Composer Robert Sirota’s Muzzy Ridge Concerts Announces Sixth Season in Searsmont, ME – Six Concerts in July 2026

(Left to Right) American String Quartet, Graeme Steele Johnson, Min Kwon, Claire Bryant, Nadia Sirota | Available in hi-resolution here

Searsmont Composer Robert Sirota
Announces Season Six of Muzzy Ridge Concerts
Featuring Six Performances in July 2026

Monday, July 5 and Tuesday, July 6 at 5pm
Tuesday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 15 at 5pm
Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29 at 5pm
Tickets and More Information

“A unique and intimate concert experience” – The Republican Journal

robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts

Searsmont, ME – Muzzy Ridge Concerts — the beloved concert series founded by celebrated composer Robert Sirota — returns for its sixth season of summer performances in July 2026. Muzzy Ridge Concerts expands this year from four to six performances over the month of July, offering three enticing programs, each performed twice, on Monday, July 5 and Tuesday, July 6 at 5pm; Tuesday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 15 at 5pm; and Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29 at 5pm.

The popular Maine chamber series welcomes new guest artists this season, including Robert Sirota’s longtime friends and colleagues from the American String Quartet — for whom Sirota has written music in the past –– as well as the return of Robert Sirota’s daughter, Nadia Sirota.

The opening concerts will feature clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson and pianist Min Kwon performing a mix of works from the 19th, 20, and 21st centuries. The performance also highlights American work, with music by George Gershwin and selections from Min Kwon’s commissioning project, America/Beautiful, which strives to “paint a sonic picture of [Kwon’s] adopted country in all of its sprawling complexity, and ultimately try to find the beauty at the core of the American experiment and its credo of e pluribus unum.” The American String Quartet’s program embraces the beauty of the traditional classical canon from the late 18th and 19th centuries, showcasing the group’s highly refined interconnected musicianship. This is also the American String Quartet’s final season together, making these concerts some of the last opportunities to hear a live performance by this storied ensemble. The series concludes its sixth season with the dynamic playing of

violist Nadia Sirota and cellist Claire Bryant, as the two perform a varied program of classical music and works by living composers.

Concerts take place in Robert Sirota’s Searsmont, Maine studio – the creative sanctuary where he has composed a great deal of his work throughout the past 35 years. Performances will run for approximately 60 minutes with no intermission. Indoor seating is limited to 50 patrons with an additional 20 outdoor seats. Tickets are on sale now.

Robert Sirota says:

“In the summer of 2021, we began Muzzy Ridge Concerts with two concerts and the simple idea to have our tremendously gifted friends and family come to our place to play chamber music and enjoy a few days in Mid-coast Maine. The concept hasn’t changed, but our audience has grown! This year we are happy to extend our hospitality to you at six stellar concerts. We hope you will find your way to Searsmont and join us!"

On Monday July 5 and Tuesday, July 6, clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson and pianist Min Kwon perform a lively mix of traditional and contemporary works from the 19th century to the present day blending classical canon with jazz, blues, and the expressive artistry of Impressionism. The program will feature “Blues” from An American in Paris by George Gershwin and Michele Mangani, Première Rhapsodie by Claude Debussy, Apparition by Viet Cuong, Selections from the America/Beautiful commissioning project, and Sonata in E-flat for Clarinet and Piano by Johannes Brahms.

On Tuesday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 15, the American String Quartet — Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney, violins; Matthias Buchholz, viola; and Wolfram Koessel, cello — perform two stylistically divergent quartets by two composers nearly a century apart: Franz Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in D Major Opus 76 No. 5 and Johannes Brahms’ Quartet in A Minor Op. 51 No. 2. The former diverges from Haydn’s imposing thematic style, embracing modest but deeply expressive motifs, ranging from slow and poignant to vibrant and frenzied. Brahms’ quartet by contrast, showcases his penchant for melodic themes of an unwaveringly bold, dramatic, and emotionally heavy nature.

Closing out the season on Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29, violist Nadia Sirota and cellist Claire Bryant perform a colorful program of music for viola and cello, featuring a lively array of works by contemporary and classic composers. Their performance will feature Limestone & Felt by Caroline Shaw, Drones by Nico Muhly, and Duet for Two Obbligato Eyeglasses by Ludwig van Beethoven. The expressive nature of this program spans a variety of musical objectives –– from a melodically lighthearted duet written in Beethoven’s early years, to channeling the embodiment of textural contrast in Shaw’s material-minded work, to Nico Muhly focusing on developing harmonic ideas over a static structure. The program intertwines fun and contemplative artistry.

Tickets for all Muzzy Ridge Concerts performances are now on sale at www.robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts.

Robert Sirota has garnered distinction as composer, arranger, music executive and arts advocate. His chamber works have been performed by Alarm Will Sound; Sandbox Percussion; Yale Camerata; yMusic; the Chiara, American, Blair, and Telegraph Quartets; and in festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, Cooperstown, and Bowdoin. Orchestral performances include the Seattle, Vermont, Virginia, East Texas, Lincoln (NE), Meridian (MS), New Haven, Greater Bridgeport, Oradea (Romania) and Saint Petersburg (Russia) symphonies, as well as conservatory orchestras of

Oberlin, Peabody, Manhattan School of Music, Toronto, and Singapore. Recent commissions include the Neave Trio, Judith Clurman/Essential Voices USA, Jeffrey Kahane/Sarasota Music Festival, Palladium Musicum, the Naumburg Foundation, and arrangements for Paul Simon. Recipient of grants from the Watson and Guggenheim Foundations, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota’s works are recorded on the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. For more information, visit https://www.robertsirota.com.

About the Artists:

Graeme Steele Johnson: graemesteelejohnson.com
American String Quartet: americanstringquartet.com
Min Kwon: pianistminkwon.com
Nadia Sirota: nadiasirota.com/bio-and-photos
Claire Bryant: clairebryant.com/#bio