May 15-26, 2024
Tour to
Northern Italy
Following our hugely enjoyable trip to Vienna and Prague earlier this year, Artistic Directors Michael and Daria Adams are your hosts on a deluxe cultural journey to the heart of Italy next spring! We’ll be surrounded by masterpieces of Italian art as we enjoy wonderful meals in city and countryside and tastings of the local wines, cheeses and proscuittos. The music highlights are terrific as we attend the 91st annual Maggio Musicale in Florence, the oldest continual music festival in Europe. Of course, no music tour of Italy would be complete without opera, with performances of two Italian classics at Parma’s beautiful Teatro Regio and the most famous opera house in the world, La Scala in Milan. Private chamber concerts, exclusive to the group, will take place in Parma and Milan.
Final details of the tour including registration forms and final costs will be available by the third week of October. If you are interested just let us know and we will add you to the list to receive a personal email with all the information.
We begin in Milan and a performance of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the famed La Scala, followed the next day by a visit to Leonardo’s great Last Supper in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Then it’s on to the Emilia Romagna region, the breadbasket of Italy and Verdi country where the great composer passed most of his life. On the way to our hotel in Parma, we’ll stop at Puccini’s villa at Torre del Lago and the beautiful walled city of Lucca. Finally, a coda takes us to Florence a city unrivaled in the West as a treasure of art and architecture, and a favored stop on The Grand Tour for centuries. Guided by experts, we will visit several of the great monuments of the city.
The tour dates are May 15 – 26, 2024. Deluxe accommodation, fine cuisine, stirring concerts and opera, plenty of free time, and Michael and Daria’s commentary make this an unforgettable trip you won’t want to miss!
Program
- Prime tickets to performances at the renowned Maggio Musicale Festival in Florence, and Donizetti’s hilarious Don Pasquale and Puccini’s Tosca at La Scala and Parma respectively
- Private chamber concerts performed exclusively for the group in Parma and Milan
- Visits to the villa homes of Puccini in Torre del Lago and Verdi at Sant’Agata as well as the Casa Verdi retirement home in Milan
- Private guided tours of major artistic sites of Florence, Parma and Milan with expert art historians, including the Uffizi, Accademia (David), Leonardo’s Last Supper in Milan and many others
- The commentary of MITV’s Michael and Daria Adams
- Exclusive tastings of fine wines, parmesan cheese, prosciuttos, and balsamic vinegar
- Deluxe accommodations in four- and five-star hotels in Florence, Parma and Milan
- Private air-conditioned motorcoach transportation
- Plenty of free time to relax, shop or additional sight-seeing!
Tour limited to 25 participants.
The price of our trip to Vienna and Prague was $6,500 per person excluding air fare and including a donation to Music in the Vineyards. The ticket price for Italy will be around $7,000 per person and will be available in the Fall.
If you would like to register your interest please supply your name and contact details via email to info@musicinthevineyards.org with the subject line 2024 Italian Tour.
Below are photographs and rave reviews from our travelers on this years tour to Vienna and Prague:
Some of the rave reviews from our travelers on this year's tour to Vienna and Prague:
We enjoyed the music
tour in Europe sponsored
by MITV very much. We
quickly decided to go as
it was being sponsored
by MITV and Michael and
Daria would be there to
assist us and add musical
insights. The concerts were
all top notch and it was a
special treat to have two
private performances by a
quartet and then a trio just
for us.
The performances of
Isabelle Faust and Daniil
Trifonov at Vienna’s
Musikverein were
outstanding, as were
the operas in Vienna
and Prague. We enjoyed
the private chamber
music concerts and we
particularly enjoyed the
introductory talks by
Daria and Michael. The
guides, who were very
knowledgeable, took us to
wonderful museums and
art galleries. The hotels
were lovely and centrally
located in both cities.
The highlights were
St. Vitus Cathedral, the
Amai Quartet and the
Trio Incendio in the Mirror
Chapel. The entire trip was
delightful, as each day
was packed with exquisite
music and palaces, cathedrals
and museum visits.
We were fortunate to take the first international tour organized by Music in the Vineyards. What a delight! The concerts and operas were wonderful and our appreciation of all the musical events was enhanced by the mini lectures by Michael and the violin demonstrations by Daria.
The tour company selected by the organization was excellent; our hotels were elegant, our meals were delicious and the excursions were interesting and informative. And finally, our guide and our fellow travelers were great company. We hope to be lucky enough to take a future tour offered by Music in the Vineyards.
Our trip to Vienna and Prague with the Music in the Vineyards group was simply fantastic. It was a perfect size group of music lovers. Chock full of fun activities, daily concerts, good food and sight-seeing. The time raced by with wonderful people and entertaining and educational lectures by Daria and Michael. We have many fond memories.
Traveling in the company of fellow music lovers was a terrific shared experience. The selection of music genres and venues was varied and an excellent sampling of what Vienna and Prague offer. Certainly Daria and Michael Adams enhanced the experience with their brief but spectacular musical briefings and demonstrations prior to concerts. As an example, listening to Daria play a few bars of Mozart first the way a novice would, then as a professional, was so helpful in our understanding of the refinement of a musician’s interpretation.
When you donate to Music in the Vineyards, you ensure that the Festival will continue to enrich people’s lives through the power of music.
Friday, July 28th, 2023 7:00 pm
This program, drawn from the 19th century, includes Schubert’s Rondo Brillante, an unknown gem rarely heard in the concert hall, Loeffler’s post-romantic Rhapsodies, which bring together mysticism and folksong, and Fauré’s most popular work, his Piano Quartet, which was the first music from his pen after a painful divorce.
Saturday, July 29th, 2023 12:00 pm
Now in its 10th year, MITV’s Solo Instrumental Competition for California high school musicians awards cash prizes to outstanding instrumentalists selected by competitive audition. This year’s winners will be featured along with the Lírios Quartet, our 2023 Fellowship String Quartet, in this free lunchtime recital of talented young musicians.
Saturday, July 29th, 2023 5:00 pm
Mozart’s effervescent Oboe Quartet precedes the premiere of a work for piano and strings that we co-commissioned from noted CA-based composer John Wineglass. We close with Brahms’ autumnal String Quintet which was to be his final work, before what turned out to be a failed retirement.
Sunday, July 30th, 2023 5:00 pm
Schubert’s serene Notturno, and great Quintet for Strings (the “Cello” Quintet), bookend two remarkable composers, Brazilian Clarice Assad and Anna Clyne of the U.K.
A series of lecture/demonstrations that look beyond the score.
Thursday, August 3rd, 2023 5:00 pm
We welcome back renowned pianist and composer John Novacek for an enlightening discussion and performance about one of the 20th century’s most influential musicians, Igor Stravinsky. The focus will be on his eleven ballets, the genre he influenced most, including Petroushka, The Firebird and The Right of Spring. You will be welcomed with a glass of sparkling wine before John’s one-hour presentation. Afterward, linger on the beautiful Napa terrace of this stunning private home with wine and appetizers along with musical conversation.
Private residence in St. Helena, address issued with ticket receipt.
A series of lecture/demonstrations that look beyond the score.
Thursday, August 10th, 2023 7:00 pm
Brilliantly prolific while terribly ill, Schubert’s flurry of final works transcended the terrible suffering he endured. Curated by Artistic Director Michael Adams and assisted by festival musicians, this program will sample from the works of Schubert’s miraculous last year, including the “cello” quintet, the two piano trios, and his final piano sonatas.
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023 6:00 pm
The Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet, founded in 2010 by the internationally-acclaimed Sphinx Organization, has been a seismic force in promoting underrepresented classical musicians. Known for their “perfect ensemble unity” and “unequaled class of execution” (Lincoln Journal Star), Catalyst Quartet has toured widely throughout the United States and abroad.
6:00 pm Pre-Concert Talk
7:00 pm Concert
Friday, August 4th, 2023 7:00 pm
This program will take you on a journey, from the solemn Lamento of Kahlevi Aho, to the bawdy Café Music of Paul Schoenfield, which was inspired by his stint as the pianist at a steakhouse. We close with the exuberant and passionate Quintet no. 2 by Mendelssohn.
An Echo in the Vineyards Event
Saturday, August 5th, 2023 5:00 pm
This Concert for the Community will feature festival musicians in works by Antonio Vivaldi and tango master Astor Piazzolla, as well our first ever play-along, which will include you! All are welcome—on any instrument*—to join us in playing Johann Pachelbel’s beautiful Canon.
Sunday, August 6th, 2023 5:00 pm
This program features three audacious Opus 1s: the first published works of three young composers who went on to great things. Already, each Opus 1 reveals their nascent brilliance.
Wednesday, August 9th, 2023 6:00 pm
The Calidore Quartet was founded at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2010, and within two years won grand prizes in virtually all the major U.S. chamber music competitions. Their reputation has only grown in the decade since, and they now perform at the most esteemed venues and festivals around the world. This marks their MITV debut.
6:00 pm: Pre-Concert Talk
7:00 pm: Concert
Friday, August 11th, 2023 7:00 pm
Witness the intimate side of these three pillars of Russian music and “large-scale” masters. Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Stravinsky show off their compositional dexterity in these pieces for very small forces.
Saturday, August 12th, 2023 5:00 pm
One of the most captivating musicians of our time, violinist Tessa Lark returns to MITV for this one-night-only exclusive estate concert. Nominated for a Grammy in 2020, Tessa is a budding superstar in the classical realm, as well as a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky. She first appeared at MITV in 2009, as the winner of the Klein International Competition, returning for a second time last year.
Sunday, August 13th, 2023 5:00 pm
String Circle, by Kenji Bunch, explores the great history of American fiddle playing, flirting with ragtime, blues, and country. In this innovative presentation, the five movements of String Circle are paired with classical counterparts, revealing the close connection between genres.
Wednesday, August 16th, 2023 6:00 pm
California native and current Boonville resident Gabriella Lena Frank, explores the rhythms and sounds of the Andean culture of her heritage, including the sounds of the panpipe, the charango, and the wailing women hired to keen at funerals. Closing the program is one of Mendelssohn’s masterpieces, which Robert Schumann praised as “the master-trio of our time.” (And it still is!)
6:00 pm: Pre-Concert Talk
7:00 pm: Concert
Saturday, August 19th, 2023 12:00 pm
Two classic silent films with original music by Stephen Prutsman, performed by festival musicians, recreate the cinema experience of 100 years ago before recorded sound was integrated into filmmaking. The main attraction is a Buster Keaton classic, College, preceded by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a horror film, considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema.
Saturday, August 19th, 2023 5:00 pm
Two classic silent films with original music by Stephen Prutsman, performed by festival musicians, recreate the cinema experience of 100 years ago before recorded sound was integrated into filmmaking. The main attraction is a Buster Keaton classic, College, preceded by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a horror film, considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema.
Sunday, August 20th, 2023 7:30 pm
Join the Music in the Vineyards family of musicians, patrons, and supporters at sunset around the iconic Inglenook fountain for appetizers, followed by a delicious three-course buffet dinner under the stars paired with premium Inglenook wines.
Friday, August 18th, 2023 7:00 pm
This program opens with Caroline Shaw’s Schisma, which references the cleft in the rock that you cling to in dark times. We explore those “clefts” through a wide range of composers, and its meaning to each of them.
Thursday, July 27th, 2023 2:00 pm
Gain an insight into how the musicians prepare for their performances. Each open rehearsal features repertoire which will be performed in concerts during that week. Attendees are welcome to move from room to room as the musicians rehearse, and there will also be a chance to ask questions and talk to the musicians.
Thursday, August 3rd, 2023 2:00 pm
Gain an insight into how the musicians prepare for their performances. Each open rehearsal features repertoire which will be performed in concerts during that week. Attendees are welcome to move from room to room as the musicians rehearse, and there will also be a chance to ask questions and talk to the musicians.
Thursday, August 10th, 2023 2:00 pm
Gain an insight into how the musicians prepare for their performances. Each open rehearsal features repertoire which will be performed in concerts during that week. Attendees are welcome to move from room to room as the musicians rehearse, and there will also be a chance to ask questions and talk to the musicians.
Thursday, August 17th, 2023 2:00 pm
Gain an insight into how the musicians prepare for their performances. Each open rehearsal features repertoire which will be performed in concerts during that week. Attendees are welcome to move from room to room as the musicians rehearse, and there will also be a chance to ask questions and talk to the musicians.
Sunday, July 30th, 2023 3:30 pm
Following our hugely enjoyable trip to Vienna and Prague earlier this year, join Artistic Directors Michael and Daria Adams on a deluxe cultural journey to the heart of Italy in May 2024! Peter Straus from The Grand Tour travel company will give a detailed presentation about the trip including further details of the musical performances and cultural highlights. No need to register, just come and learn all about the tour!
