Community Calendar

Open Dress Rehearsal for Festival Concerts. Listen and watch the faculty at work during these open dress rehearsals.

Join us in 2025 for nine weeks of magnificent chamber music with our outstanding Kneisel Hall faculty and guest artists. Weekly concerts on Fridays and Sundays.

Guts Baroque feat. Andrus Madsen
Fantasticus!
Sylvia Schwartz, baroque violin
Rebecca Shaw, viola da gamba
Andrus Madsen, harpsichord

Come join Guts Baroque, featuring Andrus Madsen, in early July! You’ll hear the whimsical, varied, and fantastical instrumental music from the courts of what is now Germany and Austria. Emperor Leopold I, himself a musician and composer, brought several prominent Italian musicians across the Alps to Vienna. These guests, including violin virtuoso Antonio Bertali, received good salaries and plenty of opportunities to perform, to compose, and to teach the new generation of German musicians the Stylus Fantasticus: the Italian style of purely instrumental fantasies made popular by Italian composers such as Girolamo Frescobaldi. Bertali’s student Johann Heinrich Schmelzer further developed the style. Schmelzer’s innovations helped spread it throughout what is now Germany, teaching and inspiring other prominent composers including Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber.

“Just listened to the Biber and was stopped dead in my tracks (my tracks being scrolling on my phone ... immediate closing of the eyes) so rolling, so gestural ... absolutely love it”
—Guts fan

Founded in 2017, Guts creates welcoming, powerful, un-stuffy experiences of baroque music played with love on period instruments, bringing you up close and personal with the music and the juicy stories of the composers and performers behind it. We breathe life into beautiful and unusual music, bringing it from the 17th and 18th centuries to your ears. Come experience the warmth and immediacy of historically-informed chamber music!

Phillip & Noreen Silver - Cello and Piano Duo
July 13 | 4pm
Classical Concert

Cellist Noreen Silver and pianist Phillip Silver bring decades of international chamber music experience to the stage. Known for their expressive performances and thoughtful programming, the duo blends well-loved classics with rarely heard works. They've performed across Europe, the U.S., Israel, and beyond, earning critical acclaim for their artistry and musical insight. Both are on faculty at the University of Maine and continue to inspire audiences with their deep musical connection.

Salt Bay Chamberfest's annual benefit concert features Damariscotta’s own world-renowned mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich with pianist Tanya Blaich. The 30-minute performance will be presented with hors d’oeuvres, oysters, wine, and good cheer in the airy church-turned-art studio home in Damariscotta Mills. Proceeds benefit SBC’s annual programming.

Join us in 2025 for nine weeks of magnificent chamber music with our outstanding Kneisel Hall faculty and guest artists. Weekly concerts on Fridays and Sundays.

Blue Hill Bach 2025 Summer Festival – 15th Anniversary Season
July 15–19 • Blue Hill, Maine

Blue Hill Bach marks its 15th season with five days of performances and community events celebrating the music of Bach, Vivaldi, Purcell, and Monteverdi. Featured programs include Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with live sonnet readings, festive Bach cantatas, and a performance of the Magnificat. Free events throughout the week include talks, masterclasses, and instrument demonstrations.

Concerts: $35 general / $10 students / free for ages 17 and under.
Schedule and tickets at bluehillbach.org

Live Chamber Music: Tuesday evenings, 7:00 pm

Please note the new time for our concerts at Deertrees.

Deertrees Theater

The Tuesday night chamber music series is the signature event of the SLLMF season.

These live concerts are held at the historic Deertrees Theatre located at the top of Long Lake in Harrison, Maine. This is the informal, picturesque setting for the series, which takes place on the last three Tuesday evenings in July and the first two Tuesdays in August.

Originally built for summer theater and opera productions in the 1930s, the restored 300-seat theater offers superb acoustics and proximity to the stage, which enables a close rapport between musicians and audiences.

The 2025 concert information is listed below. Program Notes available at https://sebagomusicfestival.org/program-notes-2025.

July 15, 2025:

DURUFLÉ: Prélude, Récitatif, et Variations for Flute, Viola and Piano, Op. 3

DAVID POST: “Sound Bites” for Woodwind Quintet (2024), World Premiere

BEETHOVEN: Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-Flat Major, Op. 16

DVOŘÁK: Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 90 “Dumky”

Laura Gilbert, flute
Stephen Taylor, oboe
Benjamin Fingland, clarinet
William Purvis, horn
Adrian Morejon, bassoon
Emilie-Anne Gendron, violin
Jonathan Bagg, viola
Thomas Kraines, cello
Mihae Lee, piano

July 22, 2025:

VILLA-LOBOS: The Jet Whistle for Flute and Cello

DOHNÁNYI: Serenade for String Trio in C Major, Op. 10

BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke”

Susan Rotholz, flute
Juliette Kang, violin
Ramón Carrero-Martínez, viola
Eliot Bailen, cello
Thomas Kraines, cello
Mihae Lee, piano

July 29, 2025:

DEVIENNE: Trio No. 6 for Flute, Viola and Cello in E-Flat Major

SAINT-SAËNS: Tarantelle for Flute, Clarinet and Piano, Op. 6

STRAVINSKY: Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat for Violin, Clarinet and Piano

MENDELSSOHN: String Quintet No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 87

Susan Rotholz, flute
Pavel Vinnitsky, clarinet
Varty Manouelian, violin
Movses Pogossian, violin
Ramón Carrero-Martínez, viola
Brian Hong, viola
Bonnie Thron, cello
Mihae Lee, piano

August 5, 2025:

DEBUSSY: Petite Suite for Piano Four-Hands

MOSZKOWSKI: Suite for Two Violins and Piano in G Minor, Op. 71

ELGAR: Piano Quintet in A Minor, Op. 84

Min-Young Kim, violin
Keiko Tokunaga, violin
Kathryn Lockwood, viola
Bonnie Thron, cello
Yuri Funahashi, piano
Mihae Lee, piano

August 12, 2025:

REGER: Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola in G Major, Op. 141a

RAVEL: Sonata for Violin and Cello

BRAHMS: Piano Quartet in A Major, Op. 26

Laura Gilbert, flute
Emilie-Anne Gendron, violin
Todd Phillips, violin
Jessica Thompson, viola
Mihai Marica, cello
Mihae Lee, piano

The Daponte String Quartet, Maine/s foremost classical string music ensemble, will perform a varied selection of musical favorites.

The Daponte String Quartet is highly renowned nationally regarded, and exceptionally talented group of musicians who have chosen Maine as their home base. They perform throughout New England and the US.

This final performance of the Second Sundays inspirational Community Concerts is open to all, Proceeds will aid in increasing the community access to our historic facility, while providing wonderful music for all to enjoy.

Attendance is by donation: Recommended donation is $20 for adults, $10 for students, and free for children below school age.

Music Through the Ages for Flute and Guitar

Some music reaches out towards us with its power and exuberance. Some music draws us in with its delicacy and intimacy. The guitar has a prominent presence in our musical culture, often in those powerful and strong settings, amplified to bring its sound out to us. In classical music, the familiar sound of the guitar plays a very different role, one that’s “fresh and exciting” in this less-familiar setting according to Paul of Paul & Kate. The combination of flute and guitar invites us to listen deeply to its intimate sound, to downshift from the loudness of our daily lives to hear a different kind of expressive musical story.

Paul & Kate have primarily performed more contemporary classical music. In this concert, they present works by celebrated composers from 18th- and 19th-century Europe. The program includes music adapted from its original version for the combination of flute and guitar. An important consideration when adapting music for guitar in its standard tuning is how well the key sits on the instrument. G minor is not a favorable key for guitar players; the transcription of the Bach sonata eliminates this problem by using a capo on the third fret, allowing the piece to remain in its original key.

Program:
Sonate in G minor, BWV 1020 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Andante in C, KV 315 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) arr. Dr. John Ross
Sonata in A minor, D 821 “Arpeggione” – Franz Schubert (1797-1828) arr. Allen Krantz

Paul Kneller holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Southern Maine. He studied classical guitar with two teachers in the Portland, Maine area, John Johnstone and Keith Crook. While studying at the university, he participated in a Master Class with Lily Afshar and performed in the 41st Honors Recital. Apart from solo performances, he has had the opportunity to play with a variety of different instrumentalists. He has performed and recorded with groups outside the classical realm. Since 2017, Paul has been teaching guitar in southern Maine. Paul joined the faculty of the Portland Conservatory in 2021.

Kate Bernier graduated from the University of Southern Maine and holds a Bachelors Degree in Music Performance. She trained for five years under the direction of Krysia Tripp. In the past Kate has played principal flute for University of Southern Maine Wind Ensemble, USM Concert band, Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra and Bowdoin College Orchestra. She currently studies with Dr. John Ross through the Portland Conservatory of Music. Kate enjoys exploring her musical options, working on chamber music, and teaching flute.