KPO Summer Music Festival starts

The Kenai Peninsula Orchestra’s Summer Music Festival starts at 2:30 p.m. Sunday with a Garden Party fundraiser at the former Fritz Creek Gardens, Mile 8.5 East End Road, with music by the Arete Trio. Tickets are $30 and include hors d’oeuvres and champagne. The Madison String Quartet performs 7:30 p.m. Aug. 2 at the Soldotna Methodist Church and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5 at Homer Faith Lutheran Church. At 6:30 p.m. Aug. 4 is a special Seldovia performance of the Madison String Quartet, “Strings at Sunset,” that begins with a ride on the Seldovia Bay Ferry’s M/V Kachemak Voyager. The cruise and concert, which includes hors d’oeuvres and champagne and refreshments, is $85.

Starting at noon Monday at Land’s End Resort, the music festivals’ free noon concerts by various musicians are around town, with performances at noon Tuesday at AJ’s OldTown Steakhouse and Tavern and noon Wednesday at the Duncan House.

The music festival ends with gala concerts at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at Homer High School and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 10 at Kenai Central High School. The orchestra performs the William Tell Overture, an aria from Tosca, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets for all events are available at the Homer Bookstore and River City Books in Soldotna.