This July, the Fontana Summer Festival will offer everything from a bluegrass trio playing in a restored barn to a Juilliard-trained quartet playing Beethoven in a concert hall.
Director David Baldwin provides details on the ensembles and offers musical examples of the Neave Trio, the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, the Aeolus Quartet, the Catalyst Quartet, and Occidental Gypsy. He also previews a series of jazz appearances by John Pizzarelli, Nat Zegree, and Herlin Riley, which will be presented in Bronson Park in cooperation with the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo and the City of Kalamazoo. This is Baldwin's third year at the helm of Fontana, which was founded as a summer concert series in 1980. It became a year-round presenting organization in 2001.