Festival of Music to Present Final Summertime Concert
WINONA LAKE — The Village at Winona Festival of Music is pleased to present its final summer concert with performances by five wind ensembles. The Chamber Music Festival will commence at 9 a.m. on Sat., Sept. 3 in Artisan Court, behind Kelainey’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop, in the village. Canal Days will take place simultaneously with many craft and food vendors participating.
Gentle Winds Trio, Backyard Brass, Jaenicke Consort, Symphony of Lakes String Quartet and the newly-established Dockside Dixieland Band will each present a fifty-minute concert, with the festival set to conclude at 3 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public.
“It has been a great summer of exceptional music in the village,” said Marty Becker, festival coordinator. “I hope to see many returning audience members on Saturday as well as new faces to the festival. We are anticipating a great final concert of the season in coordination with Canal Days,” he said. Becker is especially looking forward to leading and performing with the Dockside Dixieland Band on Saturday. “Don’t forget to bring a lawn chair or blanket for the concert,” he added.
Gentle Winds Trio will kick off the festival at 9 a.m. Saturday. Flautists Diane Martin-Ratliff and Dawn Engler, and cellist Mary Jeanne Kraft have played together since 1993.
Backyard Brass, a local group that specializes in classic New Orleans music, will perform at 10:15 a.m. Members include trombonists Tim Hershberger and Mel Carpenter, bassists Ray Majerle and Greg Hartman, trumpeters Dan Buchman and Reggie Smith, drummers Mike Sanders and Joey Shepherd, and french horn player Fran Bunn.
Next, Jaenicke Consort, a woodwind quintet, will perform at 11:30 a.m. The quintet, formed in 1991 and based in Fort Wayne, performs often with area bands and orchestras.
A string quartet from Symphony of Lakes, performing at 12:45 p.m., includes Benita Barber, Michael O’Gieblyn, Lyn Buschert and Sara Thomas. In addition to playing with local symphonies and chamber groups, these talented musicians also perform in the Wagon Wheel orchestra.
Dockside Dixieland Band will wrap up the Chamber Music Festival with a 2 p.m. performance. This nine-member group features several local and professional musicians: Marty Becker and Barry Frisinger on trumpet, Sue DeVito on clarinet, Don Lamb on trombone, Mark Mordue on tuba, Ben Essick on tenor sax, Walter Brath on piano, Rick Lovelady on banjo, JB Blackwood on guitar and Joey Shepherd on drums.
Grace College, Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts and the Village at Winona have partnered to bring the community a variety of high-quality, family-friendly concerts this summer. The series, sponsored in part by the Esther Pfleiderer Charitable Trust and 1st Source Bank, included six concerts from June 18 through Sept. 3. For more information, visit online.