South Beach Up North chamber ensemble returns for 20th concert series

Hundreds of years ago, chamber music and its classical string instruments were reserved only for the entertainment of European royalty, hidden away in their close and quiet venues. Today, chamber music has bloomed, and the South Beach Up North series, performed by the South Beach Chamber Ensemble, plays a part in sharing its euphoria with the Central Wisconsin area.

This summer’s performances — starting July 24 — mark 20 years of South Beach Up North programming. Looking back, the beloved concert series only got its start up north due to the ambition of founder and artistic director Michael Andrews.

“I would come back for the summers to see my parents and I was thinking, ‘Well, what would I do in Wausau?’ Well, play concerts. So, my sister at the time said, ‘Do you know that there’s a Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin there?’ So I checked with them and they had grants for community arts projects and I applied,” Andrews said. “I came up for the grant panel meeting, and we got awarded.”

Once the grants were secured, the next step was developing an Avengers-like team of artists. This summer, violist Angela Kratchmer, violinists Anna Cromwell and Michelle Wenzel, and cellist Andrews set the dynamics for the string quartet. For the piano trio, the pieces are brought to life by Andrews on the cello, Cromwell on the violin and University of Arizona professor Rie Tanaka on the piano. The groups are introducing both national and international sounds to Central Wisconsin.

“I ask my players before the season starts, ‘What would you like to play?’ One of my players said she wanted to play Piazzolla, an Argentine composer, and his music is really tango-based and it’s very exciting music. So in the piano trio concert, we’re doing the Piazzolla ‘Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,’” Andrews said.

Other programs actualize Alaskan and African American-inspired melodies written by American women composers, including Florence Price, Amy Beach and Jessie Montgomery. These performances not only share multicultural music with an audience, but also create opportunities for local young musicians to listen and learn from the greats.

“This will be our 20th year working with a high school string quartet ... We do Mozart, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and Italian opera arias and sambas and tangos,” Andrews said. “The high school quartet joins us for the second half. A couple of them have been playing with us for two or three years and they’re very happy to be here. They get professional experience and it’s very good for the students.”

These coordinated efforts, from students, SBUN board members and ensemble musicians alike, are what create the unique sound and intimate experience of chamber music.

“You have the high part of the violin, you have the in-between of the viola and the low of the cello. It really is like a family, and working together and creating something that wasn’t there, and it’s ethereal,” Andrews said. “You play and it’s gone. So there’s something special about that experience, whether you’re performing or you’re listening … It really is, the more engaging the audience is with us, the better we play. It’s like a battery. The energy of the ensemble goes to the audience, and the audience energy comes back to us, so it really is a very humbling experience.”

The South Beach Up North chamber ensemble will perform on five different dates in the coming week: Friday, July 24, at the First Universalist Unitarian Church of Wausau; Sunday, July 26, at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art; Thursday, July 30, at the Woodson Art Museum in Wausau; Friday, July 31, at St. Matthias’ Episcopal Church up in Minocqua; and Saturday, Aug. 1, at the Chestnut Center for the Arts in Marshfield.

For more information about performance times and details, visit sobechamberensemble.org/upcoming-concerts/.