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Stephen Gunzenhauser (shown) is the founder and producer of the Endless Mountain Music Festival and is conducting the orchestra for the first three performances of the 2023 Season.

Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser and the Festival Orchestra are opening the Endless Mountain Music Festival’s 2023 17-Day Season with three performances this weekend.

The orchestra will perform at 7 p.m. this Friday, July 21 at Mansfield University’s Steadman Theatre and this Saturday, July 22 at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Opening night at Mansfield, the orchestra will play Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks,”
 Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
” and Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” featuring Georgian-American pianist Ketevan Kartvelishvili.

At the Corning concert, “Tchaikovsky Meets Mariachi,” the orchestra will play Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks,”
 Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3,” Marquez’s “Danzón No. 2” and Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien.”

At 2:30 p.m. this Sunday, July 23, the orchestra will present the free Pops Concert at the Wellsboro High School Auditorium at 227 Nichols Street in Wellsboro. Featured will be music from Broadway, the tango, and Sousa’s “El Capitan March” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Guest artist is Dave Stahl, former lead trumpet player for Frank Sinatra.

The July 24 to 27 concerts will be presented by a varied group of musicians ranging from a duo to an octet.

At 7 p.m. Monday, July 24, percussionists Jason Mathena and David Wert will perform “Bach to Rock” at the Tioga County Courthouse at 118 Main Street in Wellsboro. Among the selections are: Bach’s “Christ lag in Todesbanden” and “Aria” from “Goldberg Variations,” 1959’s “Take Five” by Paul Desmond; 1989’s “Rhythmic Caprice” by Leigh Howard Stevens, 1990’s “Number 2 Funk” by Todd Ukena, 1993’s “Surface Tension” by Dave Hollinden and 2000’s “Circles of Ice” by Edward Kopetzki.

At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25 will be “An Evening of Serenades” featuring performances by an octet and a septet in the Deane Center’s Coolidge Theatre at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro. Eight musicians, including two oboists, two clarinetists, two horn players, and two bassoonists will perform Mozart’s “Serenade No. 12 in C Minor for Winds.” Seven musicians, including a flutist, an oboist, a double bassist, two clarinetists and two bassoonists will perform Dvořák’s “Serenade for Winds, Cello, and Double Bass in D Minor, Op. 44.”

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 26 at the 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning, New York, the EMMF String Quartet will play Mozart’s “String Quartet in C Major, K.465” “Dissonance” and Schubert’s “String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D810,” known as “Death and the Maiden.” Quartet members are: Hua Jin and Lisa Scott on violin, Charlie Alves on viola and Perry Scott on cello.

At 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 27 at the Penn Wells Hotel at 62 Main Street in Wellsboro, slide guitarist and vocalist Abbie Gardner, with guitarist Sean Kiely will perform “Endless Mountain Love Songs” – a harmonious night of acoustic love songs. Dinner will be served from 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. For reservations, call 570-724-2111.

Youth, 20 and under, are admitted free to all 17 festival concerts.

There is a fee for the six Friday and Saturday orchestra concerts at 7 p.m. on July 21 and 22, July 28 and 29 and Aug. 4 and 5 and seven of the nine chamber concerts.

Two chamber concerts – at Cherry Springs State Park at 8 p.m. on Sunday, July 30 and at the Knoxville Yoked Church at 110 Alba Street in Knoxville at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 2 – are free.

The two Pops orchestra concerts — at 2:30 p.m. this Sunday, July 23 at the Wellsboro High School Auditorium and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 6 in the open-air Nasser Ice Rink at the Corning Civic Center Plaza in Corning, N.Y. featuring Anthony Nunziata, a tenor direct from Nashville and Broadway — are free.

A flex pass to attend any six festival concerts is $150 or $25 per concert. A season pass is $199. Four of the 17 concerts are free.

To purchase tickets or flex or season passes or for more information about the Pennsylvania and New York concerts, call the Endless Mountain Music Festival Box Office at (570) 787-7800 or visit www.endlessmountain.net.

Diane Eaton
dianetn@ptd.net
(570) 724-3800