Fontana CEO and artistic director David Baldwin says this year, the Fontana Summer Music Festival will consist of five concerts between July 18-30. First up is Sybarite5, a string group that often adapts Radiohead and Appalachian tunes for its programs. They will perform a public concert at the Dalton Center Recital Hall on July 18, in addition to teaching the young musicians who participate in Western Michigan University's summer music camp, Seminar 2016.
Two concerts will be held at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, both of them featuring up-and-coming string quartets. The Escher Quartet has a program of Mendelssohn, Bartok and Dvorak on July 23. The Verona Quartet follows on July 26 with a program of Haydn, Bartok, Webern and Beethoven.
The final two concerts feature local connections. Now based in New York, acclaimed trumpeter, pianist and composer/arranger Brandon Ridenour will perform with his group Founders on July 28 at the Epic Theatre. And Western Michigan professor of jazz piano Jeremy Siskind brings two longtime friends and musical collaborators, saxophonist Lucas Pino and singer Nancy Harms to the Williams Theatre on July 30.
