In response to the times, our 2020 Festival celebrates Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with a series of virtual concerts recorded (remotely!) in one unedited take to create the feeling of live concerts. Boby Borisov of OOAudio has mixed the sound to create the highest quality listening experience (we recommend listening on a good sound system, or with headphones, when possible). We are also pleased to partner with Sonoma TV who filmed several performances on Yulupa Ranch within the restored ruins of Issac DeTurk’s 1863 winery located in Bennett Valley.

In keeping with VMMF’s vision of enhancing the concert experience by adding historical, cultural, and personal perspective to the performances, each piece features an introduction by a Festival Laureate, Apprentice, Faculty Artist , or Blattner Lecture Series speaker, including Nicholas Mathew, author of Political Beethoven and Associate Professor in the Department of Music at UC Berkeley and Nicholas McGegan, former Artistic Director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

The health and safety of our Festival musicians is paramount – by exploring Beethoven’s music for small ensembles, we kept the number of performers to a minimum while carefully respecting current health guidelines.

The 2019 summer Festival celebrates our 5th season in Sonoma with a tribute to the extraordinary Salonnières of the 19th Century. These powerful women were the influencers of their day. They curated fantastic events in their homes by bringing together great performers, composers, and thinkers; helped shape the musical taste of 19th-century Europe; and launched the careers of outstanding composers whose music we still enjoy.

World-renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine joins us on our second weekend of concerts in music by Franck and Chausson. Other highlights will include Stravinsky’s classic Three Pieces for String Quartet, and other works by Mozart, Schumann, and Brahms.

Our second annual Blattner Lecture Series features both new and familiar star lecturers who explore the social and musical context of the 19th-century salon. This year all lectures are free (separate tickets not needed).

Sip wine and enjoy the Sonoma vista while mingling with the artists on the patio after concerts. Each reception features a different local winery pouring their finest for you to taste. And feel free to picnic on the patio before concerts.

Enjoy a delightful dinner at Valley of the Moon Winery’s Madrone Estate, just five minutes away, on July 14 or 21. Our musicians  welcome you there with a special brief performance.

From the late 18th-century through World War I, Vienna was home to many of Europe’s most creative writers, thinkers, and artists. Our 2018 Festival concerts this year, performed on period instruments, span nearly 150 years of music. As a rare treat, we are extending the concept of historic performance practice to Expressionist chamber music by performing two works of Schoenberg on gut strings.

This summer, we pay homage to Vienna not only in our choice of repertoire, but also by inaugurating our Blattner Lecture Series, in which three prestigious lecturers join us to discuss Vienna and its influence on music and culture.

We are thrilled that our Apprenticeship Program, in which five talented young musicians are coached by and perform with our faculty, is tuition-free for the second year in a row. In addition, we continue to foster the success of past Apprentices through our new Laureate Program. We are excited to welcome these musicians back as they continue to thrive in their careers.

Our 2017 Festival celebrates the world of Robert Schumann, juxtaposing the composer’s own compositions with chamber works by composers he idolized and championed. Schumann was a brilliant composer and an influential critic who wrote with passion and humor about the struggles and ecstasies of his contemporaries and musical precursors.

By performing on period instruments with attention to historical practices, our musicians aspire to present Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet or Chopin’s Cello Sonata as Schumann might have heard these works during his lifetime. We also have special appearances by KDFC’s Rik Malone and Harvard musicologist Kate van Orden.

The chamber music of the 19th Century is intended to be experienced in intimate spaces, rooms humble or grand, where there is no separation between audience and performers. Why “The Voice in Chamber Music”? Our 2016 programs explore how chamber music was influenced by poetry, song, and opera. 19th-century music lovers considered a chamber music concert incomplete without a song or two. A typical salon, where chamber music was generally performed, included poets and writers as well as composers. Setting words to music was a way for musicians and composers to interact with their fellow artists and flatter their patrons.

The repertoire focuses on the composers’ love of Opera and Lieder in pieces both instrumental and vocal. We present 19th Century gems including Beethoven’s Septet with historical wind instruments, Death and the Maiden Quartet, and Lieder with both tenor and soprano.

About 18 months ago, we dreamed of starting a music festival in beautiful Sonoma, devoted to performing Classical and Romantic music on original instruments. Our vision was to invite a world-class roster of musicians to play with us, and to have an Apprentice program, in which emerging young artists would play and be coached by our faculty. Now, after many months of hard work and a few miracles, our dream has become a reality. We are excited to present some of the greatest works of chamber music, performed on the instruments for which they were written, and to do it all in Sonoma, the “real wine country” – a community that places such value on authenticity.

We want to thank the people of Sonoma, our board, our donors and our great staff and volunteers. Without them, this festival could never have happened.