WC Wisconsin News

The Out of Our Minds Chamber Music series at Viterbo University will begin its 2025–26 season on Saturday, Sept. 13, with a concert featuring piano quartets by Antonin Dvořák and Johannes Brahms. The event will take place at the Fine Arts Center Nola Starling Recital Hall in La Crosse.

Violinist Michelle Elliott, violist Busya Lugovier, cellist Derek Clark, and pianist Mary Ellen Haupert—who is also a music professor at Viterbo—will perform Dvořák’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 23 and Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60.

Mary Ellen Haupert founded the Out of Our Minds Chamber Music series to bring together musicians dedicated to chamber music performance. This season’s lineup includes artists such as the Druzhba Trio, Polish cellist Magdelena Sas, Bulgarian violist and composer Maritsa Rosamilia, clarinetist Michael Chesher, hornist Thomas Hunt, the Artaria String Quartet, sopranos Theodora Nestorova and Elizabeth Pearse, and cellist Alexander Fowler.

Concerts this season will cover a variety of repertoire including well-known chamber works as well as lesser-known pieces and new compositions. Highlights include an October 24 program focusing on Hungarian composers; a November 23 concert featuring music by Henri Górecki and Grażyna Bacewicz; two concerts marking the Artaria String Quartet’s 40th anniversary on February 1 and February 6; and a season finale on April 12 dedicated to Indian classical composer Reena Esmail.

All performances are free to attend. Except for the October 24 concert—which will be held at Cappella Performing Arts Center at 117 King Street—the events will take place in Viterbo University’s Nola Starling Recital Hall. Attendees may contribute through free-will offerings or make donations to support the Viterbo University Chamber Music Series.

For more information about the series or specific concerts, contact Mary Ellen Haupert at Viterbo University.