. Advanced reservations are required for salon concerts.
Midsummer’s 2023 season concludes on Labor Day, September 4, with an afternoon performance of its Celebratory Fireworks program, for an unforgettable fundraising gala at Björklunden in Baileys Harbor. The pyrotechnics begin with Dora Pejačević’s romantically sumptuous Piano Quartet, followed by Midsummer’s most requested piece, Schoenfield’s outrageous Café Music. The program ends with music for piano and strings by the great Richard Strauss. Coming from the same period as his tone poems, Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration, it is likewise a tour de force!
Musicians include Heather Zinninger, Flute; JJ Koh, Clarinet; Fritz Foss, Horn; David Perry, Suzanne Baia, and Roy Meyer, Violins; Sally Chisholm and Allyson Fleck, Violas; Jeannie Yu, Piano; Paula Kosower, Cello; and Jeremy Attanaseo, Bass.
Midsummer’s Music continues its collaborations with local artists and Write On, Door County poets, presenting original pieces based on inspiration from the music being performed at select concerts.
The complete 2023 summer season brochure can be downloaded at www.midsummersmusic.com.
Tickets are $38 for adults, $17 for students, and children 12 and under are free when accompanied by a paying adult. Premium prices apply for the salon concert and the Labor Day Gala. Flex-packs of six tickets for the price of five tickets are also available and can be used for regular concerts. 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.
High-resolution photos can be downloaded at https://www.midsummersmusic.com/photos/.
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For calendar listings:
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 Pejačević
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
Beneath the Waves CD Release Concert and Reception
Eric Lewis and the Griffon String Quartet
September 9, 7:00pm: Gould Theater at Northern Sky Theater, Fish Creek