John Wineglass and Michell Marshall at Library

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and Orcas Island Library are delighted to co-produce a talk at the library featuring Emmy-award-winning Composer John Wineglass and Woman in the Woods Founder Michell Marshall on Saturday, Aug. 12, at 2 p.m. A celebrated composer, Wineglass has written scores for shows on major television networks and for documentaries and has been awarded three Daytime Emmy Awards, three ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards, and seven Emmy nominations. Marshall, an Orcas Island local, purchased Office Cupboard in 2007. In 2017, she founded Woman in the Woods Productions, which seeks “to promote an appreciation for racial and cultural differences through various forms of artistic expression.” Marshall will moderate the discussion with Wineglass, as he details his process of composition and how Walker’s story inspired his haunting new quintet …And The Summer Was Over. A Q&A will accompany the discussion.

OICMF presents the Northwest première of Wineglass’ …And The Summer Was Over during their third series concert, From Darkness to Light, on Friday, August 12, at 7:30pm and on Saturday, August 13, at 5:30pm at Orcas Center. Marshall takes the stage to read Alice Walker’s “The Flowers,” the short story that inspired Wineglass’ work. Both the reading and the piece are based on a narrative of a young Black girl discovering a horrific lynching in the American South during the Jim Crow Era. Marshall’s dramatic reading will introduce the music, which then reverses the story’s narrative arc to take the listener on a journey of resilience. The piece is dedicated to all the lost lives, survivors, and descendants of the Jim Crow Era. Wineglass and Marshall, along with OICMF’s Artistic Director, Aloysia Friedmann, will give pre-concert talks an hour before each concert at Orcas Center.

The Saturday afternoon event at the library is free and open to the public, thanks to generous sponsorship by the Peach Foundation.