Summerfest Kansas City concluded its 2026 season with a musical potpourri of captivating works. This season’s concerts were dubbed “Animated by Jazz,” a fitting tribute to American music on the nation’s 250th anniversary. While a couple of the works performed were neither American nor jazzy, several selections fit the jazz-inspired bill, including a couple by one of the first “crossover” artists: George Gershwin.
Well known for his fascinating rhythms and catchy tunes, Gershwin composed the Lullaby for String Quartet as a student composition exercise and never released it for publication during his lifetime. Not often heard on the concert stage, the work opened the program, performed by violinists Anne-Marie Brown and Tony DeMarco, violist Jesse Yukimura and cellist Larry Figg.
The piece opened with a gentle, supple and syncopated melody, and the quartet displayed a warm and rich tone throughout. The familiarity and intimacy of chamber music performed by a small group of players that know and work with one another was unmistakable. In particular, it could be felt in the intermittent passages with slight pauses and tempo changes, allowing the music to “breathe.” Occasional brief solos, tightly regulated pizzicato (plucked) strings and clear high register playing by violinist Brown added to the performance.
Clarinetist Jane Carl and pianist Karen Savage joined the string quartet for Sergei Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34. The work was composed in 1919, when the composer was briefly living in the United States (and the same year Gershwin wrote his Lullaby for String Quartet.) The delightful piece featured an oom-pah opening with a minor key melody. Carl exhibited a sure, velvety tone throughout the melodic range. After a harmonic shift to major, all players were featured with brief solo lines. Violinist DeMarco and violist Yukimura exhibited a lovely sound.
Dame Ethyl Smith (1858-1944) lived a long and colorful life as a composer, performer and English suffragette. She travelled in impressive circles, meeting Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, Brahms and Clara Schumann during her musical training and early career. Double bass player Evan Halloin joined the other string players to perform Smyth’s first published work, the String Quintet in E Major, Op. 1. This, another rarely heard composition, served as the centerpiece of the program, and longest piece of the evening.
You often hear of the influence of Brahms and Dvořák on Smyth’s writing. While it does indeed sound Brahmsian from time to time, it is also clear that she had her own musical voice. In particular, her melodies often travel from one instrument to another, and the Summerfest players realized this in seamless fashion. All composers do this to some extent, but in this quintet you hear it repeatedly. The jaunty and joyful opening movement was followed by a brief but lovely Intermezzo that was played with a lush and elegant sound. Next was a joyful and dancelike Scherzo with driving tempo and crisp rhythms. Another of Smyth’s favored techniques was the simultaneous use of bowed strings in some instruments with pizzicato in others, and the quintet executed it beautifully.
A short and sweet fourth movement featured opulent harmonies with pulsing rhythms. The finale opened with a fugal subject passed around the strings. Although a few slips in tone were apparent near the end of the movement, the conclusion was strong and convincing. Cellist Figg excelled with rich resonance throughout the work.
String players received a well-earned rest when oboist Celeste Johnson, clarinetist Carl and pianist Savage performed contemporary composer Andrey Rubtsov’s Roses of Heliogabalus. The 15-minute work was beautifully played by all performers with luxurious tone, ornamented melodies and even playing throughout all registers. While there are some absolutely stunning musical moments in the work, it still suffered from long, slow-moving passages that felt too static.
The program concluded with another Gershwin piece, “Walking the Dog,” composed in 1937 and included in a Fred Astaire film. The arrangement by Sebastian Manz was delightful and featured clarinet, strings and piano in a popular jazzy style. Throughout the brief composition, the ensemble employed a fine balance and blend. The selection was a great way to end the concert and the season. Before the final chord, all players uttered a gentle “woof,” to the delight of the audience.
Summerfest will present one more performance of this program on Sunday, August 2 at 3 p.m. at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in downtown Kansas City, MO. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.summerfestkc.org.
This concert was reviewed on Saturday, August 1, 2026.
