11th Annual SummerFest Music Festival

June 21 – 28, 2023

This year marks our 11th SummerFest music festival! Our 2023 SummerFest — Visions and Decisions — focuses on the interaction of musical imagination and technique.

“You’re almost asleep, but not quite; your mind begins to wander; it drifts not away from your thoughts, but deeper into them; a vision appears in your mind – a dream of musical images, energy, and emotion – it feels like there’s an urgent message in this music that you must decode; the vision is new, yet strangely familiar; it’s yours for the taking. You grab the dream and shake yourself awake. You’ve got it. You hold the music in your mind’s ear while its rhythmic energy resonates in your body. Now you must decide what to do with it. This will take some work, but it’s exhilarating work – scripting invisible events, shaping sounds into expressive patterns, depicting echoes: it’s called composing.”

——from Visions and Decisions, a new book (Buy Here) by Bruce Adolphe 

All music starts as a musical vision and then the hard work begins. Off the Hook Arts artistic director Bruce Adolphe will discuss the compositional process and the music on our concerts this summer, as well as his new book on June 22nd.

Concerts
June 21 – Where Thought Touches the Blood — Dramatic Musical Visions

• Leoš Janàček: Sonata for Violin and Piano
• Cello work TBD
• Beethoven: Piano Trio Opus 70, No. 2

Featuring:

• Violin: Kyu-Young Kim
• Cello: Joshua Halpern
• Piano: Marija Stroke

June 25 – Musical Tales — with Composer-Narrator Bruce Adolphe

• The Nightingale for violin and narrator, music by Bruce Adolphe with an updated comical-digital version of the tale by Hans Christian Anderson
• Fantasy Pieces for cello and piano by Robert Schumann
• The King, the Cat, and the Fiddle — a funny fable for violin soloist; string ensemble, and piano; music by Bruce Adolphe, story by Yehudi Menuhin and Christopher Hope

Featuring:

• Violin I: Kelly Hall-Tompkins
• Violin II: Dorian Kincaid 
• Viola: Stephanie Mientka
• Cello: Alice Yoo
• Bass: Mark Lillie
• Piano: Marija Stroke

June 28 – Schubert’s Grand Vision

• Prokofiev Sonata for Violin and Piano in F Minor
• Ligeti Sonata for Solo Cello
• Schubert B-Flat Piano Trio

Featuring:

• Violin: Ari Isaacman-Beck
• Cello: Matthew Zalkind
• Piano:  Marija Stroke

Talks
June 23 – Join author and speaker Teresa Funke for an inside look as she interviews/moderates an intimate conversation with SummerFest artistic director, Bruce Adolphe about his new book, Visions & Decisions. Venue TBD.

Stay tuned for additional information regarding programs and tickets.

Proudly supported by our sponsors