Celebrating a decade of music, wine, and community in Oregon wine country
NEWBERG, Ore., June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Appassionata Estate is proud to welcome back the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival for its 10th anniversary season, hosting the Festival’s opening weekend concert on Saturday, August 2, followed by a second concert on Sunday, August 3. As a founding venue partner since the Festival’s inaugural season, Appassionata continues to offer its dramatic underground barrel caves as one of the Festival’s beloved and acoustically rich spaces.
This milestone year brings with it a performance that is both intimate and transcendent, featuring this season’s composer-in-residence, Akshaya Avril Tucker, whose works for strings draw deeply from South Asian music and dance traditions.
Guests will have the unique opportunity to engage with Tucker and the musicians in the space between performance and conversation—a hallmark of the festival’s commitment to connection and contemporary creativity.
Rooted in the belief that wine, like music, is a form of artistic expression, Appassionata Estate was founded to honor the nuance, structure, and slow, deliberate beauty that define both disciplines. The winery was named after Beethoven’s dynamic “Appassionata” Piano Sonata, and each of the three Pinot Noir bears a movement name—Allegro, Andante con Moto, Fortissimo—evoking the emotion and rhythm captured in every bottle. For Appassionata, the partnership with the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival is not simply a collaboration, but a harmonious embodiment of the winery’s creative philosophy.
“Hosting this concert each year is a highlight of our events calendar,” said Tim Malone, Head Winemaker at Appassionata Estate. “It’s a deeply sensory experience, one that lingers long after the final note. There’s a kind of magic in these evenings that resonates with why we make wine in the first place. Wine has brought people together for centuries, just like music, so we find a natural harmony blending our art of wine with the art of chamber music.”
Guests are invited to extend the evening’s celebration with an optional After Party Dinner, held on the Appassionata terrace surrounded by scenic views of the Willamette Valley. The casual dinner features a seasonal, locally sourced menu, offering the rare chance to dine alongside the musicians and composer in a relaxed, joyful setting. Dinner tickets can be purchased in the Appassionata Estate tasting room, following the Concert.
The 2025 Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival will continue throughout the month at the following venues:
- August 9 & 10 – Sokol Blosser Winery (Dayton, OR)
- August 16 & 17 – Archery Summit Winery (Dayton, OR)
Each performance celebrates the intersection of world-class music and Oregon’s vibrant wine culture, showcasing new compositions alongside classical masterworks in venues that elevate the experience beyond the concert hall.
Tickets and full festival details are available now at: https://www.wvchambermusic.org/.
Join us as we toast ten years of music, wine, and community in the Willamette Valley. The season begins at Appassionata, and we invite you to be part of this extraordinary moment.
Media Contact
Kirk Wille
President, Loosen Bros. USA
About Appassionata Estate
Appassionata Estate is the realization of renowned German winemaker Ernst Loosen’s long-term vision of establishing a world class European-style wine estate in Oregon, dedicated to crafting wines of extraordinary ageability that express the true character of the Willamette Valley. Located on the slopes of the Chehalem Mountains, the estate is the culmination of more than two decades of development that began with a single limited-production Pinot Noir bottling in 2005. Today, Appassionata offers three Pinot Noirs of varying age, a barrel-fermented Chardonnay, a Sauvignon Blanc produced in acacia barrels, and a dry Riesling made in the German Grosses Gewächs (GG) style. Guided by Erni’s belief that the true character and complexity of a wine doesn’t emerge until it has developed maturity, Appassionata holds its wines for 10 years or more, ensuring they are ready to enjoy upon release.
About Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival
The Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival was founded in 2015 by violinist Sasha Callahan, cellist Leo Eguchi, and business and arts leader Eve Callahan. Like so many of the wineries that shape the region, the Festival is a family endeavor that brings the best of the world’s stage to our valley. Sasha, Leo, and Eve conceived of the Festival as a celebration of the abundance and creativity of this special part of the world, and a desire to contribute to the cultural richness of this place. We aim to carry on the spirit of those mavericks who planted the first vines here—folks who chose to work together instead of compete, and to create beauty and community, sharing ideas, knowledge and craft to create something truly unique.
About Composer-In-Residence, Akshaya Avril Tucker
Akshaya Avril Tucker is a Los Angeles-based composer and cellist, whose work blends the rhythmic beauty of Indian classical dance with the expressive range of string music. Her compositions have been performed by leading ensembles such as Brooklyn Rider, A Far Cry, and members of the San Francisco Symphony and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. A 2019 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award Winner, Tucker is currently pursuing her doctorate in composition at USC and is a former student of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music.
SOURCE Appassionata Estate
