When violinists Michael Adams and Daria Tedeschi Adams founded Music in the Vineyards 32 years ago, they couldn’t have expected it would flower into a major festival respected throughout the U.S. and the world.
Today, Napa’s premier chamber music festival is thriving and more expansive than ever.
Music in the Vineyards takes place in Napa Valley wineries for four weeks each August. This year, the artistic directors’ programing runs through Aug. 23 and includes a bevy of beautifully wrought concerts, which this weekend include “American Road Trip” (Aug. 7, one of several concerts unified by an America 250 theme), “Serenades for a Summer Evening” (Aug. 9, featuring music by Benjamin Britten and Beethoven), and the intriguing “Paired Voices” (Aug. 8, an evening of duos by Jacques Offenbach, Paul Coletti and classic film composer Miklós Rózsa).
The Adams’, a dynamic husband-wife duo, invite superb musicians to play the music. But the magic of the festival stems in part from the winery venues themselves.
“This is such an interesting way to present music and keep things fresh and dynamic,” said violinist Susie Park, who’s playing in her fourth MITV festival this year. “To play in a cellar, where the temperature is significantly different and acoustics are different, is fun. The energy of the audience (is also different) because of the space that we’re inhabiting.”
“We go and check out a winery, and when they have space big enough, we beg,” Daria said. The Adams’ said they would love to have a home base, but that dream has not been realized due to Napa County’s restrictive regulation on permits for events. Even so, MITV regularly returns to Silverado Vineyards and Clos Pegase, among others.
Many chamber music festivals offer you intimacy, but the Adams’ have their own twist on that concept. Tickets are precious, because there are not a lot of seats to be had. “We committed to playing in venues small enough that people could have close proximity to the musicians so that it was more like salons, like in the old days,” Michael said.
Because the venues are often unique in shape, the co-artistic directors often invent creative solutions for seating arrangements. Sometimes the audience will surround the musicians with the ensemble rotating 90 degrees for each piece.
“You’re three rows away at the most. That makes chamber music feel like we’re in somebody’s home,” Daria added.
Daria often choreographs pieces, extending that idea of shifting viewpoints to the musicians themselves. “The first time we did (Arvo Pärt’s Fratres for string quartet) I said, ‘Why is the second violin just sitting there playing a D the whole time?’ So I had the second violinist — it was actually me — wandering around and walking through the room.”
When MITV programmed Philip Glass’s “Echo Concerto,” she placed the violinist playing the echo part in the back of a barrel room. “People do it where the two violins stand next to each other and that seemed really dumb to me,” she said.
It’s not difficult to convince great musicians to spend a week in the summer at Napa. Park appreciates staying in a home with a host who’s interested in the music. “I just enjoyed that it was in a beautiful, hot place. But also the kind of vibe that they curate over there is so fun,” Park said.
No musician is promised an invite every year. Of those scheduled, musicians stay for only one week each festival, meaning three groups visit each year.
“We try almost every week to have somebody we’ve never met,” said Daria, who began recruiting from the festival by approaching soloists for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, of which she was a member. Though established string quartets play at the festival, the Adams’ also mix and match members of the groups with different players, and even give them solo parts. “They love that — it’s very rejuvenating for them,” Michael said.
Park, Michael’s colleague in the Minnesota Orchestra for many years, is one of those musicians. “The people that you get to collaborate with, that’s where the real joy of it all comes together,” she affirmed. “And [Michael and Daria] do such a wonderful job of bringing top level players and people. I’ve met people I’ve never come across. Getting to work with them is always rewarding.”
The Adams’s, originally from Minnesota, became “naturalized” Californians this year. “For years we fantasized about it, if the planets aligned right after we both retired from our jobs in Minneapolis,” said Michael.
Rather than writing notes in the program, Michael speaks about the music himself. The added human touch, not to mention the jokes, brings audiences closer to the music. “I’m really committed to humanizing composers but also making the piece sound so titillating and enjoyable that the audience can’t wait to hear it,” he said.
When they started building the festival, the Adams’ were careful to program to their audience’s tastes. But now, MITV regulars trust the pair’s curatorial decisions and the musical range of the festival has expanded enormously.
“We personally like really accessible music,” said Daria. “And so the audience knows that if it’s a piece they haven’t heard it’ll probably be beautiful or fun or quirky. We have a living composer on almost every single program this year. And we’re very aware of having underrepresented composers and we make an effort to do that. We have five or six female composers this year.”
MITV is growing in other ways, too. Rebecca Blum, recruited from the San Francisco Symphony front office, is now the festival’s fourth executive director. She has amplified the festival’s community footprint and educational outreach, and contributed to building the festival’s musician training programs.
Each year, the festival brings in a young quartet — this year, it’s the Maple Quartet from the Eastman School of Music. In addition to performing at the festival, the Maples will perform for children at the local Boys and Girls Clubs, bringing a piece commissioned from Clarice Assad in 2024 called “Family Reunion.” It’s a theatrical piece designed to introduce young audiences to the elements of a string quartet.
The festival also runs Music for Students, a program founded in 2003 by Chamber Music in Napa Valley (CMNV). The program brings professional classical musicians into Napa Valley classrooms, providing free, interactive performances for elementary, middle, and high school students. Every year there are also free public performances, masterclasses, and a play-along concert.
For Napa’s newest retirees, that’s not a bad legacy.
Michael Zwiebach is a freelance writer. This review has been provided in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle.
