What do “vibrant acidity” and “steely brilliance” sound like? ChamberFest Canandaigua answers that question by pairing musical selections with wine from the Ventosa Vineyards in Geneva on Sunday at 2 p.m. The vineyard arranged a wine tasting for the afternoon concert, and festival musicians paired musical selections with each wine’s taste profiles.
Cellist Amy Sue Barston, co-director of ChamberFest Canandiagia, was tasked with a musical pairing for Ventosa’s 2025 dry riesling, which is described as: “White peach and honeycomb resonate with vibrant acidity. Our limestone bedrock contributes precise minerality and steely brilliance.”
“I think what gave it away for me was ‘steely brilliance.’ Steely brilliance seals the deal,” she remembers thinking. The music that emerged in her mind was the resonant and vibrant Scottish fiddle tune, “Alien Ceilidh” (pronounced “Kay-lee”), for cello and violin. The cello’s steely strings produce a percussive snap for an underlying groove.
The concert is just one more way the festival has seized upon the region’s defining food and wine industries over the last 22 years, from chef-inspired five-course meals with musical accompaniment at The Lake House on Canandaigua to events that transform a Wegmans supermarket into a concert space. “It has been a dream from the beginning to get more community people involved to showcase all the amazing culture right here, like the local wines, and Constellation Brands, and Wegmans, and pairings with sommeliers,” says Barston.
Both music and wine offer audiences experiential layers that words fail to adequately express, she says. “You can try to express in words what the wines taste like, but it’s nothing like actually tasting it. And it’s the same thing with music. You can try to express in words and tell somebody how evocative this piece is of the Scottish cliffs. But there’s no way to accurately portray that until you’re in the room hearing it and seeing for yourself.”
The concert’s first course will open with a 2025 Salasso rosato wine, a rosé made from the pinot noir grape using a special method of bleeding the pink top layer from the fermenting grapes. The wine’s “notes of bright red fruits and cream,” which “lead to a velvet texture on the palate,” seemed to be the perfect match for the tuneful velvetiness of Chopin Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55 no. 2, which was chosen and will be performed by the festival’s co-director, Audrey Andrist. This summer is Andrist’s first year co-leading the festival.
Another course of wine and musical selections was chosen by the dynamic harpist Bridget Kibbey, whose career surged after she received the 2004 Avery Fisher Career Grant and who will start a new position as an associate professor at the Eastman School of Music this fall. For a delicate apricot-hued 2026 dry rosato, described as “perfect for a Tuscan summer day,” Kibbey chose light French songs by composer Paul Bazelaire.
This is Kibbey’s fourth visit to the festival since its start. Barston says that Kibbey’s personality on and off the stage has made her a festival favorite. In addition to performing as a collaborator on several of this year’s concerts, Kibbey also performs a featured recital on Friday at Canandaigua’s Notre Dame Retreat House at 7:30 p.m.
Kibbey sets the example of the kind of performer Barston looks to invite for festival concerts. When in Canandaigua, Kibbey frequents the Main Street shops, making friends with the shop owners and attracting community members to her concerts. “Canandaigua is such a special place and so beautiful and cultural yet down-to-earth. We really want people who are able to connect with the audience and be friendly and interested.”
A quintet of the festival’s performers collaborates for the fourth course, featuring a 2020 sangiovese where “notes of black cherry, cedar, and tobacco enchant like the sunset over the rolling hills of Val d’Orcia.” Kibbey connected the festival with composer Alan Hsaio, who arranged the seductive tango “Pour una cabeza” from the 1992 movie Scent of a Woman for violin, viola, cello, harp, and piano as a musical match for the wine.
The final tasting of the afternoon will be a 2020 cabernet sauvignon, described as: “Ripe plum and black currant are bolstered by smoke, leather, and robust tannin. Time spent in Hungarian Oak gives voluminous body and spice notes. Generous, yet refined, this wine has the staying power to evolve in the bottle.”
The obvious pairing was the headbanging but operatic Queen stadium rock anthem, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” also arranged by Hsaio.
“We’re hoping the audience will join in,” says Barston. She jokes, “Maybe they’ll have had enough wine by then.”
The ChamberFest Canadaigua runs through Wednesday, July 29th. Other highlights include a Tuesday, July 28 performance at the Notre Dame Retreat House, which will begin with solo cello and slowly layer in instruments, building the ensemble one person at a time towards the Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2. The event on Saturday July 25th is a ‘play in,’ inviting young string players in the region of any ability to sit in with the festival’s musicians in an all-inclusive, playful concert. The festival ends on Wednesday, July 29, with a featured solo recital for new co-director Audrey Andrist, showcasing her artistic vision.
For more information and tickets, visit ChamberFest Canandaigua.
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The Music of Wine – ChamberFest Canandaigua
Sunday, July 26 at 2 p.m.
Ventosa Vineyards | 3440 Route 96A, Geneva, NY 14456
Tickets for Music and Wine are $54; Music Only tickets are $27.75
Student and bulk concert pricing available.
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