Gonzalo Grau, percussionist, dancer Nelida Tirado, and flamenco guitarist Juanito Pascual enjoyed their ferry trip to North Haven for their Fox Islands Concerts workshop and performance in the summer of 2023. Photo by Nicole Acevedo
One of maine’s most unique concert series has a story about its origin that is equally noteworthy.
“This all starts with a boat crisis,” said Fox Islands Concerts founder Thomas Wolf. A foggy family cruise in the early 1960s led Wolf and his parents to sail into Carvers Harbor on Vinalhaven, where they met the island’s physician.
“In a conversation with the doctor, my mother revealed that her brother did the Met broadcasts,” Wolf said, referring to his uncle, Boris Goldovsky, who famously hosted the Metropolitan Opera intermissions during radio broadcasts. “And he said, ‘Oh, your family could provide music out here.’”
Wolf, a flutist, and his brother, Andrew, a pianist, were among the founders of the Bay Chamber in Rockport, Maine, in 1961. Bay Chamber, which hosts concerts and a music school, was launched with the goal of emulating the Curtis Institute of Music’s summer music colony, which had once thrived there.
“[The doctor] asked whether, since we were doing these concerts in Rockport and Camden, could they have some concerts on the Fox Islands,” Wolf said. Initially, the summer concert series held performances only on Vinalhaven, and was comprised of repeat performances from the Bay Chamber series on the mainland. Concerts were added on North Haven soon after.
More than 60 years later, the Fox Islands Concerts series continues to fulfill its mission of bringing high-quality chamber music performances to Vinalhaven and North Haven. The combination of world-class musicians and island beauty make the series a treat for performers and audience members alike.
“The more people can experience the highest level of chamber music on these two little Maine islands, the better,” said artistic director Annie Antonacos. “It’s an experience that you could find in New York City, but here we are surrounded by the beauty of the Maine coast and nature and everything else that the islands have to offer.”
Violinist Ben Beilman and pianist Haochen Zhang, performed in 2017 at Waterman’s Community Center. Photo by William Trevaskis
Antonacos, a concert pianist based in southern Maine, became the artistic director of Fox Islands Concerts in 2020, when live programming was thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic. She was able to resume in-person concerts in 2022.
“I’m looking out for musicians who make classical music and all music fun for everybody, and full of joy and easy to experience,” she said.
For its 65-year history, Fox Islands Concerts has programmed a balance of traditional and contemporary composers, with a sprinkling of jazz and folk music in the mix.
“It’s about time we got out of the traditional classical straitjacket,” Fox Islands Concerts’ president Jan Schreiber said. “There is a sudden awareness of people who are not in the European high classical tradition, and that is happening sometimes with a vengeance, as in the case where Annie [Antonacos] and her trio did music by a series of composers, almost none of whom except for Poulenc were known to the audience.”
Modernization is on Schreiber’s mind as Fox Islands Concerts navigates the same challenges faced by many concert-producing organizations: dwindling audiences. Pivoting to digital outreach, email appeals, and an Instagram account are all on the agenda, but for Laura Gilbert, a flutist who performed in the 2024 Fox Islands Concerts series with the chamber ensemble Electric Earth, creating an inviting program is half the battle.
“We try to open the door to get people to take in music in as many ways as we can,” Gilbert said. Electric Earth’s concert program began with a contemporary piece by Andrew Norman. “It’s this kind of shimmering piece…you can follow it really easily but it’s kind of like looking at a cracked mirror, it’s very sparkly and sort of fragmented, it’s a really cool thing to listen to,” she said. A piece by a European composer, written during World War II, followed. Its late-Romantic style provided a logical bridge to the Beethoven trio that closed the program.
The trip to the islands makes participation in the concert series a special occasion for the performers, many of whom are accustomed to performing in the world’s great concert halls. “It’s a nice drive, you take the ferry from Rockland, and Rockland is great,” Gilbert said of her journey to North Haven. “The ferry was really beautiful. It lands right at the little epicenter of town and there are a couple little galleries and a lovely little deli, we stayed at this lovely hotel. It’s an adventure to go to these islands in Maine.”
The concerts make a distinct impression on the audience members, too. The poet Elizabeth Bishop, who famously summered on North Haven in the 1970s, attended a Fox Islands Concerts brass quintet performance held outdoors at one of the island’s swimming quarries. In her journal, published by the North Haven Library in 2015, she wrote:
“A really charmingly absurd scene—The Quintet was on a little platform across the quarry, on the edge of a little pool…The audience sat on the near side of the pool—about 200, maybe?—with some up on the rocks—the younger ones had climbed to the top of the quarry, on the left—All the elderlies had folding chairs, or pillows, or blankets—babies in arms, or strollers, a very mixed audience.…A bird echoed the 1st notes of one number, loudly—almost exactly. During the space between parts—or when the trumpeter spoke—a loud glug—from a bullfrog—commented, unfavorable, it seemed.”
Fox Islands Concerts attracts internationally renowned performers such as the Miró Quartet. Photo by by William Trevaskis
Beyond its summer concert series, Fox Islands Concerts expands musical opportunities on North Haven and Vinalhaven through its grant program. It offers financial support to the islands’ schools for field trips, instrument purchases or rentals, and visiting artists.
“I think when the schools do get money for a program, and when a visiting artist or group comes during the school year, they can enjoy some of the music that’s made as well and appreciate a bit more of what FIC does,” Schreiber said.
“It is part of our mission to further education,” said Rona Hokanson, who was the organization’s artistic director from 2003 until 2019. Her late husband, the pianist Leonard Hokanson, was the artistic director before her. He was also a teacher and mentor to current artistic director Antonacos. His lasting impact can be seen in the name emblazoned over the Vinalhaven School auditorium’s entrance: Smith-Hokanson.
The auditorium, where Fox Islands Concerts’ Vinalhaven performances are currently housed, is also home to a Steinway B piano. Fox Islands Concerts owns the piano, which was purchased following a capital campaign, and which is available to other performers using the auditorium as well.
As Fox Islands Concerts gears up to announce its 2025 concert season, its hope is that more residents of—and visitors to—the Midcoast and islands will make one of their performances part of the itinerary, whether they cruise in on a schooner, take their own tender to the North Haven or Vinalhaven town dock, or plan an overnight getaway. Flutist Gilbert believes the beauty of the islands adds something special to the concert experience.
“I think isolated places are so beautiful and people who live in those communities are used to living in beauty and peace and nature. When you bring music to an audience that’s primed like that, there’s nothing more amazing,” she said. “In rural settings, concerts make the community. Music makes the community. There’s nothing like it.”
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Courtney Naliboff is a writer, educator, and musician on North Haven island. Her first book, Your Postpartum Body: The Complete Guide to Healing After Pregnancy, was released in June 2024.
For Concert Schedules
To learn more about Fox Islands Concerts and to see the 2025 schedule of performances once it has been announced, visit foxislandsconcerts.org.
