Napa Valley Chamber Music Festival Focuses on Diverse Composer Inspiration
June 21st – NAPA VALLEY, Calif., – This summer, award-winning musicians from around the world will convene in Napa Valley wineries, barrel rooms, and wine caves for Music in the Vineyards’ (MITV) 29th annual chamber music festival, running July 28 – August 20, 2023. For the first time in its history, the festival will now feature four weeks of concerts on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in order to expand its offerings and provide more community outreach events.
The 29th season will kick-off on Friday, July 28th at Silverado Vineyards with a Schubert Rondo Brilliante for Violin and Piano. Three remarkable string quartets – Calidore (Week 1), Catalyst (Weeks 2 & 3), and Telegraph (Week 4) – will be in residence and will perform as quartets as well as in collaboration with other musicians throughout the festival. Another season highlight includes the premiere of a new work co-commissioned by Music in the Vineyards: a quintet for piano and strings by the appropriately named California composer John Wineglass. Take part in the live premier, along with works by Mozart and Brahms, on Saturday, July 29th at 5:00pm at Silverado Vineyards.
“Our overall theme this season will focus on how vastly different – and fascinating – the sources of inspiration are for composers,” said Artistic Director Michael Adams. “For example, Breathing Statues by British composer Anna Clyne is inspired by certain string quartets of Beethoven, whose themes appear throughout. Several works were inspired either from grief or the rejection of unrequited love.”
On Saturday, August 5th at 5:00pm, the festival will host its first-ever interactive community concert at the First Presbyterian Church in Napa. Designed for pure fun and audience participation, the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by tango master Astor Piazzolla will take center stage, and the event will conclude with a mass group performance of Pachelbel’s Canon. Concert attendees are encouraged to download music ahead of time and bring their instruments for the amateur play-along!
San Francisco’s Telegraph Quartet will return this season and provide the soundtrack for Music in the Vineyards’ reprise of a Not-So-Silent Cinema on Saturday, August 19th. These unique community concerts at the Jarvis Conservatory (12:00pm) and the St. Helena Performing Arts Center (5:00pm) will feature two classic silent films with original music by Stephen Prutsman, performed live by festival musicians. The main attraction is a Buster Keaton classic, College from 1927 which will be preceded by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a silent horror film, considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema. These highly-anticipated concerts offer $10 and $20 tickets and aim to recreate the cinema experience of 100 years ago, before recorded sound was integrated into filmmaking in the 1920s.
As part of its commitment to community engagement and increasing accessibility to chamber music for all, Music in the Vineyards will feature its 2023 Fellowship String Quartet, the Lírios Quartet. Formed at the University of Colorado Boulder, Lírios comprises four emerging artists who have come together under the mentorship of the Takács Quartet. Selected by national audition, the quartet will be in-residence for the entire Music in the Vineyards festival, performing alongside the seasoned musicians and at children’s clubs, senior centers and all around the valley.
Please visit www.musicinthevineyards.org in May for full festival details including concert programs, free open rehearsals, lecture series events, and other special events. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on May 15, 2023. For more information, call (707) 258-5559 or e-mail info@musicinthevineyards.org
