Classical Music Echoes Through the Valley
Stringwood festival celebrates 25 years of chamber music education and performance
SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA – It’s a hidden gem-of-a-program. For students and audiences alike who appreciate classical music, the Stringwood Chamber Music Festival is a greatly anticipated event each August.
Celebrating its 25th year in 2025, Stringwood is a nationally recognized summer music program for students aged 12-25. Participants experience in-depth learning that “nurtures them in the art of self-expression through chamber music in a supportive collaborative environment,” according to its organizers.
And audiences – from Lanesboro and Chatfield to Winona and Spillville, Iowa – are the benefactors who experience the music brought to life through the outstanding talents of these students, their faculty and the festival’s guest musicians.
The Stringwood Chamber Music Festival found a home, since day one, at the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center near Lanesboro.
Student musicians enjoy the sunshine and fresh air between rehearsals during the Stringwood Chamber Music Festival. (Stringwood photo)
For two weeks (August 2-17, 2025) the Eagle Bluff campus and surrounding woods are filled not only with the natural sounds of birds, bees and breezes, but also instrument tuning, string melodies and ensemble harmonies.
Over the past 24 years, Stringwood has averaged 30-40 participants annually – nearly 1000 participants in all.
The students’ home cities and states have varied, but what they have in common is a deep appreciation for – and commitment to learn – classical music.
And once they leave, from here they’ve gone on to perform professionally not only across the United States, but around the world, according to Nancy Oliveros, one of the festival’s founders and co-directors.
“We have former students who are now in Berlin, Paris, New York, Nashville…the list goes on,” she says.
Notable to local audiences is violinist Isabel Eckstrom who began with Stringwood when she was six years old, and who now is in an honors string quartet at Hillsdale College (Michigan). Eckstrom has been a frequent performer, along with her siblings, around Fillmore County over the past two decades.
Music in the air
While students can be as young as 12, participants seem to be skewing older this year, according to co-director Ray Shows.
This year’s average age is 19 and not surprisingly several of this year’s ‘students’ are already performing professionally, resulting in what Shows calls a great deal of “high level performance.”
In addition to private lessons, Stringwood students rehearse with their colleagues; these quartets are instructed by faculty and guest artists throughout their stay. (Stringwood photos)
Shows and Oliveros are members of the Twin Cities-based Artaria String Quartet. In many ways, Stringwood has been an extension of teaching opportunities Artaria first experienced at the prestigious Tanglewood Institute nearly 40 years ago, during their earliest years as professional musicians (see inset below).
Stringwood students take breaks from their musical training to ‘recharge’ their creative energies with outdoor activities ranging from hiking and canoeing to campfires and ropes courses. (2014 photo by Stringwood)
These days, together with other members of the quartet, several extremely accomplished professional guest artists and a unique forest setting, they guide and mentor the students to new heights through their teaching, coaching, music lessons, master classes and seminars.
So, what’s the attraction of holding this program in rural Southeast Minnesota?
“It’s peaceful, it’s safe, the environment is very stimulating,” says Oliveros. Musicians, she continues, thrive on nature, forest sights and sounds – and inspiration.
Inspiration indeed, Shows adds. In addition to individual creativity, “these things all inspire students to focus, to work hard, to open their minds, to shed bad habits and learn new habits and skills.”
“It’s part of human nature,” Shows says. “We all strive, in our own ways, for beauty.”
And…they strive to perform.
All of them.
A lot.
Members of Artaria, the guest musicians and student participants all step away from the Eagle Bluff campus to share their many talents with the larger community. There are a dozen public performances scheduled during their two-week stay.
The festival’s ‘professional’ concerts have doubled in 2025. As usual, two will feature the Artartia String Quartet with their guest musicians. A third concert will feature two of the festival’s guest musicians.
The fourth and newest addition will feature performances by graduate-school-and-beyond ‘young artists’ attending the festival. “Their playing,” Shows says, “is extraordinarily high. They’re among the best players in the program, the cohort that’s ‘all grad’.”
Members of the Artaria String Quartet and 2025 guest artists will present public concerts in addition to student coaching and master classes during the Stringwood Chamber Festival. Quartet members, pictured above left-to-right, are Annalee Wolf, viola; Ray Shows, violin; Nancy Oliveros, violin; and Rebecca Merblum, cello. 2025 guest artists, below, are Yeesun Kim, cello; Nicholas Kitchen, violin; and Dmitri Murrath, violist. (Stringwood photo) All performances, 7 p.m., Sons of Norway Lodge, Lanesboro (tickets available at the door). Artaria String Quartet with Dimitri Murrath, viola | featuring music by Mozart, Wigeratne and Dvořák Scholarship Concert | featuring 2025 senior division young artists accompanied by John Jensen, piano (proceeds from this concert support student scholarships) Boston Duo with John Jensen, piano | featuring music by Jessie Montgomery, Kodaly and Brahms Artaria String Quartet with Nick Kitchen, violin, and Yeesun Kim, Cello | featuring music of Mendelssohn, Childs and Brahms Featuring 2025 student musicians (open to the public free of charge). Featuring 2025 Stringwood students, free of charge Experiencing nature and music in pursuit of “beauty” are two things most of us can relate to – but classical music? “Absolutely,” Oliveros says. While what we generally think of as an era of music from 200 years ago, classical music increasingly speaks to all of us. Over time, she says, “we’ve incorporated the study of all genres of music and as we get closer to our own time period, the sounds of country music, folk songs, jazz and world music have become so influential that what we perform can easily be enjoyed by audiences that have never heard a string quartet – you’ll hear rhythms and harmonies that sound very familiar.” And it’s not just the music, Shows says. It’s also in the storylines. “We’re performing a piece about unrequited love, a work by American-born Billy Childs – a living, breathing contemporary composer,” he adds. Arguably, songs about love that is not returned by the other person can be found in most popular music. “Who in any city or country or any location on the planet hasn’t experienced that?” Shows asks. “You’ll hear it,” he says, “in Child’s composition, Unrequited.” Stringwood musicians present concerts in several area communities and venues. Here, Stringwood’s resident professional ensemble, the Artaria String Quartet and guests, perform for an audience at the Commonweal Theatre, Lanesboro. (2016 photo by Artaria String Quartet) In addition to contemporary music, the 2025 concert performances feature classical works by the likes of Brahms, Mozart and Dvořák – including a string quintet written by Dvořák during his residency in northeast Iowa in the late 1800s. His Quintet in E-flat “was distilled out of the farmlands and prairies” around Spillville, according to Shows. In addition to this Dvořák quintet’s performance during the August 5 concert by the professional musicians, it will also be performed by Stringwood’s top student musicians in a special concert in Spillville on August 9. The idea of performing in the place where famed Czech composer Antonin Dvořák wrote this work will be an unforgettable experience for the musicians – and it’s one stellar example of the unique opportunities experienced by students and audiences attending the Stringwood Chamber Music Festival’s 25th anniversary year. The Artaria String Quartet was founded nearly 40 years ago in Boston. It was mentored by members of the Budapest, La Salle, Kolisch, Juilliard and Cleveland Quartets. The quartet has had numerous appearances on television and live radio, and have performed at major venues in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Cleveland, and Boston. The ensemble can be heard regionally at concerts in and around the Twin Cities. Members of the Artaria String Quartet performed during a 2025 “Prairie Soirée” house concert. (Photo by Molly Gage) Artaria’s two founding members, Ray Shows and Nancy Oliveros, arrived in Minnesota some 25 years ago. It was a special time, not just because the Stringwood Chamber Music Festival was founded, but the Artaria ensemble had been recognized as Minnesota’s quartet-in-residence, winning the prestigious McKnight Fellowship for performing musicians. Shows and Oliveros are still driving the festival, but the quartet’s other members are equally involved as teachers and coaches. They include Twin Cities musicians Annalee Wolf, viola, and Rebecca Merblum, cello. Supporting the quartet’s work during the festival is collaborative pianist John Jensen who works regularly with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Stringwood is not Artaria’s only youth-focused educational endeavor. Members of the quartet are founders and directors of the St. Paul-based Artaria Chamber Music School, a weekly chamber music program for young string players ages twelve to twenty, and the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, an annual national event that showcases America’s finest young high school and college string quartets. A “Prairie Soirée” was held in July to celebrate Stringwood’s 25th anniversary year. Patrons Joe Deden and Mary Bell welcomed guests to their ‘prairie home’ in Lanesboro. (Photo by Molly Gage) Additionally, each September the ensemble hosts an annual Adult Retreat (an extension of the Artaria Chamber Music School). Also held at Eagle Bluff, this weekend-long gathering offers group sessions, score-studies and performance opportunities for pre-formed ensembles. August’s annual Stringwood Chamber Music Festival is financially supported in a variety of ways – by participants, concertgoers, donor gifts and grants. Students generally pay their own way; scholarships are available when a financial need exists. In addition to student tuition, expenses are funded by a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, concert ticket sales and individual donations. Root River Current’s coverage of the arts is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund. Stringwood Festival Concerts
Stringwood Young Artist Chamber Concerts
Stringwood Student Performances
Music speaks to all of us
The ‘movers and shakers’ behind Stringwood
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