As a violinist and artistic director for Serafin Summer Music and Serafin Ensemble, and as president of The Music School of Delaware, I am only one of the many contributors to the arts-rich ecosystem in Delaware. As such, I aspire to help the vibrant arts environment in our state be increasingly recognized beyond our local art and music circles.
The arts are a primary catalyst for healthy communities — bringing people together, generating commerce, attracting business and new residency, promoting community pride, and garnering distinction as a destination of interest for tourists and locals alike.
The performing arts are an anchor for shopping and dining — an enticement capable of attracting people from here, there, and everywhere to partake of all that is available to explore in Delaware — our “state of the arts”!
Immersive experiences play a special role in the landscape of arts offerings in any region. Festivals and immersive arts presentations (think Light Nights at Longwood) are on the rise. Our state and the Brandywine Valley is no exception. People enjoy steeping themselves in an experience — for a day, a weekend, a week, or more — and there are countless ways to do so.
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Serafin Summer Music 2023 is a three-week festival of chamber music entering its fourth season with activities from June 6 to 25 in Wilmington, Lewes and Millsboro. Already, Serafin Summer Music has established over 20 dining, lodging, business, media, and arts and culture partners and sponsors — bringing more life to our communities.
We proudly stand alongside reputable establishments like our original dining partner, Harry’s Savoy Grill, and our newest arts and culture partner, Nemours Estate.
Added to this year’s menu of nine public performances is a collaboration with photographer Flavia Loreto. Her “RESONANCE” photo portraits exhibit is partnered with the Italiana! concert programs on June 16 (Wilmington) and 17 (Millsboro).
New to Serafin Summer Music this year are the weekly Invitational Masterclasses that will spotlight musical talent in formation when young string, wind, and piano players are coached by Serafin festival artists. The Invitational Masterclasses are free and open to the public each Tuesday during the festival.
Private performances at the workplaces of key sponsors add to the Serafins’ community involvement and outreach. These on-site lunchtime presentations bring chamber music to many who are unfamiliar with or have had little exposure to this type of inspired and exciting music generated by composers for more than four centuries, and still being created.
The range of Serafin Summer Music activities and associations is expanding to reach more people. This offers immersive opportunity for listeners, learners, and participants — an essential part of what makes Serafin Summer Music unique.
This June, the festival brings to Delaware fifteen exceptional ensemble performers from around the nation and the world, including natives of South Africa, New Zealand, and the Philippines, and those based in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Oregon, North Carolina, Florida — and Delaware. Festival artists will work together each week to prepare time-honored masterworks by Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, Rossini, Bach, and others, along with lesser-known works by composers like Erno Dohnanyi, Madeline Dring and Malcolm Arnold.
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Programming explores combinations for strings, piano, harpsichord, voice, flute, oboe, and clarinet, and ranges from the Baroque Era to today.
Listening to and watching chamber music — unconducted concerts by ensembles of two to eight players — can be exhilarating, intimate and absorbing. The passionate, energized performances that these international performing artists deliver are a world unto themselves — transporting the engaged listener through transcendent musical expression probing the depth and breadth of human emotion.
To be carried across a veritable ocean of musical variety and inspiration is an immersive experience of the highest order — offering a journey for concertgoers to be relished in its moments and in memories for years to come. I hope many people will find their way to some or all of the Serafin Summer Music performances this June.
The Music School of Delaware’s Wilmington Branch and its acoustically superior Concert Hall is the festival’s home base.
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Additional performances are held in Lewes, at the Fellowship Hall of Bethel United Methodist Church (a venue familiar to followers of our arts and culture partner, Coastal Concerts). A beautiful new location in Millsboro, The Clubhouse at Baywood, is our newest location.
Come savor the flavor of great chamber music with us. You won’t regret it! This is Delaware — STATE OF THE ARTS!
For more information about Serafin Summer Music 2023 performers, repertoire, and schedule, visit www.serafinensemble.org.
