Formosa Quartet
Consider the program for this year’s Martinis, Mozart & More: An 18th-century serenade written for a summer evening, one of the most emotionally charged works in the orchestral repertoire, and a movement from a quartet called Death and the Maiden. With a martini in hand.
That is either a very interesting party or a very interesting artistic choice – and the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, in collaboration with Old Edwards Hospitality Group, has long understood that the two are not mutually exclusive.
Returning Thursday, July 23 at 5:00 P.M., Martinis, Mozart & More moves this year to Old Edwards Farm Pavilion, giving one of the festival’s signature summer events a larger, staged setting that suits both the scale of the music and the social energy surrounding it. Guests arrive for refreshments and cocktails before the performance begins, conversations drift across the pavilion, and chamber music unfolds in a setting that feels lively rather than overly formal.
This year’s concert features the Formosa and Erinys String Quartets in a program that moves between elegance, grief, and volatility. Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik opens the evening with buoyancy and precision before Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings shifts the mood inward. The concert closes with the finale from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden Quartet, music composed with astonishing urgency by a composer already confronting his own mortality.
None of the programming feels accidental. Three works, three centuries, and a common thread running through all of them: each asks for emotional investment from the listener and rewards it generously.
The evening arrives in the middle of HCCMF’s 45th season, which runs June 28 through August 9 under Artistic Director William Ransom.
This year’s schedule includes performances by the Zukerman Trio, pianist Chelsea Guo, violinist Chee-Yun, cellist Zuill Bailey, the Borromeo String Quartet, and the Atlanta Chamber Players’ 50th anniversary concert. Highlands concerts will now be held on Saturdays and Mondays at the Highlands Performing Arts Center’s Martin Lipscomb Theater, while Cashiers concerts move to Sundays and Tuesdays at Lewis Hall at Village Green Commons.
Still, Martinis, Mozart & More occupies its own lane within the season – chamber music presented with confidence but without stiffness, where audiences can hear Barber performed live and debate Schubert over cocktails afterward.
Tickets to Martinis, Mozart & More are $125 per person and include two drink tickets. Refreshments will be served before the concert, and a cash bar will be available. Reservations are required by calling (828) 526-9060 or online through the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival. Sponsors are Dianne & Myron Mall, Barbara Guillaume, and Margaret Pennington.
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