Chamber music takes center stage – along with churches, museums, and other places – this week in Lindsborg for the Inaugural Smoky Valley Chamber Music Festival.
Caroline Beckman, a Lindsborg native and Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the University of Kansas City, came up with the idea for this festival as part of her dissertation capstone. What it became was something much larger than she had imagined, with 21 musicians from 11 states and nine countries taking part.
Concerts have been scheduled for each evening Tuesday through Friday along with Friday and Saturday afternoons. Each of the six concerts will have a specific theme, and at a different location. The first of these will be American Soundscape, featuring works by Caroline Shaw, Florence Price, and Antonin Dvorak performed by the Seville String Quartet, Tuesday evening at 7 at St, Bridget of Sweden Catholic Church,
Wednesday’s concert at 7 PM in the Swedish Pavilion at the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage is Scandinavian Soundscape, the Young Artists String Chamber Concert featuring Moa Glimberg on bass, will spotlight the works of Johann Halvosen, Lars Erik Larsson, and Edvard Grieg. The Thursday Concert, European Threads featuring faculty artists, will take place at 7 PM at The Birger Sandzen Memorial Art Gallery, spotlights the works of Grieg along with Robert Schumann, Bela Bartake, and Lukas Foss.
Friday will feature two concerts. The first, at 3 PM at Bethany Lutheran Church is American Sketches, performed by AndEsPian DUO (Andreas Landstedt and Esther Jihye Han Landstedt) and spotlighting the works of Amy Beach, Libby Larsen, Edward MacDowell and Logan Skelton The second Friday concert is American Mosaic, which features the festival’s young artists – Bekah Walker, Jeff Doucette, Jesus Garcia, Allison Smith, and Cesari Caro – performing works from Beach, George Gershwin, John Williams, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein. That will be at 7:30 in the Pearson Chapel at Bethany College.
The final concert, Smoky Valley Soundscape, is Saturday afternoon at 3 at Presser Hall Auditorium on the Bethany campus. This concert will be highlighted by the world premiere of a specially commissioned work for the Festival by Kansas City-based composer AJ Harbison. This concert, which will also include works from Copland, Grieg and Bach, features Daniel J. Masterson and the Smoky Valley Children’s Choir directed by Lori Nelson.
Along with the concerts, there will be other events during the week. If weather permits there will be a Valkommen to Lindsborg pop-up performance with the Festival Young Artists Monday evening at 7;30 at Valkommen Bridge and Bike Trail. Tuesday afternoon at 4 there’s going to be a piano masterclass within a masterclass at Messiah Lutheran Church.
Wednesday morning at 11 Virtuosic Soundscape will be presented at at the north entrance to Sunflower Terrace at Bethany Village, a presentation of Summer Sounds and Stires at 3 at Lindsborg Community Library. At 4 PM Wednesday Beckman will present a program on Ebba Nylander Sundstrom, a Lindsborg native, Swedish-American Violist, and America’s First Lady of the Baton.
On Thursday, Young Artist Elise Cole and chalk artist Shelly Carlson will be presenting Bach and Chalk at 12:15 PM at Blacksmith Roastery and Coffee Shop. Carlson will do a real-time chalk drawing during a live performance of Bach’s Cello Suite Number 1 in G Major.
Saturday, festival musicians will be performing in local artist’s working studios as part of the Spring Artists Studio Open House from 10-2. Maps and other information can be found at the Red Barn Studio or online at redbarnstudo.org. At 2:15 PM, prior to the Festival Finale. Lindsborg Folkdanslag will feature a pop-up performance of Swedish Folk dancing.
The festival is being sponsored by the Lindsborg Arts Council, Visit Lindsborg, First Bank Kansas, Bank of Tescott and United Capital Management Through this sponsorship, all of this week’s events are free of charge.
Additional information on the concerts, performers and other events can be found at www.lindsborgarts.org.
