Duluth Chamber Music Festival returns, with viola inspired by Northland nature

Aug 05, 2023

DULUTH — The viola is ruby red, like "the breathtaking fall colors along the shores of Lake Superior." It features a texture resembling cracked ice. Its arch is higher than most, as if inflated by the gales of November.

From its description, the instrument sounds positively enchanted, and you'll be able to judge for yourself Thursday, Aug. 17, at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Weber Music Hall. There, the "Duluth" model viola, crafted by luthiers Marinos Glitsos and Peter Bingen, will be played onstage by Matt Young.

Young is a co-founder and one of two artistic directors of the Duluth Chamber Music Festival, which is returning for a second-annual celebration of classical music performed by small ensembles.

"I was not able to play last year because I was so busy doing administrative stuff," said Young. "But this year I'm going to try to do both, and really looking forward to playing with Sayaka."

That would be pianist Sayaka Tanikawa, another co-founder and artistic director. "We know what to expect," she said, "but we are trying to build a more embedded program within the community this season."

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This year's festival will include an Aug. 18 outreach performance at a YMCA day camp, as well as an Aug. 15 community engagement performance that will mark "the inaugural performance" in the new chapel at Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center, said Tanikawa. The latter performance is open to the public, and the music will also be streamed into the rooms of patients receiving care at the facility.

An Aug. 16 house show is full, but as of press time, tickets remain available for the Aug. 17 concert at Weber Music Hall. The program opens with music by Dimitri Shostakovich and closes with Antonin Dvorak's "Piano Quintet in A Major (Op. 81)," which Young called "a blockbuster staple of the repertoire."

The middle of the program will feature two pieces that show "the evolution of the string quartet," as Tanikawa put it. First, the musicians will perform Franz Joseph Haydn's "String Quartet Op. 20 No. 5," a 1772 classic "making this genre and then bring(ing) it to new heights," explained Tanikawa.

Then, attendees will hear "Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout," a 2001 quartet by American composer Gabriela Lena Frank.

"Something that's similar between these two composers is that they are interested in this idea of folk music," said Tanikawa.

"Haydn was in this sort of Austro-Hungarian folk from the Romani people," explained Young, "and then Gabriela's music is very much South American in focus. She's half-Peruvian (in) ancestry, and I think that's been a constant theme of and source of inspiration for her writing, from her words."

The inspiration for the "Duluth" viola wasn't just Lake Superior and the city, where Glitsos grew up. The instrument maker attended last year's inaugural concert at Weber Hall, and subsequently offered to use his craft to contribute to the event. When the viola is sold, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit music festival.

"It’s important to me to support Duluth as a destination for great music and the enjoyment of the arts," said Glitsos in a news release, "and the DCMF is a wonderful addition to the already strong scene."

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For information and to reserve tickets, see duluthchambermusicfestival.org.

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