Doors open one hour before the performance.

The WWCMF Emerging Artist Quartet Fellowship, now in its fifth year, welcomes Synchrony Quartet. Like past Fellows Ivalas Quartet, masso, Cerus Quartet and Poiesis Quartet, Synchrony is both active and successful on the competition circuit. Competitions are one kind of proving ground, but it is Synchrony’s community presence in their native Chicago that makes this must-see quartet WWCMF material. They maintain a residency at Clara (named for none other than Clara Schumann), a bar in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, where they test out new material and hone their craft.

In addition to their individual skill as performers, each member is also responsible for creating arrangements of classical and popular music for saxophone quartet. This hands-on approach extends the quartet repertoire and enhances a canon that inherently thrives on new music. The saxophone is a much more recent invention than, say, bowed string instruments, and its core repertoire expands in real time. Hence, Synchrony Quartet affirms that classical music is a living art form that draws breath from our time and place, a reflection and response to the world around us. WWCMF returns to longtime venue partner Foundry Vineyards to kick off the 2026 June Festival. Works include music by Astor Piazzolla, Caroline Shaw, Travis Laplante, Anton Webern and Manuel de Falla.

Artists: Matthew Johnson, tenor saxophone; Haven Kahn, baritone saxophone; Philip Kleutgens, soprano saxophone; Hudson O’Reilly, alto saxophone

All works will be announced from the stage.

WWCMF will publish a setlist on our social media channels following the performance.

Doors open one hour before the performance.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Piano Quartet No. 2 in E Flat, K. 493 (1786)

I. Allegro

II. Larghetto

III. Allegretto

In June 2025, WWCMF celebrated the 240th anniversary of Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 479 (1785), a stormy affair that eventually finds its way to a joyful conclusion. Therefore, in an uncontroversial example of “equal time,” we now celebrate the 240th anniversary of the G minor’s younger sibling, the Piano Quartet in E flat, K. 493 (1786). Mozart completed K. 493 a few weeks after putting his John Hancock on a little number called The Marriage of Figaro (K. 492!). Therefore, we can be confident that Mozart was squarely in the full bloom of artistic maturity, even as he faced polite society with conspicuous immaturity. We hear the influence of Mozart’s famous opera just five bars into the quartet, echoes of Figaro teasing young Cherubino in the Act I aria, Non più andrai farfallone amoroso (“You shall go no more, lustful butterfly, Day and night flitting to and fro; Disturbing ladies in their sleep…”). No more chasing girls. Time to buckle down and write a piano quartet.

Before the G minor, there had never been such a thing as a piano quartet. The piano trio (piano, violin, and cello) was a well established form and duly considered a beautiful and fertile instrumental combination. How to make this successful combo even more compelling? Elementary. If you want to dial beauty, excitement and substance up to ’11,’ just add a viola. Hence, the piano quartet was born.

Only, “not so fast, my friend,” said Mozart’s publisher, Franz Anton Hoffmeister. Hoffmeister had commissioned three such works from Mozart only to pull the plug early on. He declared the G minor too difficult to play. Sales, he believed, were soft due to the technical demands placed upon the pianist in particular. Indeed, both of Mozart’s Piano Quartets require virtuoso players. We’re in luck that Mozart decided to compose K. 493 anyway. And we’re in luck that virtuoso pianist Oksana Ejokina returns to WWCMF to carry the day along with Festival mainstays Maria Sampen (violin), Norbert Lewandowski (cello) and Founder & Artistic Director, Timothy Christie (viola). Happy anniversary K. 493! 240 years old and still as fresh as the day the ink dried.

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Oksana Ejokina, piano; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Maria Sampen, violin

Doors open one hour before the performance.

Welcome to the social event of 1897, WWCMF’s musical Salon. Perhaps you remember chamber music pops from the June 2025 Festival. This is that, but through the lens of a classic 19th century salon. Salon music typically consists of short character pieces that emphasize charm, style and sentiment. Therefore, our program features music by Elgar, Kreisler, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich and more. Salon style is best experienced at close range. Audience seating onstage will be available on a first-come, first-served basis for those who want a truly authentic experience.

All selections will be announced from the Salon

— Intermission —

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Piano Quartet No. 2 in E Flat, K. 493 (1786)

I. Allegro

II. Larghetto

III. Allegretto

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Oksana Ejokina, piano; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Maria Sampen, violin

Doors open one hour before the performance.

WWCMF welcomes back flutist Tracy Doyle for her third WWCMF appearance. It’s high time we got to know her better. She is both Professor of Flute and Director of the School of Music at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. If you are doing the math as you go, you have just figured out that Tracy is therefore your author’s boss. It should make for an interesting conversation!

Tracy is an artist of tremendous curiosity and range. Her program summons the immortal strains of Pan (the OG flutist), winds through the Indian Subcontinent, finds time for a quintessentially American meditation on Summer, pauses in the British Isles and eventually finds its way (back) to the flutiest place on earth, France. There is music by Claude Debussy, Reena Esmail, Ian Clarke, William Grant Still, Georges Hüe and Jacques Ibert. And by the way, is it flutist or flautist? You can expect both clarity on the subject and a phenomenal concert.

Artists: Winston Choi, piano; Timothy Christie, Viola; Tracy Doyle, flute; MingHuan Xu, violin

All works will be announced from the stage.

WWCMF will publish a setlist on our social media channels following the performance.

Doors open one hour before the performance.

Béla Bartók (1881–1945)

Piano Quintet in C, Sz. 23 (1904)

I. Andante

II. Vivace (Scherzando)

III. Adagio –

IV. Poco a poco più vivace

Béla Bartók is a composer of contrasts. He is also the composer of Contrasts, a work for piano, clarinet and violin heard at such Festivals as this one waaaay back in 2009. (It is known that here at WWCMF we don’t like to repeat pieces all that frequently, so rich and varied is our repertoire. Maybe after 17 or 18 years it’s high time to revisit the piece!) Immediate digression aside, contrast defines Bartòk’s legacy. He was a collector and curator of ancient folk music passed down by generations through oral tradition and simultaneously an innovator who personified the spirit of experimentation associated with the 20th century avant-garde. A prodigy, Bartók gave his first public performance at the age of 11 and fittingly included his very first composition, a solo piano work titled “The Course of the Danube.”

The ‘course of the Danube’ serves as quite the metaphor for the early Piano Quintet in C. Composed in Germany in 1903 – 1904, premiered in Vienna, Austria and redolent of melodies and rhythms from Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, the Piano Quintet winds its way through Europe like the Danube itself in an ever-shifting swirl of Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and something new, hints of folk modernism and a premonition of the Night Music style that would haunt Bartók’s mature compositions like Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, Concerto for Orchestra and Third Piano Concerto, masterpieces all. Join us as we go to the source: C major, no sharps or flats, the white keys on the piano. At least, it ends that way. Along the way we’ll explore all the black keys, too, and even tune our string instruments down a half-step midstream to get that authentic Hungarian folk sound. In addition to great music, Hungary is also known for its variety of peppers and distinctive wines. Thus, we will feel right at home at Pepper Bridge Winery, a WWCMF favorite these many years.

Artists: Winston Choi, piano; Timothy Christie, viola; Norbert Lewandowski; cello; Philip Payton, violin; MingHuan Xu, violin

Doors open one hour before the performance.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)

Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21 (1912)

for piano, violin, flute, clarinet, cello and soprano

Part One

I. Mondestrunken— “Drunk with Moonlight”

II. Colombine

III. Der Dandy— “The Dandy”

IV. Eine blasse Wäscherin— “A Pallid Washerwoman”

V. Valse de Chopin

VI. Madonna

VII. Der kranke Mond— “The Sick Moon”

Part Two

VIII. Nacht (Passacaglia)— “Night”

IX. Gebet an Pierrot— “Prayer to Pierrot”

X. Raub— “Theft”

XI. Rote Messe— “Red Mass”

XII. Galgenlied— “Gallows Song”

XIII Enthauptung— “Beheading”

XIV. Die Kreuze— “The Crosses”

Part Three

XV. Heimweh— “Homesickness”

XVI. Gemeinheit— “Foul Play”

XVII. Parodie— “Parody”

XVIII. Der Mondfleck— “The Moon Spot”

XIX. Serenade

XX. Heimfahrt (Barcarole)— “Journey Home”

XXI. O Alter Duft— “O Ancient Fragrance”

— Intermission —

Béla Bartók (1881–1945)

Piano Quintet in C, Sz. 23 (1904)

I. Andante

II. Vivace (Scherzando)

III. Adagio –

IV. Poco a poco più vivace

Artists: Winston Choi, piano; Timothy Christie, viola; Tracy Doyle, flute; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Jennifer Goltz-Taylor, voice; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Rane Moore, clarinet; Philip Payton, violin; Maria Sampen, violin; MingHuan Xu, violin

Doors open one hour before the performance.

From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, the GRAMMY-nominated Westerlies have upended presumptions of the brass tradition to create music that is “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). Comprising Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet and Andy Clausen and Addison Maye-Saxon on trombone, the ensemble has relentlessly composed, arranged, adapted, recorded, and toured over the past fifteen years with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along.

The Westerlies are making their second WWCMF appearance. The first was the 2017 Winter Festival. Many of you were there. More than a foot of snow fell on the day of their travel to Walla Walla from New York City. Flight after flight of the ALW leg from Seattle was canceled that day until a miracle, the 10 PM flight managed to land at about 1 AM. Your author picked up the group at the airport and accompanied them to their digs, a wonderful ranch on the outskirts of town. The wonderful ranch proved as distant as New York City itself, located at the end of a half-mile driveway that at 1:15 AM remained undisturbed, unplowed, invisible, and impassible in the sensible sedan rented by WWCMF for The Westerlies. In true Walla Walla fashion, a phone tree and a neighbor with a truck later, the driveway was plowed and the four exhausted musicians were soundly asleep by 2 AM, ready to astound the Festival audience with their gorgeous and generous musicianship.

Here we are about a decade later, The Westerlies poised to take Walla Walla by storm in warmer times. Here’s hoping for easier travel! We return to The Walls Winery for a special performance that will leave you awestruck.

Artists: Andy Clausen, trombone; Addison Maye-Saxon, trombone; Riley Mulherkar, trumpet; Chloe Rowlands, trumpet

All works will be announced from the stage.

Grounds open at 5:30 PM. Concert seating is general admission. Doors open at 7 PM. Performance begins at 8 PM, with an intermission. There is no late seating for either half of the performance.

WWCMF returns to Abeja for our annual tradition, Collage. If you’ve never attended, you’re in for a treat. If you’ve attended every one since the very first out at jimgermanbar in 2010, you’re still in for a treat. A Pierrot ensemble, the prevailing winds and some Metallica. There are Easter Eggs galore and once you think you have it figured out, the person seated next to you starts playing a violin you didn’t notice when you sat down. You’re literally IN the performance. Collage is an immersive musical roller coaster. Enjoy the ride!

Pre-concert Dinner is available for purchase from Abeja. Click here to let them know how many in your party will be dining. Reservations are deeply appreciated.

Lighting Design: Connie Yun and Jay McAleer

Artists: Winston Choi, piano; Andy Clausen, trombone; Timothy Christie, viola; Tracy Doyle, flute; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Jennifer Goltz-Taylor; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Addison Maye-Saxon, trombone; Rane Moore, clarinet; Riley Mulherkar, trumpet; Philip Payton, violin; Chloe Rowlands, trumpet; Maria Sampen, violin; [James Shields, clarinet, unconfirmed]; The Westerlies; MingHuan Xu, violin; Andrea Yun, cello

Doors open one hour before the performance.

Cellist Andrea Yun makes her WWCMF debut. With degrees in mathematics, education and performance, Andrea approaches music from all angles. She also loves roller skating and swing dancing. At home in the opera pit, onstage in a period baroque ensemble or out in front of a symphony orchestra as a concert soloist, Andrea has done it all. And there’s more. There are teachers all over the country who studied teaching with Andrea. She was named the state of Michigan’s Teacher of the Year by the American String Teacher’s Association in 2020.

As I write this concert note, Andrea is on tour in Australia. Come to think of it, Australia has a Walla Walla, too. In the indigenous Wiradjuri language, it means “place of many rocks.” We will definitely ask Andrea if she managed the unprecedented Quadruple-Walla by visiting the Wallas of both hemispheres.

Artists: Xiaohui Yang, piano; Andrea Yun, cello

All works will be announced from the stage.

WWCMF will publish a setlist on our social media channels following the performance.

Doors open one hour before the performance.

Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931)

Sonata for Two Violins in A minor (1915), Op. post.

I. Poco lento, maestoso - Allegro fermo

II. Allegretto poco lento

III. Finale. Allegro vivo e con fuoco

Queen Elisabeth was something else. No, not Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The Belgian one, as in, the prestigious Queen Elisabeth competition. Belgian Queen Elisabeth was not only a great patron of the arts whose impact extends to this very Festival (frequent WWCMF Artist, Henry Kramer, is a competition laureate), but also a humanitarian who pursued the cause of social welfare with unparalleled zeal. She also made time to practice the violin, which is where her tale intersects with WWCMF’s Tasting Music III.

In 1915, Queen Elisabeth commissioned Belgian violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe for a sonata for two violins. She was to learn and perform the new piece with Ysaÿe himself. Ysaÿe was a musician who approached composition through the lens of his own prodigious violin technique. His Six Sonatas for Solo Violin rank among the most technically difficult pieces in existence for the instrument. His intimate knowledge of the violin opened up new possibilities and pathways for both devilish technical display and deep emotional expression.

The question is, did he temper his tendency toward violinistic fireworks to give the Queen a fair shake at playing it? The answer is, no, he did not. Both violinists are tested with the same dizzying array of challenges as any of the Six Solo Sonatas, only more difficult due to the demands of intricate coordination between two players. Queen Elisabeth was content to bear the work’s dedication, and there was no evidence she bore any resentment toward Ysaÿe’s audacity. She wasn’t that kind of Queen. That is to say, his head remained attached to his shoulders. In truth, Ysaÿe was Elizabeth’s violin teacher. After his passing in 1931, his widow Jeanette Dincin Ysaÿe continued to teach the Queen.

Which brings us to tonight. Prepare to be wowed. From a single trembling line to a veritable wall of sound, the Sonata for Two Violins in A minor is certainly fit for royalty. Solo becomes Duo. Duo becomes Trio. Trio becomes Quartet. Such is the complexity and the sheer labor of love embodied in this music. WWCMF Royalty, violinists Christina McGann and Stephen Miahky, make a triumphant entrance to the production facility and barrel room of Echolands Winery.

Artists: Timothy Christie, moderator; Christina McGann, violin; Stephen Miahky, violin

Doors open one hour before the performance.

Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931)

Sonata for Two Violins in A minor (1915), Op. post. (1967)

I. Poco lento, maestoso - Allegro fermo

II. Allegretto poco lento

III. Finale. Allegro vivo e con fuoco

— Intermission —

Tristan Murail (b. 1947) / Robert Schumann (1810–1856)

Une relecture des Scènes d'enfants (Kinderszenen) Op. 15 de Robert Schumann (2019)

“A Rereading of Scenes From Childhood (Kinderszenen) Op. 15 by Robert Schumann” (2019)

for flute, cello and piano

I. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen— “Of Foreign Lands and Peoples”

II. Kuriose Geschichte— “A Curious Story”

III. Hasche-Mann— “Blind Man's Buff”

IV. Bittendes Kind— “Pleading Child”

V. Glückes genug— “Happy Enough”

VI. Wichtige Begebenheit— “An Important Event”

VII. Träumerei— “Dreaming”

VIII. Am Kamin— “At the Fireside”

IX. Ritter vom Steckenpferd— “Knight of the Hobbyhorse”

X. Fast zu ernst— “Almost Too Serious”

XI. Fürchtenmachen— “Frightening”

XII. Kind im Einschlummern— “Child Falling Asleep”

XIII. Der Dichter spricht— “The Poet Speaks”

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)

Gemini Variations, Op. 73 (1965)

for Piano 4-hands, violin and flute

Twelve Variations & Fugue on an Epigram of Zoltán Kodály

I. Theme

II. Variations 1-12

III. Fugue

Artists: Tracy Doyle, flute; Christina McGann, violin; Stephen Miahky, violin; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Maria Sampen, violin; Xiaohui Yang, piano; Andrea Yun, cello

Doors open one hour before the performance.

We are overjoyed to welcome international concert violinist Rachel Lee Priday, making her WWCMF debut in a profound solo program of her own design called Fluid Dynamics. Tonight, oceanography and music meet in the land of Many Waters.

Though we are about 300 miles from the Pacific Ocean, there is precedent for this kind of briny experience. One need only belly up to the bar at Brasserie Four in downtown Walla Walla for a plate of perfectly chilled raw Pacific oysters to get in the mood… the mood for an immersive musical and aquatic experience.

Rachel was moved by the work of her colleague at the University of Washington Dr. Georgy Manucharyan, Associate Professor of Oceanography. In response to imagery from his work such as rainbow-refracting surface tension patterns on underwater bubbles, she curated a one-hour program of extraordinary works for violin by living composers and paired them with visual effects generated from Dr. Manucharyan’s research. The result is Fluid Dynamics. Echolocate your way to the Gesa Power House Theatre and prepare for a deep dive. Come on in, the water’s just fine!

Fluid Dynamics

Leilehua Lanzilotti  (b. 1983)

ko'u inoa (2017)

Timo Andres (b. 1985)

Three Suns (2018)

Gabriella Smith (b. 1991)

Entangled on a Rotating Planet (2022)

Cristina Spinei (b. 1984)

Convection Loops for Violin and Loop Pedal (2022)

Leilehua Lanzilotti  (b. 1983)

to speak in a forgotten language (2022)

i.

ii.

iii.

Paul Wiancko (b. 1983)

Waterworks (2023)

Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984)

Sonata for Violin and Piano (2015)

i. Fast and focued

ii. Still and spacious

iii. Dramatic, violent, rhythmic, very precise

Artists: Rachel Lee Priday, violin; Xiaohui Yang, piano

Doors open one hour before the performance.

Cellist John Popham made his WWCMF debut during the January 2026 Winter Festival. It was Tasting Music night, Beethoven’s Op. 59 No. 2. As the overly talkative Artistic Director mused about the character of the key of E minor, invoking the Brahms Cello Sonata of the same key, John gamely riffed, providing the opening melody of that piece without hesitation. In so doing, he more or less committed to being the subject of a future — now present! — PoA recital.

Long a New Yorker by way of Louisville, KY, John is a fairly recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. In Fall 2025, he began his tenure as Professor of Cello and String Chamber Music at the University of Washington. Prior to his westward migration, he taught in the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program and served for three years as Juilliard’s Artistic Administrator for Community Engagement, where he mentored Juilliard teaching fellows; produced interactive, multidisciplinary educational programs; and curated the school’s Young People’s Concert series.

And tonight, we get to find out what makes him tick. Maybe we’ll even hear a little of that Brahms that got us started back in January…

Artists: John Popham, cello; Ronaldo Rolim, piano

All works will be announced from the stage.

WWCMF will publish a setlist on our social media channels following the performance.

Doors open one hour before the performance.

David Schiff (b. 1945)

Chamber Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Nonet: Vineyard Rhythms

I. Hawk (winter to spring)

II. Gaia (spring to summer)

III. Harvest (fall to winter)

It began in a winery, not unlike this very Festival. Susan Sokol Blosser of the eponymous Willamette Valley winery in the Dundee Hills approached the composer David Schiff to compose a piece to honor her mother, a violinist, and the vineyard she so loved. David accepted, and tonight we give the Washington premiere of his work, Vineyard Rhythms. The piece portrays the annual cycle from hibernation to harvest, known to viticulturists the world over.

“In the vineyard, time is circular. The vines stay put and the seasons flow effortlessly, one into the next, weaving a multicolored, multilayered tapestry. Like the vineyard, we are the same person year after year, but we each have our own season of hope, of growth, of maturing, of inactivity or withdrawal, and then of renewal. The vineyard is my metaphor for life.”

— Susan Sokol Blosser

It’s always important to taste outside of one’s own AVA, and we’re delighted to welcome some musical Pinot Noir to the Walla Walla Valley for this performance.

Artists: Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Timothy Christie, viola; Artur Girsky, viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Christina McGann, violin; Stephen Miahky, violin; Vanessa Moss, violin; John Popham, cello; Maria Sampen, violin; Joshua Skinner, double bass

Doors open one hour before the performance.

David Schiff (b. 1945)

Chamber Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Nonet: Vineyard Rhythms

I. Hawk (winter to spring)

II. Gaia (spring to summer)

III. Harvest (fall to winter)

— Intermission —

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)

Octet for Strings in E Flat, Op. 20 (1825)

I. Allegro moderato con fuoco

II. Andante

III. Scherzo. Allegro leggierissimo

IV. Presto

Artists: Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Timothy Christie, viola; Artur Girsky viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Christina McGann, violin; Stephen Miahky, violin; John Popham, cello; Maria Sampen, violin; Joshua Skinner, double bass