Question: When you weave “Amazing Grace” into a Bach cello suite, what do you get?
Answer: A hybrid? A musical invention? Or, better yet, a modern mashup.
Here’s what the 35th annual Music in the Mountains has in store for this weekend.
TAKE3, the hyper-energetic, sequined, chamber trio, will formally open the 35th season of Music in the Mountains on Friday (July 16) in the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. Violinist Lindsay Deutsch, cellist Mikala Schmitz and pianist Jason Stoll are in the midst of their American tour. The Durango performance comes just after TAKE3 performs in Michigan and before engagements in upstate New York and Texas. Yes, they are busy and in demand.
All classically trained, the TAKE3 musicians present a hybrid mix of music in a distinctly contemporary performance style. Deutsch tours with Yanni as a soloist. He’s the enormously popular Greek-American crossover phenomenon who has mastered the art of fiery orchestral performances in exotic places. Whether on the Acropolis or beside the pyramids, Yanni, his orchestra and soloists, know how to put on a show.
Now, violinist Deutsch and her colleagues, Schmitz and Stoll, have infused their trio with a smoky signature of its own. TAKE3 will perform selections from their recordings including “Natural/Carmen Mashup,” “Imagine,” Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” more inventive mergers from “Game of Thrones” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and the aforementioned “Amazing Grace/Bach Mashup.” It’s surprising to discover how TAKE3 intertwines, overlays and reweaves strands of music you already know. The snarky term “mashup” seems to be operative but doesn’t do it justice. Tickets are $35 and $45.
If you go
What: TAKE3: World Music Concert.
When: 7 p.m. Friday (July 16).
Where: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
Tickets: $35-$45. Available online at https://bit.ly/36Dy6m6.
More information: Visit musicinthemountains.com.
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What: Chocolate Indulgence Benefit Event.
When: 7 p.m. Saturday wine and dessert; 8 p.m. concert.
Where: Reising Stage Event Center, 2729 County Road 228.
More information: Visit https://bit.ly/3egAVxC.
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What: Sunday Picnic at the Pond.
When: 2 p.m. Sunday lunch; 3:30 p.m. concert.
Where: LePlatt’s Pond Event Center, 311 County Road 501, Bayfield.
More information: Visit https://bit.ly/3xBo40K. For more information about Music in the Mountains and a complete schedule, visit musicinthemountains.com.
Pairing a varied chamber music program with chocolate treats and specialty cocktails has now become an MitM tradition. Once again, the festival has joined ranks with Animas Chocolate & Coffee Co. to offer an evening of tasty combinations. This summer, the event takes place indoors at the unusual Reising Events Center, about a 30-minute drive from Durango at 2729 County Road 228 in the Florida River Valley. Principal musicians from the Festival Orchestra will perform chamber works by Mozart, Elgar, Satie and Bartok. Dessert and drinks plus concert cost $75 per person.
Modern summer music festivals all over the country have reinvented the old-fashioned American picnic-with-brass-band, and our own festival is right in step. MitM has scheduled its Sunday afternoon picnic-concert at LePlatt’s Pond starting at 2 p.m. for lunch. At 3:30 p.m., the festival’s wind, brass and piano virtuosi will perform a little Mozart and Bach as well as more contemporary works by Cheetham, Arnold and McKee, ending with the fiery “Vuelta del Fuego.”
The picnic venue is located on the L-J Ranch in the Pine River Valley, 311 County Road 501, Bayfield. The all-inclusive general admission of $75 includes picnic lunch, beverages and the concert.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
