The Midsummer's Music's 2020 season will be streaming live next month and feature works from men and women of color. The Sister Bay-based chamber music ensemble was initially looking to feature rarely performed and recorded selections from female composers. Artistic Director James Berkenstock says the group decided to add composers of color to the program after looking into American Florence Price's mixed-race background.
Another featured 19th-century composer is English-born Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose father was a doctor from Sierra Leone and his mother was an English woman. Berkenstock says his most famous work, based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was a worldwide hit.
The Midsummer's Music virtual concerts begin August 5th. The schedule of performances and featured artists can be found at here.
Florence Price
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
