By Lisa Tang
Mount Vernon Music Association (MVM) is one of the region’s little-known treasures, bringing refined music through concerts and outreach programs for 17 years. Founders Mark and Ute Miller are high-quality musicians who play regularly with symphonies in Dallas and Fort Worth, but their desire is to share the music they know and love with people in rural communities.
Mark and Ute Miller are accomplished musicians who lived and performed in renowned symphonies in Germany and Boston before coming to the region more than 20 years ago. Photo by Lisa Tang
MVM’s chamber music performances offer intimacy and sophistication, usually with musicians from larger cities who play professionally. Instead of an orchestra their performances include just one player per part so they provide a closer and more connected experience.
MVM is unique in the Upper East Side of Texas and is similar to the Fine Arts Chamber Players in Dallas or the Texas Winds Musical Outreach — two organizations that perform in the Dallas area.
Chamber music is not always classical and can include more modern music varieties such as jazz. In September, MVM hosted a performance by the Shelby Carroll Saxophone Quartet, which played jazz on four different types of saxophones.
The current season’s programs — collectively titled “Ways Forward” — reveal MVM’s resolve to bring fine music to rural communities. The new season has a focus of healing, diversity, and outreach. From “Hope,” “Reflection,” and “Remembrance” in 2021, Mount Vernon Music is moving into 2022 with “Challenges and Opportunities,” “Faith,” and “Change and Endurance.”
Themes of the 16th season promote healing after the pandemic. “Reflection” featured music from American composers. “Remembrance” included a range of American and European compositions that shared sorrow for lives lost during the pandemic.
In the next three programs, MVM is continuing to bring exceptional music to rural audiences in the Upper East Side of Texas at their concert hall in Mount Vernon, Texas, and beyond at venues such as Texas A&M University-Commerce, local nursing homes, and schools.
Ute Miller says the current season’s focus intentionally responds to the dramatic events of 2020.
“The repertoire is more meaningful and more diverse because we are really branching out now in more modern [compositions] and more pieces written by women composers,” says Ute, who began playing viola at age seven and studied music in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Ute traveled to Boston to study in 1986 where she met violinist Mark Miller, a native of Bloomington, Indiana. After the couple married they moved to Germany for a few years before wanting to perform chamber music in smaller venues.
With few opportunities in Germany the Millers took a friend’s advice and applied for a grant to play in the U.S. A letter arrived from Ambassador University, a former Bible college in Big Sandy, Texas. After nine months, they continued teaching for the Sulphur Springs schools and East Texas State University (now Texas A&M) at Commerce.
While performing at Northeast Texas Community College, the Millers met attorney B.F. Hicks, who eventually encouraged them to establish the concert hall in Mount Vernon even as they continued playing with symphonies in Dallas and Fort Worth.
Now in their sixteenth season, MVM is continuing its goals of bringing exceptional music to rural communities through concerts in their concert hall and through outreach programs.
“We believe music belongs to all of us. It’s a human good; it’s a human resource,” Mark says.
“We’ll always do the music, the concerts here, but it has to go beyond that. We have to go out and bring [concerts] to people and serve them.”
Others express gratitude for MVM’s contributions.
“You would have to drive hours to get the quality music that you can get in Mount Vernon,” says David Mills, MVM’s technical adviser. “It’s a luxury we can’t do without.”
Mount Vernon Music performs six to eight programs for children each year. Photo by Lisa Tang
Outreach Programs
In addition to the six annual programs, children from Mount Vernon schools are invited to experience a program in the concert hall each June. “The Town Musicians” program by composer Benedikt Brydern with illustrations by Madeline Crist is based on the Grimm Brothers’ “Bremen Town Musicians” and has been performed for thousands of children in schools across the region.
Other adapted stories include “The Donkey, the Goat, and the Little Dog,” “The Cat Who Wore Boots,” “Beagles’ Day Out,” “Villains & Sweethearts,” “The Town Musicians,” and “Midnight Adventures by Till McIvor Myen.”
The Millers are excited about the new “Overtones” composition for youth, which is written like a music theory lesson about modal scales disguised as a story. Each modal scale is a place in an imaginary country.
MVM’s 16 performances per year in nursing homes are known as the Musical Lifelines program. The organization’s eight or more annual performances in local schools are part of the MVM Youth Outreach program. Outreach performances are offered free of charge with grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“It’s the coolest music. Sometimes it sounds like blues; sometimes it sounds like jazz,” Mark says. The piece is appropriate for middle and high school band students.
Children’s programs, called MVM Youth Outreach, are performed roughly eight times a year at schools in Winnsboro, Sulphur Springs, Quitman, and Mount Pleasant schools and as far south as Palestine and Lufkin.
MVM’s summer children’s concert features a new composition by rising black composer Quinn Mason of Dallas. His compositions are played by performers all over North America. Mason is currently preparing a children’s concert based on African folktales to debut at the MVM performance hall in June.
The composition “Beagles’ Day Out” features the sounds of the Millers performing with original illustrations and dialogue of two beagles who escape to explore the world beyond their home. The score by Benedikt Brydern playfully intertwines with text and illustrations by Rose Roeder for an almost cinematic presentation.
The Betty Whitlock Scholarship fund provides financial assistance to roughly a dozen youth each year for music studies, private lessons, music camps, or instruments and equipment. Applicants also get the opportunity to play before an audience in MVM’s performance hall.
Pianist Evan Mitchell and soprano Corrie Donovan perform on the intimate MVM stage in November. Photo by Lisa Tang
A Grand Plan
The Central Church of Mount Vernon served as a vibrant center of worship from 1905 to the 1950s but later experienced decades of neglect. More recent owners converted the church into a wedding chapel.
The building was in disrepair when the Millers visited it almost two decades ago but saw promise in the former sanctuary’s acoustic qualities. They invited friends from the Dallas Symphony to take a look and became convinced of its promise.
Restoration involved removing torn carpets and the baptistry, restoring the ceiling and hardwood floors, building an intimate stage, and adding contemporary art inspired by musical performances. After renovations, the concert hall retains the excellent acoustics but provides a more inviting ambience.
The Millers deeded the performance hall to the new nonprofit — the Mount Vernon Music Association. They were soon able to add a 10-foot Steinway grand piano constructed in 1896 to the intimate concert hall due to a generous gift.
The piano adds exceptional musical quality to the concert hall, as in November’s stunning performance titled “Remembrance” featuring soprano Corrie Donovan and pianist Evan Mitchell.
Mitchell also performs upcoming concerts in February and April 2022 at the MVM Music Hall and other locations in the Upper East Side of Texas.
MVM performs “Challenges” at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, April 3, at the MVM performance hall. “Challenges” features music by female and black composers Valerie Coleman, Jennifer Higdon, Emilie Mayer, Manuel Ponce and Mélanie Bonis for flute, clarinet, strings and piano.
“We are delighted to share several pieces of evidence to prove the music world is even bigger and richer than frequently thought,” Mark Miller says.
Players for the winter performance include Julee Kim Walker on flute, Mary Druhan on clarinet, Evan Mitchell on piano, Mark Miller on violin, Ute Miller on viola, and Sara Birnbaum Hood on cello.
“Faith” is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, at Mount Vernon Music Hall. In “Faith,” MVM presents inspirational music from the Renaissance to 20th century, including vocal works sung by baritone James Rodriguez, PhD and instrumentals by Mark Miller and Yuko Mansell on violins, Ute Miller on viola; Laura Ospina on cello, and Evan Mitchell on piano.
Additional performances of “Faith” are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on April 24, at the Steinway Piano Gallery, 510 Commerce Street in Fort Worth and at 7:30 p.m. on April 25 at the Texas A&M University Commerce Finney Concert Hall.
The final program of the 2021-2022 season is titled “Change” and features new music by Benedikt Brydern and William Grant Still and enduring music by Barber and Dvorák at 7:30 p.m. on May 21 at the MVM Association. Players for this performance include Ivan Petruzziello on clarinet, Mark Miller and Yuko Mansell on violin, Ute Miller on viola, Laura Ospina on cello, and Jack Unzicker on bass. Check MVM’s online calendar for locations of additional performances.
Memberships cost $25 and up annually and provide discounts on admission to performances throughout the year. For information about performances, become a member, or make a donation, visit www.mountvernonmusic.org.
Performing Frederic Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 are Evan Mitchell, piano; Mark Miller and Yuko Mansell, violins; Ute Miller, viola; and Laura Ospina, cello.
Listen to a children’s concert by Mount Vernon Music called “Beagles’ Day Out.”
