The musicians of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival will return to the Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma for their annual summer event. This year the festival celebrates the world of Robert Schumann over three consecutive weekends, July 16 to 30.
Making their Festival debut are violinists Jennifer Frautschi and pianist Jeffrey LaDeur. Artists returning this year include Liana Bérubé, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Nikki Einfeld, Cynthia Freivogel, Eric Hoeprich, Monica Huggett, Carla Moore, Holly Piccoli, Kyle Stegall, and Festival Directors Tanya Tomkins and Eric Zivian.
Valley of the Moon Music Festival is the first and only organization in the U.S. devoted exclusively to presenting the chamber music of the Classical and Romantic eras, performed on instruments built when the music was written.
“This year’s program presents Schumann’s music alongside the music of composers he listened to and relevant excerpts of his criticism in an effort to immerse audiences more deeply into his world,” says Tomkins. “This summer Schumann is both our mentor and tour guide.”
Highlights of the Festival include the opening concert on Sunday, July 16, featuring Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with virtuoso clarinetist Eric Hoeprich.
Kyle Stegall, a tenor who performed in the 2016 Festival, performs songs and arias by Schumann and Chopin on July 22, including rarely performed selections from Chopin’s collection of Polish songs.
The following day’s concert takes its title, “Fair Queen of my Heart,” from a verse in Schumann’s Liederkreis referring to the fatal power of love. Rounding out the program is Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat, performed by the Festival’s apprentices. The apprentices, talented young chamber musicians with an interest in historic instruments, will perform in the final four concerts.
The third weekend of the Festival welcomes ace violinists Huggett and Freivogel, and in the final concert two-time Grammy nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient Jennifer Frautschi in a rare performance on gut strings. This weekend features three concerts including a matinee on Sunday, July 30, at 11 a.m.
On Saturday, July 29, the Festival explores the chamber music of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. The following day’s matinee at 11 a.m., titled “Only Genius Entirely Understands Genius,” explores the music of Schumann’s wife, Clara, a piano prodigy, followed by one of Schumann’s own String Quartets and Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor.
The Festival comes to a close with a second concert on Sunday, July 30 at 4 p.m. Niccolò Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor for solo violin, performed by Frautschi, sets the tone for the works to follow.
At the conclusion of each concert, the audience can mingle on the patio of the Hanna Center.
Special events include a post-concert discussion from the stage led by KDFC radio’s Rik Malone at the opening concert on July 16. On July 30, there will be a picnic lunch catered by the Girl and the Fig with a conversation led by Harvard musicologist Kate van Orden, titled “The Composer as Journalist.”
Admission to each concert is $45, with a 50 percent discount for those under 30.
valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.org.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: