Apollo Music Festival

08/18/2024

We had an incredible time performing at the Ca****la Performing Arts Center! Join us next Friday for another concert in their beautiful space.

08/17/2024

08/15/2024

If you are not able to join us in person this evening, join our livestream at 6:30pm for our pre-concert talk with Valerie Little and our concert at 7pm CST

07/31/2024

**Apollo Music Festival Comes to Rochester!**

Join us on August 18, 2024, at 2:00 pm at the Rochester Art Center for a free classical chamber music concert! 🎶

Thanks to a partnership with the Rochester Art Center, world-class musicians led by Houston native Garret Ross will perform pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, and more.

Free admission
📅 Full schedule at www.apollomusicfestival.com

08/26/2023

This afternoon, join us for the season finale concert of our 11th season at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Houston! The program features works by Mozart and Brahms. 2:30 PM Pre-Concert Talk, 3:00 PM concert. As always, the concert is free and all are welcome.

08/25/2023

Tonight, Apollo Music Festival comes to La Crosse! Please join us at 7:00 PM at Ca****la Performing Arts Center, 721 King St, for a program of works by Mozart, Françaix, Beach, and Poulenc! The concert is free and all are welcome.

08/24/2023

Join us this evening for a program of Devienne, Françaix, Britten, and Poulenc at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church! Pre-Concert talk starts at 6:30 PM and the Concert starts at 7:00 PM. The event is free and open to all.

08/23/2023

Please join us for tonight’s Lawn Chair Concert featuring an all-Mozart program at 7 PM. The concert will be held indoors at Bethany Free Evangelical Church at 301 S Ellsworth due to excessive heat.

08/22/2023

Wednesday's Lawnchair Concert will now take place at Bethany Evangelical Free Church
Due to excessive an excessive heat warning our Lawnchair Concert scheduled for Wednesday August 23 at 7pm at Trailhead Park will now take place at the same time at:

Bethany Evangelical Free Church
301 South Ellsworth Street
Houston, MN 55943.

08/19/2023

Tonight, Apollo returns to Rochester! Please join us at 7 PM at Christ United Methodist Church in Rochester for a program of Irene Britton Smith, Frank Bridge, Amy Beach, and Grażyna Bacewicz. The concert is free and all are welcome!

08/17/2023

Tonight, Apollo Music Festival returns for its 11th season at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, MN. The concert starts at 7 PM. Tonight’s program features works by Irene Britton Smith and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Admission is free and all are welcome!

08/14/2023

Meet Festival Founder and Artistic Director, Garret Ross.

Pianist Garret Ross is an experienced soloist and avid chamber musician with a wide ranging repertoire. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Apollo Music Festival as well as the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Florestan Chamber Music. Garret has performed on stages and series across the USA including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, The Roerich Museum in NYC, the Courtroom Concert Series in Saint Paul MN, and Music Northwest in Seattle WA.

As a soloist, Garret gave the World Premiere of Gregory Vajda’s Csardas Obstine with the Texas Festival Orchestra and the Music in The Mountains Festival Orchestra. Other concerto appearances with orchestra include the repertoire of Bach, Beethoven, Grieg, and Rachmaninoff. Garret has attended numerous festivals including the Aldeburgh Festival, Banff Centre, and the International Festival-Institute at Round Top.

Garret’s principal teachers are Alexander Braginsky and Eteri Andjaparidze. Both Braginsky and Andjaparidze studied at the Moscow Conservatory where their teachers, Teodor Gutman and Vera Gornostaeva, respectively, were students of Heinrich Neuhaus. Garret hopes to continue this tradition of piano playing through his performances and teaching. An active teacher himself, Garret teaches students throughout the Twin Cities, and conducts masterclasses at universities throughout the United States. He is on the faculty of The Saint Paul Conservatory of Music.

Garret lives in North Minneapolis with his partner Justin, cat Marzipan, and Doberman Reginald Barclay. He enjoys cooking, gardening, and traveling.

07/10/2023

In addition to bringing high quality performances to SE Minnesota and SW Wisconsin, Apollo Music Festival is also dedicated to bringing excellent educational opportunities to young musicians in the area. Participating in masterclasses with our festival musicians will not only provide students with a performance opportunity through the student recital - it will also allow students to receive constructive feedback and coaching that will foster growth as musicians from some of the leading musicians in the field. For more information on the masterclass teachers please visit apollomusicfestival.com.

06/29/2023

Apollo Music Festival is excited to announce our 2023 season, August 17th-26th. This season features concerts in four different cities in SE Minnesota and SW Wisconsin and will feature works from a range of composers from WA Mozart to Grażyna Bacewicz. For more information, please visit our website at apollomusicfestival.com.

08/01/2022

It's Storytime! One of the most fulfilling aspects of AMF is our annual "Storytime," hosted here by Ruth, Valerie, and Emily. "Storytime" takes place at the Houston Public Library in Houston, MN. It is a place for children and families to learn about different instruments and music in a fun environment!

Last year we were unable to get together with local families for "Storytime," so this year we are that much more excited to bring it back! It is free to the public as always.

Bring the family and meet us for "Storytime" on August 27 at 10:00 AM 🎻

07/26/2022

Nothing like that post-concert feeling! 🥳 Some of the most extatic times of our festival are the receptions after performances when musicians can meet audience members and celebrate a successful performance.

This photo includes some of our fabulous musicians from the 2021 AMF season. From right to left: Garret Ross (piano), Emily Cole (violin), Valerie Little (Viola), Ruth Marhsall (cello), and Robert Hanford (violin). We are excited to welcome back Emily, Valerie, Ruth, and our director Garret to AMF in this year's season! Come hear them begin performances again on Friday, August 19th at 7:00 PM at Cross of Christ Church in Houston, MN.

Head to www.apollomusicfestival.com to learn more and see what we have to offer you this year.

07/19/2022

Meet Ruth! She is a cellist and core musician of the Apollo Music Festival. She has been an active part of AMF since the very beginning in 2013, performing works for cello and piano with Garret Ross. Since then she has been back to Houston nearly every summer season since, performing in almost all of our concerts!

Cellist Ruth Marshall (she/her/hers) is active across Minnesota as a performer and educator. She is the cellist of the Mill City String Quartet, which presents five full programs each season in the Twin Cities, and which frequently performs for students across the metro area through the Class Notes program of Minnesota Public Radio.

She is also the cellist of Artu Duo, a collaborative ensemble with pianist Garret Ross. After seven years of playing concerts and giving masterclasses across the United States, Artu Duo formed Florestan Chamber Music, in order to serve local students and perform for Twin Cities audiences. Ruth is also an active and committed cello instructor, teaching students of all ages and levels at her home studio, and working with college students at Winona State University and Hamline University. In the summers, she performs as part of the Britt Festival Orchestra in southern Oregon, and as an artist-in-residence at the Apollo Music Festival in southeast Minnesota.

In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor activities, reading parenting books, and listening to podcasts about cooking and baking. She lives in St. Paul, MN, on Dakota land, with her husband and children.

Learn more about Ruth's career at her website www.ruthmarshallcello.com, and go to http://www.apollomusicfestival.com/season-ataglance to see when she will be playing with us again this year!