Stringwood: Harmony in Nature

Ah, summer camp! Pack your hiking boots and your flashlight, because it’s time for canoeing, hiking, and playing chamber music. Wait, what? Yes, we are talking about a special kind of summer camp, the Stringwood Chamber Music Festival, founded by St. Paul, Minnesota’s Artaria String Quartet.

Brianna Lai (in white) with her Stringwood quartet. / Photo courtesy Brianna Lai

Celebrating its 25th year, Stringwood is held annually at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center in Lanesboro. Each summer, this bucolic spot above the Root River becomes a musical retreat in nature, where young violinists, violists, and cellists ages 12-22 discover the riches and joy of classical chamber music. And, in turn, they give this richness and joy back to surrounding communities in a series of concerts in mid-August.

“Stringwood was really where I discovered my lifelong love for music,” says violinist Brianna Lai. Now a student at Vanderbilt University, she attended Stringwood for three summers in her middle and high school years. “I was incredibly moved by my experience there and who I met, both my fellow students, the assistant faculty, and Artaria. It showed me so many possibilities and instilled this love of music, and love of community, and love of the community that you can have through music.”

From the Berkshires to Bluff Country

The Stringwood Chamber Music Festival is the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Ray Shows and Nancy Oliveros Shows, both violinists. Nearly 40 years ago, Ray and Nancy, then graduate students at Boston University, started the Artaria String Quartet and became its core members, developing a distinctive sound and a dynamic sense of mission. Today, violist Annalee Wolf and cellist Rebecca Merblum round out the quartet.

The members of the Artaria String Quartet: Founders Nancy Oliveros Shows and Ray Shows, with Rebecca Merblum and Annalee Wolf. / Photo courtesy Artaria

The members of the quartet discovered they had a love for both teaching and performing. For a couple of summers, they were the artists-in-residence quartet at Lenox, Massachusetts’s Tanglewood, a world-renowned classical music education and performance center – and the summer home of the Boston Symphony – in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains. “We oversaw the high school chamber music program, and we loved it,” says Nancy.

During the academic year, they were the quartet-in-residence at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Nancy’s hometown. On a trip to Lanesboro to play a concert, they discovered Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center, including its then-new climate-controlled dorms. Immediately, their vision for a “Midwestern Tanglewood” took shape.

“We said, ‘Can we have a program here?’, and they welcomed it. Our last summer at Tanglewood was 1999,” Nancy explains. “In 2000, we created Stringwood in Minnesota.”

A Musical Conversation

Chamber music, originally intended to be played in a room or “chamber,” is written for small groups in which each musician has a distinct part. It is often described as a conversation, because each player’s unique voice responds to the others.

“Chamber music teaches you how to collaborate with others, work as a team, listening to others, watching others. It’s like working on a group project; knowing how to communicate with your colleagues is important,” says Brianna, reflecting on lessons she learned in the Stringwood program.

Stringwood Chamber Music Festival is held annually at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center in Lanesboro. / Photo courtesy Stringwood

The program accommodates about 32–36 students, many who come for multiple years and others recruited by Nancy and Ray. Applicants hail mostly from Minnesota and nearby states, but also from as far as Oregon, New Mexico, Florida, and Massachusetts. The Artaria members evaluate each applicant’s portfolio and assign them to a chamber music group before they arrive. “It’s not so much that we’re looking for the best of the best. We welcome students across all skill-levels,” Nancy says, “but we do get some amazingly talented students.”

Competitiveness is just not the Stringwood style. “We’re there to nurture these kids. We’re not there to put stress on them. We’re there to light the fire and show them what chamber music is all about. We invite them in,” says Nancy. “Then we say, ‘Let’s go!’”

Students rehearse during the Stringwood program at Eagle Bluff. / Photo courtesy Brianna Lai

The students receive one-on-one lessons and start rehearsing with their assigned chamber groups right away, with musical coaching by members of Artaria. Assistant faculty – advanced college or graduate student musicians who are also serving as camp counselors – offer additional coaching.

During the Stringwood program, Artaria and guest artists offer a concert series at Lanesboro’s Sons of Norway Lodge. Students study and discuss the musical scores their teachers play, and benefit from master classes with the guest artists, who are invited because they are not only great musicians but also gifted mentors.

Students learn from members of the Artaria String Quartet as well as guest artists, who offer concerts during the program. / Photo courtesy Stringwood

Students get their chance to shine in public each weekend. They perform pieces they learned that week at various locations – mostly in Lanesboro, but also Winona, Chatfield, and finally, Minneapolis (see sidebar for details). There is one performance in Spillville, Iowa, as well, and it’s an annual Stringwood highlight. The great Czech composer Antonin Dvo?ák spent the summer of 1893 in Spillville, where he composed his beloved American String Quartet.

The Stringwood students visit the Bily Clocks Museum, located in the Dvo?ák family’s former home. They see a Dvo?ák violin. And they give a concert in Spillville’s historic St. Wenceslaus Church, where Dvo?ák played the organ. It’s thrilling for them to connect with the history of a composer whose work they are learning to revere. “It was a really special opportunity,” says Brianna. “When you’re a musician and you’re playing these pieces, you want to do what the composer has written and to convey the feelings they were trying to convey.”

Students trying the Eagle Bluffs ropes course. / Photo courtesy Stringwood

Beyond Music

Just as important to the students’ growth and team building process are the Eagle Bluff activities like rock climbing, hiking, canoeing, and high ropes courses; visits to town for shopping and ice cream; biking the Root River Trail to the Whalan pie shop; family-style meals at the camp; and late nights hanging out and playing music just for fun.

Brianna Lai and Ray Shows in Lanesboro.
/ Photo courtesy Brianna Lai

“Stringwood brings something we could not possibly get anywhere else nearby,” says Heidi Dybing of Lanesboro, a festival supporter who attends every concert. “Getting to know the instructors is delightful, as is getting to know the kids and seeing them grow and improve. You see them biking around town or at the ice cream shop together in their matching t-shirts. It’s delightful to see how much fun they have together. They form a unit of friendship and community that they would not have had otherwise.”

Heidi points out that Stringwood gives the Lanesboro community a chance to grow, too, by offering them the opportunity to hear intricately crafted music played by highly trained and passionate performers right in their own community.

“People who are afraid of classical music because they think it’s hoity-toity or it’s not for them, give it a chance,” Heidi adds. “You will be blown away. Just close your eyes and listen, and you will be transported.”

Laura Barlament

Laura Barlament lives in Decorah, Iowa, where she works at Luther College. She plays flute in the Oneota Valley Community Orchestra and counts Antonin Dvo?ák among her favorite composers.

Catch a Stringwood Concert this summer!

Artaria & Guest Artist Festival Concerts, all located at Sons of Norway, Lanesboro

August 5, 7 pm: Artaria String Quartet and Dmitri Murath, viola
August 12, 7 pm: Artaria String Quartet and Boston Duo
August 14, 7 pm: Boston Duo and John Jensen, piano

Stringwood Student Concerts

August 8, 7 pm at Sons of Norway, Lanesboro
August 9, 10 am at Lanesboro Arts Gallery and Paddle on Coffee, Lanesboro
August 9, 3 pm at St. Wenceslaus Church, Spillville
August 10, 8 am at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Service, Chatfield
August 10, 10 am at Bethlehem Lutheran Church Service, Lanesboro
August 15, 7 pm at Elstad Church, Lanesboro
August 16, 2 pm at Winona History Museum
August 17, 2 pm at Antonello Hall at MacPhail Center, Minneapolis

Learn more and find the concert schedule: www.stringwood.com