Geneva Music Festival returns with concerts in Skaneateles, Auburn
The Geneva Music Festival’s (GMF) 2018 Season will take place from May 31 through June 17, and promises to be exciting, moving and inspirational. Many artists return this year by popular demand, such as violinist Jinjoo Cho, pianist Esther Park, and organist Raymond Nagem. Several talented artists will join GMF for the first time as part of the festival’s “Music, Poetry, and Perspectives: A Celebration of African American Culture,” and Ettore Causa, one of the world’s leading viola soloists, makes his GMF debut as part of the Chamber Finale concerts in Skaneateles and Geneva.
The following GMF concerts take place in Auburn and Skaneateles:
Saturday, June 2, acclaimed young violinist Jinjoo Cho and pianist Hyun-soo Kim join Cavani String Quartet members Si-Yan Lei and Eric Wong, GMF director and violinist Geoffrey Herd and cellist Max Geissler for a concert titled a “Transfigured Night.” The concert will highlight the broad range of stylistic experimentation that was taking place at the turn of the 20th century. Among the works featured will be Fauré’s Quartet No. 1 in c minor and Schoenberg’s poetic masterpiece, Verklarte Nacht. The concert will take place at the First Presbyterian Church of Skaneateles at 7:30 p.m.
The second week features the Festival’s “Music, Poetry, and Perspectives: A Celebration of African American Culture.” On Sunday, June 10 at 2 p.m., the celebration comes to Skaneateles with “Blues and Spirituals,” in which the exceptional pianist Michelle Cann will make her GMF debut, performing with violinist Eliot Heaton, violinist Shawn Moore, violist Colin Brookes, Herd, and Geissler. The program features Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet as well as David Baker’s piano trio Roots II and other works inspired by African American music.
During the last week of the season, Raymond Nagem, associate music director at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC, returns to perform great works by Bach, Mozart and others as he showcases the majestic organ of Auburn’s Westminster Presbyterian Church, on Tuesday, June 12.
On June 15 in Skaneateles, the GMF will present the Chamber Music Finale, “Ettore Causa and Friends.” Causa joins GMF founding musicians Collins and Herd, and friends violinist Shawn Moore and pianist Esther Park to perform treasured chamber works.
Concerts also take place in Geneva and Canandaigua throughout the Festival. A full schedule including concert details and locations, artist biographies and tickets are available on the festival’s website, genevamusicfestival.com.
Tickets for adult admission to each concert and an after-concert reception are $25 (ages 18 and under are free). Six-concert passes and season tickets only are available until the first concert, in Geneva on May 31, and may be purchased online prior to or in person at that concert. All venues are wheelchair accessible and air conditioned.
The Geneva Music Festival is made possible, in part, by the City of Geneva, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the Williams Family Foundation, the Wyckoff Family Foundation, the Brenda and Dave Rickey Foundation, the Nelson B. Delavan Foundation, the John Ben Snow Foundation, the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester, CNY Arts, Geneva on the Lake, InHouse Graphic Design, and from public funds from NYSCA’s Decentralization Program, administered locally by Finger Lakes Community Arts Grants (FLCAG) and CNY Arts.
