Last year’s theme of SANCTUARY, for our 30th anniversary, revisited and refreshed the central tenets of our original 1989 founding “Prospectus” for the festival. A number of important elements were adopted to celebrate: expansion of our usual time frame, from 10 days to 2-1/2 weeks; revival of our very popular jazz club; return of some of our favorite guest performers from years long past; introduction of some new musicians; and inclusion of music long on our bucket list.

The 2020 theme of LEGACY, as we begin our fourth decade, follows naturally on last year’s. This summer we focus our lens on the tremendously rich legacy we have inherited, the one we inhabit in works of art and the performers who present them. We look at the legacy of which we are part, and forward to the legacy we hope to leave. As we enter this decade we are ever more absorbed with the future: of the Festival, the Barn, the Farm it inhabits—searching for best ways to steward that future both to protect the land and to ensure that TCF remains a vital cultural institution going forward.

PROGRAMS: August 21 – September 6, 2020:

Jazz. Following a five-year sabbatical we restored our jazz club last year. A new generation of artists joins the TCF house band this summer, carrying on this quintessentially American art: keyboardist Peter Godart and vocalist Tiandra Ray.
(2 performances)

Sextant & Compass. A program of Bach and Bach-ian music. We visit some of his most ambitious and refractory works: the B minor Partita, and Art of Fugue, complemented by recent music that responds to this master composer.
(2 performances)

Legacy. A far-ranging guest recital by musical giants rarely heard in the Midwest: pianist/composer Yehudi Wyner and violinist Dan Stepner.
(1 performance)

Finale. Returning to the single-composer format, we focus our finale on Mozart. We welcome the return of brilliant pianist, scholar, improviser, and reconstructionist Robert Levin, one of few performers with us almost from the start, together with the formidable Ya-Fei Chuang, in a program anchored by two of Mozart’s most ambitious piano concerti.
(2 performances)