2025 Summerfest performance at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
Selections include American spirit-infused works by William Bolcom, George Gerschwin and Scott Joplin
America is often celebrated as a melting pot, where different heritages, histories and experiences influence and inspire. Celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States, the musicians of Summerfest bring together an eclectic series of chamber music concerts, tied together with “America’s classical music” — jazz.
“Animated by Jazz” is the theme of Summerfest’s 36th season and each concert includes “chamber music inspired by, or influenced by, or reflective of jazz music,” said Evan Halloin, Summerfest’s co-artistic advisor and associate principal bass with the Kansas City Symphony.
“The jazz influence is a throughline for our whole season,” said Halloin.
These selections fit in with the organization’s perpetually lively programming.
“Creating thematic threads can be fun because it stretches creativity in programming and encourages us to search out the new and unfamiliar,” said Alexander East, co-artistic advisor of Summerfest and associate principal cello with the Kansas City Symphony.
Since 1991, Summerfest has presented a variety of works featuring different eras, styles, centuries and instrumentation. But with each work they choose to perform, they bring virtuosic ability, friendly presentation and musical curiosity.
“Curiosity is what is required for us classically trained musicians to do justice to these jazz-inspired works,” said Halloin. “My colleagues can execute just about anything on their instruments, but real curiosity about the inflection of different styles of music will lead us in the right direction when interpreting the notes on the page.”
“Jazz is America’s authentic chamber music with its own special history,” said East, “but so many traditional classical composers have always been inspired by the originality of that art form and the harmonies and rhythms that emerged from those creators.”
This series enjoys American spirit-inspired works by Wiliam Bolcom, George Gershwin, Darius Milhaud and Scott Joplin, as well as works by European composers from the Baroque era to contemporary voices, making each concert its own “highlight reel” of chamber music.
“I think composers in the classical realm have been drawn to American jazz, or indeed other genres, because they tend to have curious ears, eager to hear lots of different music, and eager to expand their compositional palette,” said Halloin.
The first week’s performances July 18 and 19 feature movements II, Graceful Ghost, and III (Incineratorag), from Bolcom’s Three Rags for String Quartet. Inspired by the ragtime renaissance in the 1960s, Bolcom wrote 27 rags for piano, some of which were then arranged for other instrumentation, like these two selections. Piano rags of the late 1800s influenced the development of early jazz styles.
The program includes Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major (a favorite of the genre, inspired by Claude Debussy), Johann Christian Bach’s Oboe Quartet in B-flat Major, and Alexandre Tansman’s Suite for Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon. Originally from Poland and later a French citizen, Tansman, like many refugees during World War II, spent the war years in the United States, before returning to Europe in 1946.
Rags are also featured in Week 2, on July 25 and 26, from the master of the artform, Scott Joplin. They’ll perform two rags arranged for woodwind quartet: The Easy Winners and The Ragtime Dance.
This program includes a new arrangement of Milhaud’s La Création du monde, written by Halloin.
“Milhaud wrote this for a small orchestra, then arranged it for piano and string quartet, but I have rearranged it especially for our Summerfest musicians in a version for strings, piano, and wind instruments,” he said. “The piano and strings version is great, but we thought this jazzy piece needed a clarinet at least! And I had to put the bass solo back in. Milhaud wrote such great music here, including a fugue, a romance, a scherzo, much of it influenced by jazz he heard in Harlem in the 1920s. There are fast virtuosic note-filled passages and gorgeous lyrical moments. This is going to show off just how great our musicians are.”
Additionally, the program features Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3, and Lukáš Hurník’s Fusion Music for oboe, clarinet, bassoon and piano. Hurník, a Czech composer, incorporates rock and jazz elements into his work, including bluesy chords, energetic rhythms and an improvisational feel.
The series closes Aug. 1 and 2 with works by George Gershwin: the solemn Lullaby for String Quartet (1919) and Promenade (Walking the Dog) (1937) for clarinet, piano, string quartet and bass. The clarinet, in particular, has a lilting, laughing quality, demonstrating the charm of this work in the sophisticated palette of Gershwin.
In between the Gershwin pieces, Summerfest presents three wholly different works from three wholly different mindsets.
Sergei Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes was written in New York in 1919, inspired by Jewish musicians, alternating between zinging klezmer and mournful Yiddish melodies. String Quintet in E Major, Op.1, written in 1883, is an early work from the prolific career of Ethel Smyth, a composer also known for her suffragist activities in England. And Andrey Robtsov’s Roses of Heliogabalus for oboe, clarinet, and piano (2015) is a brilliant, high-flying work.
Summerfest’s eclectic selection is by design.
“First and foremost, we want to program music which we personally are most eager to play and listen to. There is great value in discovering new music by unfamiliar composers, even if encountering this new music is bewildering at first,” Halloin said. Along with works by household names, he says, “Summerfest has always done a great job finding hidden gems and championing less well-known composers… We balance the programming of both new and old music by simply always doing both.”
The musicians look forward to this chamber music extravaganza each year, a pivot from their rest-of-the-year commitments.
“Our performers have busy lives during the rest of the year, many of them full-time orchestral musicians, and we want it to be a special treat to share their individual personalities with the audience and enjoy the experience of chamber music in a
more casual summer festival environment,” East said.
Audiences will see familiar faces from the Kansas City Symphony (along with Halloin and East, Anne-Marie Brown, Jessica Nance, Alex Lombo, Larry Figg, Tony DeMarco and Duke Lee), UMKC Conservatory (Celeste Johnson Frehner, Jane Carl and Karen Savage), and regulars with Summerfest (Joshua Hood, Dan Velicer and Neil Samples).
There are two presentations of each program, with Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m. at Grant Recital Hall at UMKC and Sunday performances at 3 p.m. at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. For more information, visit www.summerfestkc.org.
