Arts Midwest

Green Lake Festival of Music in Green Lake, Wisconsin, presented Amelia Piano Trio in July 2011.

This Performing Arts Fund—supported engagement featured two weeks of residency activities and three public performances by the Amelia Piano Trio. The Amelia Piano Trio made its Carnegie Hall debut in 1999 under the sponsorship of Isaac Stern, and has since gained national recognition for their artistry, championship of new works by American composers, ability to motivate students, and innovative residencies in public schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, and facilities for the homeless.

The Green Lake Festival of Music, founded in 1979 as a summer concert series, presents a series of concerts featuring top-quality artists from throughout the U.S. and beyond, a two-week chamber music workshop for high school and college students, an adult choral institute, and a series of free concerts for children. The Festival’s mission is threefold: to entertain, inspire and educate through artistic performances and activities of the highest quality. Green Lake County is a non-Metropolitan Statistical Area which is therefore geographically underserved. It is a rural area composed of farms and small towns with a total population of only 20,000 residents. One of the most important features of the Green Lake Festival of Music is bringing nationally known performers from throughout the country to this area of Central Wisconsin, as well as offering numerous free concerts and events to the community.

“The music is superb, the pre-concert talks are informational and fun, and the venues are neat. For a small town to put on a festival of this caliber is incredible.”
–- Festival patron

The Amelia Piano Trio returned to Green Lake for its 13th summer in 2011 for a residency that featured daily coachings and rehearsals for individual students and student ensembles; four masterclasses (one each for cello, violin, viola, and piano); and free community outreach performances, including a new one at the Evergreen Retirement Center in Oshkosh. There was an excellent turnout and the pleasure that the students brought to the audience was obvious. Many audience members stayed afterwards to talk to the students, and two carloads of people drove 45 minutes to Green Lake to attend the final student concert.

“Having four solo masterclasses…each taught by master teachers was a highlight both for the students and the community residents who attended these free events….the final student concert on July 15 was the highest caliber student performance that has occurred in the history of the camp.” –- Festival staff

The Festival believes that the Performing Arts Fund is “a vital source of income in these cash-strapped times. The funding makes it possible for us to present high quality artists and educational programs that will never pay for themselves.”

Learn more

• About Green Lake Festival of Music
• About Amelia Piano Trio

This engagement was a Star Project that deepened participation with a community-based residency and provided access to an underserved geographic location.