Photography: Elissa Monroe

Mary Zimmerman joined the Summerfest Board of Directors over a decade ago, bringing a long-standing love of chamber music and a record of support for musical performance and music education in the community and in public schools. A graduate of the University of Michigan with graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota, Zimmerman’s “day job” is as a Professor in the KU School of Medicine where she directs the doctoral program in Health Policy and Management.

Zimmerman grew up in Emporia, Kansas where she attended the laboratory school (no longer in existence) on the ESU campus and participated in every aspect of the arts and music, taught by elementary and high school teachers who were also ESU professors. Zimmerman’s musical memories include singing in the University of Michigan Choral Union under the baton of Igor Stravinsky and receiving a spontaneous and exuberant kiss from Luciano Pavarotti after his debut performance in Tosca at the Chicago Lyric Opera in the mid 1970s.

She lives in Prairie Village with her Labrador, Howard, and spends as much time as she can with her daughter and son-in-law in Overland Park and her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter in St. Louis.

At the close of last year’s concerts I received numerous calls and notes from members of our congregation who attended one or more of the Sunday concerts. Each was a first-time attendee.  All were so very positive that I am certain they will return this year and will spread the word to their friends and family.   One writer expressed her dismay that she had waited until the last weekend to attend and wished she had been there from the beginning. I feel confident that we’ll have an enthusiastic crowd in our beautiful sanctuary on July 7th when the Summerfest 2013 summer concert season begins.

All of us at Country Club Christian Church anxiously wait for the first weekend in July, encourage you to secure your tickets now, and wish Summerfest the best for a successful and outstanding year.

- Rev. David Diebold, Minister of Music, Country Club Christian Church

“We moved to Country Club Christian Church to make ourselves accessible to new audiences, while providing another gorgeous venue for our loyal supporters,” said Mary Zimmerman, President of Summerfest Concerts. “But it was successful beyond our wildest expectations as we achieved new attendance records for our Sunday concerts.” Indeed the Sunday concerts outsold the Saturday evening performances by nearly 17 percent.

“Summerfest 2013 Reflecting Forward promises to give Kansas City audiences another memorable summer of ‘splendid virtuosity’ in chamber music,” said Ms. Zimmerman. “Audiences this July will experience musical pasts in new and exciting ways–for example, Wuorinen’s Josquiniana, which revisits the Renaissance, several works that reference the influence of Franz Schubert, and Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost Rag, inspired by the music of Scott Joplin.  With stellar guest artists and two options for concert times and venues each week, the four concert series is destined to be one of Summerfest’s best.”

“Summerfest’s 23^rd season is dedicated to “Reflecting Forward!” Simply put, we find comfort in the past as we wrestle with the anxiety of an unknown future. This July, join Summerfest as we explore how music reflects forward, taking the music of the past and letting it chart a new course for the future,” said Summerfest Annotator, Andrew Granade.

 “The first of four programs will be presented on Saturday July 6^th and Sunday July 7^th, and opens with Charles Wuorinen reaching back to the Renaissance to see what Josquin’s music might have to say to modern audiences in Josquiniana.   Adam Neiman’s Mirror and Fugue literally reflects forward with a lens focused on the Baroque fugue, a reflection that illuminates Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Trio Sonata No. 3, a little known work of the Czech Baroque.  Finally, Mozart’s magisterial Piano Quintet in E-flat Major reminds us of the debt this formidable composer owed to those who came before him and the impact he had on the future as Beethoven modeled his own opus 16 quintet on Mozart’s work.

Summerfest’s second week of its trademark eclectic programming opens, on July 13^th and 14^th, with publishers looking through the works left at Franz Schubert’s death to uncover his “Notturno,” a beautiful work that showcases the composer’s gift for melody, the same gift that inspired Ellen Taaffe Zwilich when she composed her Quintet for Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Piano almost two centuries later.  Zwilich went so far as to use Schubert’s Trout Quintet as the basis of her work, bringing the past into the present, much as Summerfest is doing for Anton Reicha’s Wind Quintet in E-flat Major, a dazzling work from a seminal wind composer from the early Romantic period.  The concert ends with reflections on summer, a fitting subject for our series, as Jennifer Higdon brings nostalgia for her childhood in Summer Shimmers.

Basing music on older works of art is the theme of Summerfest’s third week, on July 20th and 21st, which finds William Bolcom mining Scott Joplin’s music for the Graceful Ghost Rag and Jamie Keesecker finding inspiration among Alexander Calder’s mobiles for his One-Minute Recipes – COLLECT ALL SIX!  Beethoven’s Duo for Clarinet and Bassoon is a work usually attributed to the composer, though recent scholarship has asked if it is simply music written in Beethoven’s style.  Ralph Vaughan Williams, the towering figure of English music in the last century, found his musical footing among the folk music of his country and wrote his Six Studies in English Folk Song as a result.  And even Johann Sebastian Bach got in on the act by composing his Trio Sonata from the Musical Offering upon a royal theme given him by Frederick the Great.

ummerfest’s final week of the 2013 season finds two contemporary composers, Mason Bates and John Corigliano, charting their future course with older music.  Bates, a young composer versed in popular musical styles, looks to the oldest music of all, that of birds, for his ornithological collection Life of Birds while Corigliano explores 3 Irish Folksong Settings by combining folk melodies and his own originals so cleverly, that you’ll never guess which are the real folksongs.  Dieterich Buxtehude refines the old solo vocal cantata from the early Baroque into a model of expressivity that surely influenced J.S. Bach in the cantatas BuxWV 84 and BuxWV 105.  We end the summer with a new reading of Felix Mendelssohn’s last great chamber work, the Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, op. 66, which finds inspiration in Lutheran chorales to make a grand statement reminding us that the past is ever with us, guiding us to new heights.”—notes by Andrew Granade

Saturday concerts are at UMKC’s White Recital Hall, 4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Sunday concerts are held at Country Club Christian Church, 6101 Ward Parkway, Kansas City, MO, beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Ticket options include a 4-concert subscription, a 3-concert flex pass, or single concert. Call the Central Ticket Office, 816.235.6222 or purchase online at summerfestkc.org. Ticket subscriptions go on sale April 1^st, 2013 with single tickets following in May. All concerts include the complimentary “Meet the Musicians” receptions and free parking.

Summerfest was founded in 1991 to provide Kansas City with fine performances of chamber music in the summer and to give Kansas City Symphony musicians an opportunity to play chamber music. In 2013, more than 20 musicians will participate in the season. The summer series – one of very few sources of chamber music in the summer in Kansas City – has been Summerfest’s main contribution to the cultural life of the region. It has also provided the flexibility necessary to maintain and develop a group whose talents are increasingly in demand outside the local area.

Summerfest programming offers variety in instrumentation and musical styles and emphasizes the performance of lesser-known pieces from all eras. One of the goals of the musicians is to make a comprehensive exploration of existing and new music for their instruments. The resulting variety of works on any given program often sheds new light on old favorites and brings to light new discoveries. Both performers and listeners find their horizons broadened and their enjoyment heightened by this distinctive programming. While other chamber music presenters in Kansas City bring in world-renowned string quartets, piano soloists, and vocal ensembles, it is rare that chamber music for mixed winds and strings can be heard outside of a Summerfest event.

Another of Summerfest’s distinguishing characteristics is the featuring of the works, input, and appearances of living composers. Since 1993, the group has worked with Dan Locklair, Lee Gannon, David Gommper, Clive Muncaster, Jean Belmont, Michael Kimber, Paul Elwood, Ian Coleman, Kristin Kuster, and Robert Cronin. Many of these composers have been in residence for a portion of the summer season and/or have written a work for members of the ensemble.

Additional information is available at summerfestkc.org.  For Tickets: summerfestkc.org or 816.235.6222.

The Summerfest artistic committee has talked about adding guitar for quite some time. “Adding any extra instrument to our ensemble opens up great new options of repertoire,” says Shannon Finney. We are pleased to have guest guitarist Beau Bledsoe join Summerfest for 2012. He will play on the last of the four concerts, the weekend of July 28-29, when he will perform works by Boccherini and Piazzolla.

Beau regularly performs and records with some of the greatest artists in Tango, Flamenco and classical music as he seeks to integrate different musical cultures with diverse audiences. With his many different projects and ensembles Beau has performed throughout the United States and toured extensively in Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Turkey and Russia.

Here are Beau’s answers to random questions we asked him.

SF:  Tell us about your life outside of work and music.
BB:  Right now I just play with my two year old son quite often. He likes to “jam” every day on all the instruments in the house.

SF:  Where else are you performing this summer?
BB:  I just came back from a tour in Mexico and before that I did a collaboration with the Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company. There’s a great Flamenco dancer (Melinda Hedgecorth) from Sevilla that I’ll be working with in late August.

SF:  What would be an interesting tidbit about you?
BB:  I married an awesome woman from Turkmenistan.

SF:  What’s on your IPod/MP3/CD player?
BB:  Lots of Portuguese Fado at the moment (that’s my next thing).

SF:  What quality do you most admire in others?
BB:  Competence.

SF:  If you could live in any era, which one would it be?
BB:  I rather like now. I’d be dead from appendicitis if it were any time earlier. But let’s just say the Spanish Baroque.

SF:  What is your ideal classical concert program?
BB:  I have an all Piazzolla concert that I’m doing at Helzberg Hall in April 2013. That’s an amazing program!

SF:  Where is your favorite place in the world to “just be?”
BB:  Guanajuato, Mexico.

SF:  If you chose another occupation, what would it be?
BB:  Museum Guard.

SF:  What is your one desert island must have?
BB:  The scores for the six cello suites of J.S Bach and an instrument.

SF:  What good book have you read most recently?
BB:  A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing, by Lawrence M. Krauss.

SF:  How did you choose your instrument?
BB:  MTV.

SF:  What is your favorite movie?
BB:  Citizen Kane.

SF:  Is there a particular web site or blog you visit often?
BB:  Plastic Sax (KC jazz blog) – I check it everyday.

Summerfest last performed Stella Sung’s Dance of the White Lotus Under the Silver Moon, for flute and harp in 2005, just a few years after it was written. It was well-received by Summerfest audiences and seemed a perfect fit for this season’s theme.

Through the use of Far Eastern scale patterns, the composer evokes scenes of nature – like those portrayed on Chinese and Japanese paintings on art screens.

Since she composed this work Dr. Sung has been more active in writing for film. She has recently completed the score for the full-length documentary film Voices in the Clouds, which is receiving critical acclaim. Her music was also featured in the short animation film Atlas’ Revenge (based upon Dr. Sung’s orchestral work of the same title), which was selected as the First Place winner at the 2010 SIGGRAPH conference (Time and Space category). Dr. Sung is currently working on other film projects to be released within the next two years.

In recent correspondence with the Summerfest Artistic Committee, Dr. Sung says, “I’m really impressed by your ensemble, and it looks like you’ve got a great following and have been serving your community for several years. Keep up the great work!”

If you’d like more information on Dr. Sung’s work you can visit her website at www.stellasung.com.

In 2011 Summerfest began a residency at the French language charter school Académie Lafayette, in Kansas City, Missouri. Summerfest musicians performed twice at all-school  assemblies in the spring and summer of 2011. In the fall of 2011, Summerfest musicians and volunteers held an “instrument petting zoo” at the school for children who were interested in participating in the school’s band or string ensemble programs. In part because of the enthusiasm generated by Summerfest’s appearances at the school, they were able to get a grant to start a beginning string program for children in early elementary school grades. These children took weekly lessons and ensemble classes.

With a grant from the Francis Family Foundation, Summerfest was able to return for master classes with these students this spring. String students presented a side-by-side concert with Summerfest musicians on May 21st for the entire school.

With the same grant from the Francis Family Foundation Summerfest was able to have a large presence at Alta Vista Middle School in the Westside neighborhood of Kansas City,  Missouri this spring. Band students of Julie Munro studied horn, trombone, trumpet, flute, and clarinet with Summerfest musicians. Luis Portillo’s orchestra students had special masterclasses in cello, bass, viola and violin. The residency concluded with a Summerfest concert at the Guadalupe Center for the more serious music students. Musicians played music of Beethoven, Mozart, and Piazzolla, including a preview presentation of the “History of the Tango” that featured Beau Bledsoe on guitar and Shannon Finney on flute.

Join us for this free event:
July 10, 2011, 10:30 a.m.: Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch: Kids’ Corner instrument
demonstration and concert for children.

“Most of my childhood memories are of that Suzuki group: sitting under the grand piano in Mr. (Lacy) McLarry’s studio, watching other kids’ lessons, going on buses to play for kids’ schools, playing the Bach Double Violin concerto with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra. I made lifelong friends in that group.”

Mary excelled in violin and later completed an undergraduate degree in violin performance from Rice University, a master’s degree from Queens College-City University of New York,
and played with training organizations like the National Orchestral Association in New York, the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra in Europe, and the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado.

“I came to town to join the Kansas City Symphony in 1989. The symphony season is only 42 weeks, and Lamar Hunt, Jr., who was a flutist in the symphony at that time, wanted to start a group that would perform for Kansas City audiences in the summer, when there was nothing else going on for musicians or audiences in the way of classical music. He set up Summerfest as a non-profit organization. Then we and Debbie Clark (harpist), Rebecca Bell (harpsichord), and Nancy Lutes (bassoonist), performed a short season of concerts in the summer of 1990.

We played mostly baroque music then, and a lot of 19th and 20th century music with flute and harp.” In 1991, the group added more people, including Jane Carl (clarinet), Nancy Beckmann (violin) and Marion Arthur (oboe), so they could play a greater variety of repertoire. They played at numerous venues, including Avila College and Westport Presbyterian Church, always seeking ways to increase appeal and audiences. The post-concert receptions were an integral part of the Summerfest concert experience. According to Mary, “We owe St. Mary’s church thanks for this brilliant idea! They had the best receptions in town.” It provided the perfect setting for interaction between audience and musicians that became the Summerfest trademark. Thanks to the dedication of Mary (who, 22 years later, is still the resident grant writer and a very active artistic advisor), Summerfest is thriving today. She and Jane Carl, now with the flutist Shannon Finney, serve as the Artistic Advisors, along with cellist Alexander East who serves on the artistic committee. “The organization has matured a lot in these two decades. When we began I had no idea that Summerfest would be such a huge part of my life here in Kansas City. I thank our excellent musicians and wonderful audience, Kansas City’s generous foundations and individual donors, the Summerfest board of directors and volunteers and our many friends for making Summerfest the success it has become.”

As part of our Summerfest Musician Spotlight, featured musicians are asked to answer a few fun questions about themselves. Here are Mary’s responses:

SF: Tell us about your life outside of work and music.
MGG: I like to work in the garden when the weather is nice. I am a fair-weather gardener. I like to run. My husband, Jim, and I did a half-marathon last year for the first time. We also like to travel. Our most recent international trip together was to China to visit friends. I would love to travel more.

SF: What is on your iPod/MP3/CD Player:
MGG: I listen to a lot of books in the car when I drive to work. My favorite lately is Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. It’s narrated by the family dog. I also like David Mitchell’s later books, Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green.

SF: Where is your favorite place in the world to “just be?”
MGG: On my deck, when it’s sunny, 70 degrees, no wind and no bugs.

SF: What quality do you most admire in others?
MGG: Graciousness.

SF: If you had chosen another profession, what would it be?
MGG: Visual artist or writer.

It was by this last avenue that the Summerfest artistic committee discovered Dave Grusin’s “Three Latin American Dances,” which is programmed for concerts on July 21 and 22, 2012. The piece is written for violin, cello, and piano and is featured on an album called “Amparo.” Collaborative artists on the album are Joshua Bell, Renee Fleming, Chris Botti, James Taylor, and Lee Ritenour.

Dave Grusin describes his “Three Latin American Dances” as a mini-suite, which he wrote for Guarneri String Quartet violinist Arnold Steinhardt for a performance they both participated in to benefit a student violin program in Harlem. The three movements are evocative of the tangos of Argentina, the dance music of Venezuela and the Nineteenth Century salon music of Cuba.

Dave Grusin, himself a pianist, is perhaps best known as a film composer, having written the scores for over 60 films including Three Days of the Condor, Tootsie, Heaven can Wait, The Graduate, The Goodbye Girl, and On Golden Pond.

In the last decade, Mr. Grusin has spent more time composing classical and jazz compositions, touring, and recording.

“I started playing in Summerfest a long time ago now, not the first year, but shortly after that. I was the new clarinetist in town, and Summerfest wanted to program works with clarinet. I was lucky that they called me. It’s become a labor of love for all of us who have been involved for so many years.”

And why does she stay involved?

“Many musicians think of chamber music as being the apex of the musical experience, and I would have to agree. Much of that has to do with the intimacy of the experience for both the performers and the audience, which is not only about the performance, but also about the preparation and the rehearsals for that performance. Some of the greatest works ever written fall into that genre.”

“To me, the Brahms Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, is one of those truly great works. I first heard this piece as a freshman at the University of Michigan on a recording by Richard Stoltzman and the chamber group Tashi, and I played it over and over, probably driving my roommate crazy, so I’ve had a long love affair with this piece that continues to this day. Brahms wrote all of his clarinet works late in his life, after he had given up composing. He was inspired to come back and write some of his most beautiful and mature works after hearing clarinetist Richard Mulhfeld play. The two became friends, and the musical world became much richer for it.”

Summerfest will conclude their 22nd summer festival, July 28th and 29th, with Johaness Brahm’s Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, perhaps his most important contribution to chamber music in which he showcases not only his knowledge of music history, but his fascination with gypsy music in his use of the clarinet and violin.

Jane Carl received her degrees from the University of Michigan. She has been a member of the South Bend Symphony, the Flint Symphony, and the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra in Detroit, and performed with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has performed regularly with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, performing as acting assistant principal clarinet from 1999-2003. She can often be heard performing with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony. She was the artistic chair and host of ClarinetFest 2008, the annual conference of the International Clarinet Association, held in Kansas City. Dr. Carl performed at the 2007 China International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Beijing and the 2009 ClarinetFest in Porto, Portugal. In the fall of 2009, she became the Chair of UMKC’s Instrumental Studies Division.

Just for fun, Carl answered a few questions for our readers:

Summerfest: What would be an interesting tidbit about you?
Carl: I have way too many pets.

Summerfest: What’s on your IPod/MP3/CD player?
Carl: NPR podcasts of “The Moth” and “This American Life”

Summerfest: What qualities do you most admire in others?
Carl: Honesty and integrity

Summerfest: Where is your favorite place in the world to “just be?”
Carl: Crystal Lake, Michigan when the water is warm in August

Summerfest: If you chose another occupation, what would it be?
Carl: Writer

Summerfest: How did you choose your instrument?
Carl: I really wanted to play the drums or the saxophone, but they had too many of those, so my band director put me on the clarinet.

Summerfest: Where else are you performing in the coming months?
Carl: I’m playing a Weber’s Concerto for Clarinet, No. 1 with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra at Unity on the Plaza on June 8, which I’m excited about. I haven’t played a Weber concerto with orchestra since college, and then I played the second concerto, so this will be an interesting experience for me. Before that, I’m playing a chamber music concert in St. Louis on April 18 with the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis with several members of the St. Louis Symphony and others. This will be a fun concert because it’s a concert devoted to winds (and piano). Apparently, I don’t get enough chamber music just playing it in the summer.

Summerfest strings will go into Alta Vista Charter School, on the Westside, and Académie Lafayette, near UMKC, to help students prepare for their spring concerts. Luis Portillo, string ensemble and Mariachi director at Alta Vista Charter School says, “I want my students to know and hear professional musicians.” Summerfest gives Luis’ students this opportunity.

Julie Munro’s middle school and high school band students at Alta Vista will also benefit from coaching from Summerfest musicians on clarinet, flute, trombone, trumpet, and horn.

Summerfest wind and brass coaches will also be helping band students at Cristo Rey Kansas City, a Catholic college prep high school near Linwood and Broadway. Summerfest violinist, Mary Grant, is working with teachers at Cristo Rey to explore the possibility of starting a string program at the school in 2012-13. Students from Cristo Rey come from all over the Kansas City metropolitan area to participate in this school’s innovative corporate work study program. Many of these students have had previous instruction in string ensemble programs in other schools. Cristo Rey would like to make a string ensemble elective available to those students interested in further pursuing their passion for music. In order to do this, however, instruments must be obtained for student use, as most of Cristo Rey’s students come from situations of economic need.

After a recent visit to Cristo Rey, Mary is enthusiastic about working with students at this school: “It’s been great talking to the teachers at Cristo Rey. I even got to talk to one student who hadn’t been able to play the violin since he left middle school. I had my violin with me, and I let him try it. He played it for a little bit. He remembered exactly how to play. He said he missed playing music. The teachers at Cristo Rey understand the importance of arts and creativity in education and have an intense personal concern for their students’ success.”

This is true for all the teachers Summerfest has had the privilege to work with at the three Kansas City, Missouri schools.

Groups of Summerfest musicians will perform at the three schools for school-wide assemblies at the end of the school year. These performances will highlight the partnerships Summerfest has forged with the students at these schools.