Southern Illinois Music Festival performances scheduled in Anna

Three Southern Illinois Music Festival performances are scheduled in Anna.

On Monday, July 12, at 7 p.m. at the Shawnee Hills Arts Council’s Anna Arts Center at 117 W. Davie St. in Anna, members of the SIFest string section are set to perform two rarely heard masterpieces by lesser-known composers. 

The works for string octet...a double string quartet...are by the 19th century German composer Joachim Raff and the late 19th/early 20th century Russian composer Reinhold Glière. 

The ensemble will be led by violinist David Taylor, who has been assistant concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for over three decades. 

Tickets are $10 general  admission and $5 for students, and will be available at the door.

On Saturday, July 17, at 11a.m., SIFest artists are scheduled to present a free Klassics for Kids program at the First Evangelical Presbyterian Church at 315 South St. in Anna.

Klassics for Kids is designed to introduce younger audiences and their caregivers to classical music.

The program will include demonstrations for string quartet and the church’s historic Moller organ.

At noon on July 17, SIFest’s Fermi String Quartet and organist Anita Hutton are scheduled to present an hour-long performance at the First Presbyterian Church in Anna. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for students. 

Hutton is set to perform CPE Bach’s Concerto for Organ and Strings. The Fermi String Quartet from Chicago will perform Maurice Ravel’s complete string quartet, a classic piece of French Impressionist music. Tickets will be available at the door.

The festival’s Anna concerts are sponsored by the Shawnee Hills Arts Council/Anna Arts Center, the Southern Illinois chapter of the American Guild of Organists and the Illinois Arts Council.