3393
(0 votes, average 0 out of 5)
Written by Michael Muckian, Contributing writer
Jul 28, 2011
Peninsula Music Festival presents its 59th season of the classics in Fish Creek’s Door Community Auditorium Aug. 2-20. Go to musicfestival.com. – Photo: Courtesy
In many ways, the village of Fish Creek is the artistic heart of the Door County peninsula. Among other things, this small community on the Green Bay side of the Door is home to the Peninsula Music Festival, which hosts its 59th season in August.
This year’s series of nine classical concerts begins Aug. 2 at Door Community Auditorium with Verdi’s overture to his opera “Nabucco,” Beethoven’s Triple Concerto Op. 56 in C Major and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, Op. 56 in A minor, which is also known as the “Scottish” symphony. A symphonic rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” will round out the performance.
“People come to Door County for the beauty of its geography, and many of them don’t even know we’re here,” says Sharon Grutzmacher, PMF’s executive director. “We are one of the best-kept secrets on the peninsula.”
PMF performed its first concert as a chamber orchestra on Aug. 6, 1953, conducted by founder and musical director Thor Johnson. The fledgling festival had a budget of $10,000, a single funder and troupe of volunteer supporters.
Over time, the ensemble grew from a chamber orchestra with 25 players to its current symphonic size, with a roster of 64 professional musicians and music educators from major symphonies throughout the country.
Johnson died in 1975. PMF went through several music directors before hiring Victor Yampolsky in 1985. A Russian émigré, Yampolsky studied violin under David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory, was offered a music scholarship and a position in the Boston Symphony Orchestra string section by Leonard Bernstein, and currently serves as professor of music performance at the Northwestern University School of Music in Evanston, Ill.
“The music is our artistic mission, and it’s displayed in every brochure, every poster and heard at every concert,” Yampolsky says. “My aim has always been to present the greatest music by the greatest composers who ever lived.”
This year’s line-up includes works by Franz Schubert, Camille Saint-Saens, J.S. Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a host of others. The series also features a two-concert Liszt-Berlioz Fest and an evening of stage and film music, including works by Bernstein, John Williams, Richard Rodgers, Lerner and Loewe and others. “From Broadway to Hollywood,” helmed by guest conductor Stuart Alltop, will plays on Aug. 6.
Last year PMF commissioned a work from pianist Stewart Goodyear. The artist has said his inspiration for the piano concerto, a “highly caffeinated” work written to be performed with a full symphony orchestra, was his love of Door County itself.
“Every movement is based on a dance,” says Stewart, whose heritage is half British and half Trinidadian. “The concerto itself is full of joy and I am prouder of this piece than any other piece that I have composed.”
PMF presents outstanding compositions and performances in a uniquely comfortable and relaxed environment. Out performer Paul Ledwon, principal cellist both with PMF and the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, says that despite the cultured image of long-haired music, its aficionados are a welcoming crowd. Their openness extends to sexual orientation, he adds.
“I think maybe the most interesting thing about being gay in the classical music world is that it’s such a non-issue,” Ledwon says. “Personally, I’ve never experienced anything negative having to do with it.”
Out PMF chairman Bruce McKeefry, who owns McKeefry & Yeomans Landscaping and McKeefry & Yeomans LLP, agrees.
“The music doesn’t know my sexuality,” McKeefry says. “It isn’t straight or gay – it’s about the music.”
