Forbidden love. That’s the quickest synopsis of the Arthurian-era legend of Tristan and Isolde. Fleshing it out a bit, Tristan is charged with escorting Isolde, an Irish princess, from Ireland to Cornwall by boat so that she can marry King Mark of Cornwall. On the way the two somehow accidentally drink a love potion. It works. Tristan is doomed to suffer death at the hands of King Mark’s henchmen. Isolde follows suit, owing to the potency of her love for Tristan and her heartbreak upon his death.

The most famous retelling of the story is Richard Wagner’s 1865 opera, Tristan und Isolde. “Mild und leise…” For Wagner fans, these words are like a clubhouse secret password. Loosely translated, they mean “softly and gently.” But,what could that possibly mean? In the context of Wagner’s opera (music drama), they represent the commingling of love and death. It’s Act III. Isolde looks upon the dead body of her (illicit/accidental) true love, Tristan. She contemplates the tranquility of his state, savoring a new beauty even as she savors the pain of his loss. She proceeds to sing herself to an ecstatic death, overcome by his strange perfection — a Liebestod or ‘Love Death.’

Which brings us to tonight’s work, love fail, by David Lang. This masterpiece is a reexamining of the medieval romance of Tristan and Isolde from different sources. “Mild und Leise” becomes “mild, light” in movement 12 of Lang’s retelling. Scored for four treble voices and percussion, Quince Ensemble brings the work to life like no other group on the world stage today. And we have them all to ourselves. This is a special night in the now 18-year arc of WWCMF. We return to Foundry Vineyards, site of so many wonderful performances over the years.

All selections will be announced from the stage.

Artists: Stephanie Aston, voice; Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, voice; Liz Pearse, voice; Carrie Henneman Shaw, voice

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Cecile and Rick Ervin.

We are delighted to welcome PUBLIQuartet in their WWCMF debut. This program features selections from the quartet's ongoing What Is American project, which inspired a GRAMMY®-nominated album of the same name. This wide-ranging set of works will explore the resonances between contemporary, blues, jazz, free and rock-inflected music — all of which trace their roots back to the Black and Native American music that inspired Antonin Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet.

The program will include re-imaginations of music by Ornette Coleman, Ida Cox, Alice Coltrane, Betty Davis, Duke Ellington, Tina Turner, and Fats Waller alongside recent works by Vijay Iyer and Henry Threadgill; also on the program is a new work by Jeff Scott, commissioned with the support of a 2024 Chamber Music America Artistic Projects grant. Interrogating these traditions of our nation’s complex history, PQ attempts to connect the dots, illuminating the past, present, and future of American concert music.

All works will be announced from the stage.

Artists: PUBLIQuartet: Hamilton Berry, cello; Rubén Rengel, violin; Nick Revel, viola; Curtis Stewart, violin

WWCMF’s Collage performances have been made possible by the generosity of Darcie Furlan.

It is the 17th Season of WWCMF. It’s only fitting that we have a cast of 17 musicians performing in our annual musical kaleidoscope. Darkness, Shadow, Light, Life. These are the musical themes that will surround you. From lush impressionistic harmonies to Lebanese folk music to a touch of Wham!, Collage keeps you guessing while keeping you delighted.

What’s more, the exquisite grounds of the Inn at Abeja will open 2.5hrs before showtime so you can come enjoy wood-fired pizzas, salads and an array of world-class wines before heading into the barn for the performance. No pre-order necessary for food or drink. Pre-order necessary for tickets… they go fast!

Reserve your meal in advance. Abeja will offer farm salads, wood-fired pizzas, charcuterie, cheese, and freshly baked cookies.

Artists: Garrett Arney, percussion; Charlotte Christie, soprano; Timothy Christie, viola; John Corkill, percussion; James Doyle, percussion; Tracy Doyle, flute; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Jennifer Goltz-Taylor, soprano; Sijia Huang, percussion; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Patty Mathieu, lighting design; Nonoka Mizukami, percussion; Vanessa Moss, violin; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Adam Rosenblatt, percussion; Maria Sampen, violin; Kevin Schempf, clarinet; Kurt Walls, lighting design; Xiaohui Yang, piano

WWCMF’s Collage performances have been made possible by the generosity of Darcie Furlan.

It is the 17th Season of WWCMF. It’s only fitting that we have a cast of 17 musicians performing in our annual musical kaleidoscope. Darkness, Shadow, Light, Life. These are the musical themes that will surround you. From lush impressionistic harmonies to Lebanese folk music to a touch of Wham!, Collage keeps you guessing while keeping you delighted.

What’s more, the exquisite grounds of the Inn at Abeja will open 2.5hrs before showtime so you can come enjoy wood-fired pizzas, salads and an array of world-class wines before heading into the barn for the performance. No pre-order necessary for food or drink. Pre-order necessary for tickets… they go fast!

Reserve your meal in advance. Abeja will offer farm salads, wood-fired pizzas, charcuterie, cheese, and freshly baked cookies.

Artists: Garrett Arney, percussion; Charlotte Christie, soprano; Timothy Christie, viola; John Corkill, percussion; James Doyle, percussion; Tracy Doyle, flute; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Jennifer Goltz-Taylor, soprano; Sijia Huang, percussion; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Patty Mathieu, lighting design; Nonoka Mizukami, percussion; Vanessa Moss, violin; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Adam Rosenblatt, percussion; Maria Sampen, violin; Kevin Schempf, clarinet; Kurt Walls, lighting design; Xiaohui Yang, piano

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Brad Anderson and Kay Mead.

WWCMF welcomes groundbreaking percussion ensemble, Beyond This Point, for an immersive Special Event. Timber by composer Michael Gordon, is a work for six pieces of wood. I suppose in a way, a string sextet by Brahms could also be considered a work for six pieces of wood. But Timber is more elemental.

What was the very first musical sound ever made intentionally by a human? My guess is that it was a percussion sound, probably produced by a concussion idiophone, fancy talk for clacking a pair of rocks together. Next, maybe, came the percussion idiophone, striking a log or a rock or a seashell with a stick of some kind. And here we are tonight, only two steps into the invention of music. And yet the ancient, futuristic and infinite become fused in this magnificent work. Add in a little tech in the form of some contact mics, an integrated light display and the magnificent acoustics of The Walls Winery production space and you have something deep, pulsing, meditative and beautiful.

Like the world’s first musicians, we looked around our immediate environs for something to hit with a stick. We came up with six staves from a decommissioned wine puncheon. Turns out there’s this whole wine industry around these parts. Enjoy a glass from The Walls Vineyards and settle in for an epic journey through time and space.

Artists: Garrett Arney, percussion; John Corkill, percussion; James Doyle, percussion; Sijia Huang, percussion; Nonoka Mizukami, percussion; Adam Rosenblatt, percussion

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Dick and Julie Swenson.

Late Beethoven evokes strong feelings among musicians, first and foremost, that of reverence. To the string player, the quartets leap to mind (Op. 127, 130, 131, 132, 133, 135), Beethoven’s final works of any kind. To the orchestral musician or vocalist (or multitude of New Year’s Eve revelers) the 9th Symphony, Op. 125, and Missa Solemnis, Op. 123 dominate (as does the overture Consecration of the House, Op. 124 among the enlightened). But what of practitioners of Beethoven’s primary instrument, the pianoforte? Pianists look to the final five of 32 solo sonatas (Op. 101, 106, 109, 110 & 111), Bagatelles numbering 17 in all (Op. 119, 126), and the massive “Diabelli” Variations, Op. 120, each an expressive universe unto itself.

All of these late works, whether massive or miniature — and without exception — share a common thread. Each manages the feat of looking backward, forward, inward and outward simultaneously. There are public declarations of private sentiments, private rebuttals of commonly held truths, and ultimately, an attempt to touch, hold and comprehend the infinite. In his final creative period, Beethoven offers a musical theory of everything.

Tonight, we encounter Late Beethoven (capital ‘L’) in the form of his Sonata No. 30 in E, Op. 109. The music does not confound as it does in the preceding Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier, Op. 106, a 45-minute beast that stretches the very instrument let alone the player to technical and musical extremes. It is music of a more slender proportion, and is therefore perhaps more inclusive, an invitation to participate in the final journey of Beethoven’s musical life.

Seizing upon the idea of music that looks back as it looks ahead, pianist Benjamin Hochman, making his WWCMF debut, has conceived a program that frames Beethoven’s Op. 109 with music both ancient and modern.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Sonata for Piano, No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

I. Vivace ma non troppo, sempre legato - Adagio espressivo

II. Prestissimo

III. Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung. Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo

Additional works to be announced from the stage.

Artists: Benjamin Hochman, piano; Timothy Christie, moderator

This event has been made possible by the generosity of John Sampen & Marilyn Shrude.

A WWCMF first, tonight’s event explores heavy metal music. The string quartet Seven)Suns provides the perfect introduction if you’re new to the genre, or the perfect fix if you are already a disciple. Much of the harmonic language of heavy metal is informed by baroque music, as are the florid individually virtuosic instrumental lines.

An example of early heavy metal, for example, is the harpsichord cadenza from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. It is, for lack of a better word, extreme. And that is what is at the core— the hardcore as it were— of heavy metal music. Enjoy wines by appropriately named House of Bones.

Artists: Seven)Suns: Jennifer DeVore, cello; Fung Chern Hwei, viola; Adda Kridler, violin; Earl Maneein, violin

Collage has been made possible by the generosity of Darcie Furlan.

It takes two to tango goes the expression. But that’s a minimum, right? We have many more than two, and tango we will. There will be other dances, too, unfolding in the continuous do-si-do we call Collage. Collage is a style of programming and performing where there are no breaks between selections— the end of one piece is the beginning of the next. What’s more, there is not one stage, but many stages. In front of, to the side, behind, above, and even among the audience. And the music itself comes from many different eras and styles. It is a pageant celebrating the depth, wit and fearlessness of the WWCMF roster of artists.

The grounds of the Inn at Abeja open at 5:30 PM. Abeja’s chef Jake Crenshaw has prepared a menu of wood-fired pizzas, salads and other delicious bites to pair with Abeja’s exquisite wines. Food will be available by prior reservation. Tickets to the performance do not include food or wine.

Grounds open at 5:30 pm.

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Rowena Hammill, cello; Billy Ray Hunter, trumpet; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Christina McGann, violin; Stephen Miahky, violin; Philip Payton, violin; Thomas Rosenkranz, piano

Pacific MusicWorks: Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin; Henry Lebedinsky, harpsichord; Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, viola da gamba/baroque cello

Lighting Design & Engineering: Patty Mathieu; Kurt Walls

Collage has been made possible by the generosity of Darcie Furlan.

It takes two to tango goes the expression. But that’s a minimum, right? We have many more than two, and tango we will. There will be other dances, too, unfolding in the continuous do-si-do we call Collage. Collage is a style of programming and performing where there are no breaks between selections— the end of one piece is the beginning of the next. What’s more, there is not one stage, but many stages. In front of, to the side, behind, above, and even among the audience. And the music itself comes from many different eras and styles. It is a pageant celebrating the depth, wit and fearlessness of the WWCMF roster of artists.

The grounds of the Inn at Abeja open at 5:30 PM. Abeja’s chef Jake Crenshaw has prepared a menu of wood-fired pizzas, salads and other delicious bites to pair with Abeja’s exquisite wines. Food will be available by prior reservation. Tickets to the performance do not include food or wine.

Grounds open at 5:30 pm.

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Rowena Hammill, cello; Billy Ray Hunter, trumpet; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Christina McGann, violin; Stephen Miahky, violin; Philip Payton, violin; Thomas Rosenkranz, piano

Pacific MusicWorks: Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin; Henry Lebedinsky, harpsichord; Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, viola da gamba/baroque cello

Lighting Design & Engineering: Patty Mathieu; Kurt Walls

This event is made possible by the generosity of John Jamison & Kathy Wildermuth.

Please note the venue has changed to Yellowhawk Resort.

WWCMF visits the Yellowhawk Resort for an evening of baroque music performed on period instruments by Pacific MusicWorks (Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin; Henry Lebedinsky, harpsichord; Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, viola da gamba/baroque cello).

Johann Georg Pisendel (1688-1755)

Sonata in E minor for violin and continuo

I. Largo

II. Moderato

III. Scherzando

Georg Böhm (1661-1773)

Suite for harpsichord

I. Allemande

II. Courante

III. Sarabande

IV. Gigue

François Couperin (1668-1733)

Troisième Concert Royaux in A major

I. Prélude

II. Allemande

III. Courante

IV. Sarabande

V. Gavotte

VI. Muzette

VII. Chaconne

Georg P. Telemann (1681-1767)

Fantasia for solo violin in E flat major, TWV 40:20   

I. Dolce

II. Allegro

III. Largo

IV. Presto

J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

Sonata in A major sonata for violin and obbligato harpsichord, BWV 1015

I. [Andante]

II. Allegro

III. Andante un poco

IV. Presto

Artists: Pacific MusicWorks: Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin; Henry Lebedinsky, harpsichord; Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, viola da gamba/baroque cello