William Sidney Mount (1807-1868) formed an organic and everlasting bridge between his two chief passions in life: art and music. Perfect Harmony, re-explores the confluence of Mount’s music and art through nearly 25 oil paintings, pencil drawings, musical instruments, and related objects.

This exhibition has been organized by the Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, New York.

Sponsored in part by The Clark Foundation, The Tianaderrah Foundation, Mr. Tom Morgan and Ms. Erna J. Morgan McReynolds, and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Mahon.

Related Programs:

Rachel Barton Pine, violin: American Traditions
Sunday, August 11, 2019 • 4:00–6:00pm
This event will be held across the street in The Farmers’ Museum’s Louis C. Jones Center.
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Rachel Barton Pine presents a classical celebration of the violin’s American folk music roots. Beginning with the European dance music of early immigrants – a Bach Partita and a traditional Scottish medley – the sound transforms into a uniquely American style thanks to the influence of African-American music-making.

Four of the featured composers are celebrated fiddlers: Mark O’Connor, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, and David Wallace. Each has composed infectious concert music blending classical and American traditional music, blurring the line between the violin and the fiddle.

Black composers from America and Europe are also front and center: Noel da Costa, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. The program ends with a famous and thrilling set of Paganini-style virtuoso variations on the quintessentially American tune “Yankee Doodle.”

American violinist Rachel Barton Pine is “an exciting, boundary-defying performer” – Washington Post

The performance is in conjunction with the Coopertown Summer Music Festival and the exhibition PERFECT HARMONY: THE MUSICAL ART & LIFE OF WILLIAM SIDNEY MOUNT at Fenimore Art Museum. This performance is sponsored by WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Saturday Musical Performances
Live musical performances each Saturday in July and August • 1:00–2:00pm
Scriven Gallery (second floor)

Enjoy live music inside Fenimore Art Museum’s Scriven Gallery, surrounded by the paintings of Perfect Harmony: The Musical Art and Life of William Sidney Mount. Hear songs written or collected by Mount performed on the fiddle by B.J. Baker in this unique, immersive experience. Learn about the music that was popular during Mount’s lifetime and its influences. Discover the different music and dance styles of the period such as cotillion, jig, and waltz. (Included with you paid museum admission.)