The 2017 Inuagural

Welcome to the Mineral Point Chamber Music Festival

The inuagural Mineral Point Chamber Music Festival took place June 9-11, 2017. Three concerts by two young professional classical chamber music ensembles were presented in the recently restored historic Mineral Point Opera House, an ideal chamber music venue with excellent acoustics.

The weekend began on Friday at 7:00 pm with a panel discussion by several ensemble performers and Festival Director Peter Schmalz about various aspects of classical music. A dessert reception in the Mineral Point Public Library followed the discussion. 

Quartet Ami
Built on strong bonds of friendship, the Quartet Ami was formed in September 2015. All members are currently seniors at Northwestern and are part of the University’s string quartet seminar, led by the Dover Quartet and Mathias Tacke. In May 2016 they earned honorable mention at the Dover String Quartet Competition, and their performance of the Second Quartet by Dimitri Shostakovich was broadcast on WFMT.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Trombone Quartet
The University of Wisconsin Trombone Quartet is comprised of students of Professor Mark Hetzler. The ensemble was founded in 2016 to study and perform many types of chamber music for trombones. As some members of the ensemble near the end of their study at the University, they hope that their positions will be passed to incoming students to make the group a permanent part of the trombone studio.

Festival Program: 

7:00 pm Friday, June 9

Panel Discussion, dessert reception

1:00 pm Saturday, June 10

Quartet Ami of Northwestern University

STRING QUARTET  NO. 1, OP. 7   (1908)  Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

STRING QUARTET  NO. 10 IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 74 “HARP”  (1809) Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

7:30 pm Saturday, June 10

University of Wisconsin-Madison Trombone Quartet 

CONCERT PIECE (1996)  Fisher Tull (1934-1994)

WHAT WORDS CANNOT SAY (2016) Nathan Froeb (b.  1983) 

CONTRAPUNCTUS IX (c.1740) Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Arr. Glenn Smith

TROMBONE QUARTET, OP. 117 (1993)  Derek Bourgeois (b. 1941)

LANGSAMER SATZ (1905) Anton Webern (1883-1945) Arr. Mark Hetzler

TROSTERIN MUSIK (C. 1877) Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)  Arr. Paul Welcomer

 TROMBONE QUARTET No. 1 “Densities” (1998/2000) Anthony Plog (b. 1947)

 STRING QUARTET NO. 8  Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)   Arr. Mark Hetzler

12:20 pm Sunday, June 11

 UW-Madison Trombone Quartet and students from Mineral Point and Dodgeville High Schools.

 Informal, low brass concert in Library Park (next to the Opera House), no charge.

1:00 pm Sunday, June 11

Quartet Ami of Northwestern University

STRING QUARTET NO. 1 IN C MINOR, OP. 51, NO. 1(1873) Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

STRING QUARTET NO. 12 IN F MAJOR, OP. 96 “AMERICAN”  (1893) Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Ticket Pricing

Panel Discussion $10

Concert Tickets $15

Festival Pass (all four events) $38

Tickets purchased online will be available at the Box Office Will Call desk.