‘Prairie Winds’ to waft at arboretum

Dyck Arboretum of the Plains in Hesston will provide the setting for the Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Concert “Prairie Winds” at 4 p.m. June 14.

The outdoor concert brings the sounds of woodwind chamber music by Mozart, DuBois, Schickele and Gounod to the prairie gardens.

Bassoonist Nicolasa Kuster of California is joined by Wichita Symphony Orchestra musicians Angela Mans, bassoon, Catherine Mitchell, oboe, and Andrew Tryon, horn; and Jim Jones, clarinet. Local musicians and NMKSO players are Don Kehrberg, oboe; Kate Bergman and Kristin Shaffer, flute; Melissa LeBlanc, horn; and Jill Gatz, clarinet.

Kuster teaches at the University of Pacific Conservatory of Music and is principal bassoon of the Stockton Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet. She was principal bassoonist for the Wichita Symphony from 2000-2008 and appeared as a soloist with the orchestra last Fall. Kuster is a founding director of The Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition, an international competition for young women bassoonists from the Americas or studying in the Americas.

Jones, retired principal clarinetist with the Wichita Symphony and professor emeritus of clarinet at Wichita State University, is a founder and music director of the NMKSO Summer Music programs (formerly Harvey Music Festival). Jones also was a founding member of Wichita State’s Wiedemann Trio performing in Carnegie Recital Halls in New York City, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and throughout Europe and Central America with the Lierance Woodwind Quintet. He recorded “French Recital Favorites for Clarinet and Piano” with Karen Baumann Schlabaugh in 2005.

The 4 p.m. outdoor concert is followed by a dessert in the gardens hosted by the Board of Directors of the Newton Mid Kansas Symphony Orchestra.

All seats are $15 and $12.50 advance available at Ten Thousand Villages in Newton and the Dyck Arboretum in Hesston.

For information call 283-0814. Concert goers are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for outdoor seating. In case of inclement weather, the concert will be played inside the visitor’s center at the arboretum.