Great Bend House Concerts are more than an evening of beautiful music—they’re a chance to step inside the world of the music itself. In an intimate setting, you’ll experience extraordinary performances while enjoying curated wines and hearty hors d’oeuvres chosen to complement the program. Between pieces, our artists and hosts guide you through engaging conversations about the composers, their lives, and the times that shaped their work, giving you a richer understanding of the music you hear.

It’s also an opportunity to connect with Great Bend’s mission. You’ll learn how our programs—from early childhood music education to community choirs—are building social connection, expanding access to the arts, and strengthening Mason County’s cultural and economic vitality. By the end of the evening, you’ll have savored great food and wine, deepened your appreciation for the music, and joined a community that believes in the power of the arts to change lives.

One of Barber’s earliest musical memories was a visit to the Metropolitan Opera where, at age six, he attended a performance of Aida with legendary tenor Enrico Caruso as Radames and Louise Homer, Barber’s aunt, as Amneris. A host of childhood experiences like these seemed almost to predispose Barber to compose for the voice. By the time he graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Barber had developed into a fine baritone and was in some demand as a recitalist. It was Barber himself who made the first recording of his own Dover Beach.

These settings of English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold begin with a reverie on the English coast, describing its stoic beauty, yet revealing an “eternal note of sadness.” The opening texture is comprised of two solo violins, one of which presents a steady, undulating rhythm while the other invokes the pensive main theme. The music becomes immediately restrained, characterizing a more reasoned state of mind, with the stanza describing the sound of the sea, which “Sophocles long ago heard…on the Aegean.” The activated violin texture returns, with the incessant overlapping of short motives. The cello intones the main theme for the last three lines of text bringing us back to the melancholy opening.

Water, it seems, was an important image for Barber. In the same year which produced Dover Beach, he arranged the Adagio from his String Quartet, Op. 11, a piece which he described as a river gaining momentum on its way to the sea, and which is now known as his beloved Adagio for Strings (which is also featured in our October 26 chamber music program “Love, Let Us Be True”).

One of the leading African-American composers of the 20th century, William Grant Still’s (1895-1978) legacy lives on today. Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera, the first African-American composer to conduct a major American orchestra, the first to have an opera performed on national television, plus many more accolades and ground-breaking events. He left behind a wealth of music in his oeuvre, including five symphonies, nine operas, over thirty choral works, a number of chamber music works, art songs and four ballets.  

Lyric Quartet was composed in 1960 and was dedicated to Still’s friend, Joachim Chassman. Set into three movements subtitled “Musical Portraits of Three Friends,” the quartet takes the listener on a personal journey.

The final movement, dedicated to ‘The Jovial One,’ opens with a playful melody. The most energetic and driven of the three movements, the jovial character is established straight away. Exciting whirling from the upper strings in the central section builds tension as the driving force of the lower strings keeps the music moving along at quite a pace. The bouncy melody, led by the violin at the end, comes to its epic finale with all the parts coming together. 

Florence Price, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, was a pioneer black American composer who distinguished herself early on.  Most notably, she is remembered as the first black American woman to garner success as a composer of symphonic music.  Her first symphony is perhaps her best-known work.  Winner of a national prize, it was given its première in 1933 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—a social and cultural milestone in this country at that time.

At a young age she journeyed north to Boston to study at the New England Conservatory, and returned to Arkansas and Georgia to teach at various small black colleges.  After marriage she and her husband left a racially troubled Arkansas in 1927 for Chicago and her further study at the American Conservatory of Music.  Her career blossomed, and recognition for her art led to the afore-mentioned symphony in 1931, followed by two more symphonies, concertos, and other works for orchestra.  She composed in a variety of other genres:  chamber works, piano music, and vocal compositions–over three hundred in all!  Her songs and arrangements of spirituals were perhaps her most performed compositions.  But, sadly, little of her œuvre has been published; with her increasing popularity today, that very well may change.

She apparently wrote two compositions for string quartet, both dated around 1950, although she may have begun one of them much earlier. They had similar titles—and underwent somewhat confusing title changes, as well—and both featured folksongs.   We’re featuring both in our upcoming season’s February program, Wade in the Water.