ELY – The Northern Lights Music Festival concluded last week with an evening of chamber music before a large audience at Vermilion Community College’s Fine Arts Theater.
And an intimate setting at Whiteside Park featured an Indian drum circle.
The main event of the chamber music session featured Schubert’s “The Trout” piano quintet presented by world-renowned musicians, and several pieces were performed by talented young up-and-comers.
Opening the recital on piano, a student from Uzbekistan, Diora Shorrustomova, performed Violes by Debussy. Thirteen-year-old Samuel Cronk, of Cherry Hill, N.J., wowed the audience with his rendition of Chopin’s Ballade No. 2 in F Major.
A string quartet by Debussy featured Juan Yenaz, violin I, Caroline Pedrozza, violin II, Chihiro Tanaka, viola, and Rachel Ellis, cello. Yenaz returned to the stage with Carlos Bedoya on guitar to offer Histoire de Tango by Piazzola.
The piano quintet featured Dr. Edisher Savitski, piano, Alexander Markov, violin, Yuri Gandelsman, viola, Sally Gibson Dorer, cello, and Rolf Erdahl, double bass.
The Northern Lights Music Festival series wrapped up its 2021 Ely swing with an afternoon drumming concert in Whiteside Park last Wednesday afternoon. Five members of the Bois Forte drum circle gathered in the pavilion and were surrounded by a mesmerized audience.
The drum circle symbolizes the heartbeat of the earth. The thunderous powwow drums, sometimes called community drums, or a frame drum, are made of wood and are believed to be one of the oldest instruments of any kind. Some Native American shamans have historically used these drums to provide a beat that allows them to enter into a trance-like state, hence their alternate name of shaman drums.
For more information on the Northern Lights Music Festival, go to www.northernlightsmusic.org.