You travel more than a mile down a set of dirt roads to get to get to the Counterpoint Music, Art, & Conservation Festival. But, when you get there, there is music. And lots of it.

Cellist and organizer Susan Mayo hosted the annual festival on May 30 at her country home near Peabody, Kansas, just 43 miles from Wichita. The gathering, which began at 1 p.m. and ran until about 10, included music performances and workshops, land stewardship speakers, children's activities, food trucks, and visual art — paintings and drawings stacked under tents and tacked to trees.

Where the trees part, there is a stage, and someone carries an upright bass. Someone else a banjo. Someone lugs a hammer dulcimer.

The performers included Alfred Packer Memorial String Band, Jim "Stinky Feet" Cosgrove (a children's act), Von Hansen, and Jopará Ensemble, among others. With a slant towards strings, the musical styles included world music, folk, old-time, and pop. The Packer band, which includes the hammer dulcimer, banjo, and upright bass, sang this zany lyric: "I miss Pluto. / You're the cutest dwarf / in the sky" from the main stage. 

In a clearing with tall trees vignetting all sides, concert-goers sit in lawn chairs, wear sunglasses and hats, sip from water jugs, chat and watch. They tug at their beards. They watch the dark clouds move in. As the evening simmers, and the rain starts to fall in quarter-sized drops, everything moves inside. Some lug tables into the outer rooms, and the living room goes to rows of folding chairs. What was once an outdoor affair under the sun and sky has become a house concert. 

Jopará Ensemble, a string ensemble composed of Paraguayan immigrants who perform new and traditional music from their home country, played to a backdrop of dark skies and heavy rain, sometimes punctuated by thunder and lightning. 

"When the wind goes, and the trees, like this," Jopará cellist Irene Diaz points to the window full of storm, "that is Paraguay." The virtuosic quartet performed complex, energetic tunes — some slow, some quick — with zest and spunk and with good spirits. 

Jopará performed the tune "Mis Noches Sin Tí/My Nights Without You," and bandleader/violinist Ramiro Miranda said the composer of that ballad wrote the tune when he was away from home, missing it, and an audience member said "homesick." 

"To all Paraguayans who have left home … it is something we can relate to. We four," said Alejandro Avila, Jopará pianist.

Once the rain let up, Switchgrass String Quartet's featured violinist Tim Snider was able to make the walk up the dirt road to the house with his instrument. (His car was stuck in the mud.) Switchgrass concluded the evening, ending around 10 p.m.

Organizer and host Susan Mayo plays cello in the group. Mayo is an important, sustaining force in the Midwest strings scene, co-founding groups like Switchgrass and Multifarious Trio. Mayo is also a composer who contributes tunes to both groups. Recently, the South Kansas Symphony performed her first work for orchestra.  

"It is so nice to play cello after schlepping things all day," Mayo said.

Each pluck of the string or bowed note is now intimate. You can hear the trace of fingertips. You can hear breath. Toe tap. Chair creak on hardwood floor. What was for the wind through the trees has become a serenade. Onstage, upfront, I imagine you can hear the room listen.

The Details

Next year's Counterpoint Music, Art, & Conservation Festival is slated for June 12, 2027. It is free and open to everyone, though donations are welcome. 

Learn more about the festival and other events on the Flint Hills Counterpoint website. 

Past Poet Laureate of Kansas (2017-2019) Kevin Rabas teaches at Emporia State University, where he directs the creative writing program. He has 16 books, including “Elizabeth’s City.” Rabas is also a jazz drummer. He lives in Newton, Kansas.

Support Kansas arts writing

The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation.