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2008 Season News:
The Festival is gearing up for next year. We are working on another exciting season. Check back for details or click here to be added to our mailing list and if you would like to receive future e-mail newsletters from the Festival.
2007 Season News:
FREE! The Thomas E. Caestecker Family Series
This series of three, 45-minute concerts is suitable for ages 5-95. Children are encouraged to take advantage of the related activities taking place in area libraries, as described below. Concerts are free, and no tickets are necessary. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Seating begins at 1:00 p.m.; concerts start at 1:30 p.m.
“A Hair Affair” with the Amelia Piano Trio
Thursday, June 28, 1:30 p.m. at Thrasher Opera House
Bach’s music sounds different from Schubert’s, and their hairstyles are different too! Cellist Jason Duckles, also a talented cartoonist, draws sketches of each composer, highlighting the different hairstyles, before each piece is played.
“A Day in the Life of a Bumblebee”
Monday, July 9, 1:30 p.m. at Thrasher Opera House
Composer Stacy Garrop helps the audience compose a new piece based on a bumblebee, and the Biava String Quartet gives its premiere performance!
“An Afternoon in Old Russia”
Friday, July 13, 1:30 p.m. at the Boston Farm
Russian accordion/mandolin duo performs Russian folk songs and original music on authentic folk instruments.
Call or visit the following area public libraries for related free children’s programming:
Berlin Public Library, 121 West Park Ave., Berlin 920-361-5420
Caestecker Public Library, 518 Hill St., Green Lake 920-294-3572
Princeton Public Library, 424 W. Water St., Princeton 920-295-6777
Ripon Public Library, 120 Jefferson St., Ripon 920-748-6160
Car Pool Info:Need a ride to any of the concerts? Want to arrange car-pooling for Choral Institute rehearsals? Write to us by clicking on "Comments, questions?" and we'll help you connect with others.
Festival artist news:
According to the Wisconsin State Journal for June 10, 2007 – Soprano Nicole Cabell, 2003 Green Lake Festival performer and 2005 "Singer of the World" winner in Cardiff, Wales, has just released a CD titled "Soprano" on the Decca label.
Kotaro Fukuma performs in South Africa
We have some exciting news about Kotaro Fukuma. Kotaro played for a Festival audience this past summer season at Thrasher Opera House and thrilled our audience with his tremendous abilities. He recently went on tour in South Africa to share his gifts with more audiences. The reviews were outstanding. He received a standing ovation as Howard Nock from the Port Elizabeth Herald reports "Fukuma played with both extrovert flair and deep musical insight, his skill allowing him to bring freshness and spontaneity to the composition that had the audience jumping to its feet and demanding an encore." After playing "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mossourgsky, Kristin Bell of the Grahamstown Grocott's Mail triumphantly said "Kotaro executed this renowned work with great finesse, showing a sensitivity for each individual mood needed for the particular painting. Ending to a resounding applause and a standing ovation..." The Green Lake Festival of Music was extremely fortunate to have had Kotaro as part of of 2006 Music in Motion season.
More Artist News:
William Bolcom, composer and pianist, who appeared with his wife, soprano Joan Morris, at the Festival in 2003, was awarded the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence, a National Medal of Arts , by President and Mrs. Bush at a White House Oval Office ceremony on November 8. Bolcom was one of only 10 people to receive this honor.
Pianist Rieko Aizawa of the Amelia Piano Trio will be performing a little known concerto by Mozart’s big rival Salieri with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra next September. Aizawa recently performed two concerts live on the nationally syndicated WFMT radio network based in Chicago .
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about the Amelia Piano Trio’s Dec. 3 concert in New York with renowned clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, in which they performed Paul Moravec’s Pulitzer-prize winning “Tempest Fantasy”, calling the trio “an exciting young chamber music group” and the audience’s reaction “the kind of ovation that any composer of modern music would die for.” The trio also performed a complete cycle of 6 Beethoven piano trios in three live concerts on the WFMT radio network in September. Each concert also involved a living composer: Augusta Read Thomas, John Harbison, and Daron Hagen, who discussed Beethoven’s influence on his/her life.
Amber Dolphin, who participated in the 2003 Chamber Music program, won a position in the first violin section of the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra. She attended UW-Madison prior to this wonderful accomplishment.
Another past participant of out Chamber Music program, Casey Mullins, violist, has gone on to become a Shar Apprentice. Shar Apprentices are all music school graduates who answer questions and serve all of your strings needs at http://www.sharmusic.com/apprentice
Casey also had an important solo engagement recently playing the Walton Viola Concerto in Seattle .
Breaking news 1/10/06: Pianist Roberto Plano (GLFM 2003) has been invited to play Mozart K. 414 and Shostakovich 1 with the Berlin Philharmonic Strings on November 4 in Mestre, Italy (near Venice). He'll be conducting from the keyboard.
Chu-Fang Huang (GLFM 2004) is the first place winner of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, held in August, 2005.
Soprano Nicole Cabell, 27, (GLFM 2003) has been named "Singer of the World" in the biennial competition for the title held in Cardiff, Wales. The triumph brought her a prize of 10,000 pounds (about $18,000), a shimmering trophy donated by Welsh Royal Crystal and engagements with the Welsh National Opera and the British Broadcasting Corp. Cabell was one of 25 finalists winnowed from 700 entrants from 23 countries. Cabell and baritone Quinn Kelsey, colleagues in the professional training program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, both made the final cut of five singers. The competition, founded in 1983, reflects the importance of singing in Welsh culture. The event has taken on a fair bit of prestige. Past winners include Bryn Terfel and Karita Mattila, now two of the most famous opera singers in the world. In March, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra announced that Cabell would make her MSO debut at concerts next April 28 and 29 when conductor Nicholas McGegan conducts a program of music related to Shakespeare's plays. ---Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Roberto Plano (GLFM 2003) and Chu-Fang Huang (GLFM 2004) were two of the six finalists at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, in May-June, 2005.
The Amelia Piano Trio performed Haydn, Harbison and Brahms in August in New York's BargeMusic series.
Amelia Piano Trio violinist Anthea Kreston has been named an Instructor of Violin at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, for the 2005-2006 school year.
2005 season featured composer Janika Vandervelde had a choral piece premiered by the esteemed Chicago choral group, Bella Voce. As the first part of its celebratory farewell performances, Bella Voce will present "Commissions for Our Time," a program that features the world premiere of a newly-commissioned a cappella choral piece. Award-winning composer Janika Vandervelde has written a hauntingly beautiful setting of Mar ["Sea"], by Federico García Lorca, expressly for Bella Voce. Performances, led by artistic director Anne Heider, were in April and May of 2005.
The Amelia Piano Trio recently enjoyed a highly successful tour of the Western United States. The spent 5 days in residence at Weber State University in Ogden, UT coaching students and working with the youth orchestra. They also gave the premiere performance of a collaboration with the Sean Curran Dance Company. They also did a residency in Seattle, WA, where they did three performances with the dance company. A review in the Seattle Times from February 26, 2005, starts out: "At most dance concerts the effect is of musicians accompanying dancers. At Meany Theater on Thursday night, the mixed program of the Sean Curran Company and the Amelia Piano Trio made it feel more as if the dancers were accompanying the music. Curran's choreography had such lovely clarity, musicality and directness that it became almost transparent, allowing the virtuosity of the musicians to shine through. Violinist Anthea Kreston, cellist Jason Duckles and pianist Rieko Aizawa are each superb in their own right. Together they make music that is daring, lively and completely engrossing. Add in Curran's huiman-scaled choreography and you get a rich combination of densely layered performance." Visithttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002190360_curran26.html for the complete review.
Student News:
Cellist Jamie Davis was a winner of the 2006 Neale-Silva Competition, in Madision, WI.
Violinist Summer Lusk of Bloomington, IL, won first place at the Omega Psi Phi Talent Hunt competition on March 19, 2005. She will play again in St. Louis on April 22, 2005.
Violinist Kevin Fahey (a 2004 Chamber Music Workshop participant) was featured in a January 23, 2005 Chicago Tribune Magazine article about the People's Music School in Chicago.
Violinist Eric Mathewson, a Festival Chamber Music Workshop participant from 2001-2003, was among the featured soloists at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's Young Artists Concert on May 25. Mathewson studies with MSO associate concertmaster Samantha George and performed a movement from the Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra. For George, watching her student step before the orchestra is a bit of a stage-mother experience."I will have one student playing a concerto with the orchestra and another, Hanna Hurwitz, sitting concertmaster right next to me," she said. "How cool is that, from a teacher's perspective?" (from the May 26, 2004 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Wisconsin Public Radio upcoming broadcasts:
January, 2007: Kotaro Fukuma
As the 2007 season approaches here is a reminder to listen to WPR this January. The Green Lake Festival of Music was extremely fortunate to have had Kotaro as part of of 2006 Music in Motion season. To hear selections from Kotaro's concert this past July, listen to WPR later this month and relive this marvelous performance or experience it for the first time. It will be broadcast on WPR’s News and Classical Network, which is also available online through live webcasting. Visit www.wpr.org for details. The dates are as follows:
Sunday, January 28, 2 pm-Takemitsu
Monday, January 29, 9 am-Schubert Sonata
Tuesday, January 30, 1 pm-Albeniz Iberia, Book II
Wednesday, January 31, 11 am- Mozart Sonata
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