Chamber Music Festival 15: Stature Expands with Outreach to Hamlets and Lopez Island

The  Miró Quartet, 2012 Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival’s “Quartet-in-Residence”
From left: Daniel Ching, William Fedkenheurer, John Largess, Joshua Gindele. Photo courtesy of Miró Quartet Press Packet

Miró Quartet comes to Orcas hamlets and Lopez Island

By Margie Doyle

The Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, begun on a weekend and a prayer 15 years ago, has crescendoed in time and space; this season it expands to 16 days and concerts, and pops open with three Orcas Island hamlet performances and a first-ever performance on Lopez Island.

The festival season features evening concerts  at the Orcas Center:

• A Flurry of Violins, Aug. 11 and 12
• Beloved Music Aug. 14 and 15
• Inspired by Paganini Aug. 17 and 18
• Orcas~trations: Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano, Aug. 20 and 22
• Crystal Finale! Aug. 24 and 25

Added to the concert programs are the Music Lovers’ Seminars, a Children’s Concert, the outdoor free concert  — “A Musical Carnival!” — and an afternoon performance for Seniors. Also taking place during this festival season are a Champagne Tribute, Pre-Concert Talks, NightCap Receptions, Welcome Dinner, President’s Evening, Volunteer Celebration and Donor Social.

OICMF Executive Director Victoria Parker says, “It’s wonderful from the musicians’ standpoint to come and have more downtime and rehearsal time. And patrons like having the festival spread out more, too.” Parker says the idea to extend the Orcas Festival county-wide has been brought up at board retreats in past years, “to share the OICMF wealth of world-renowned performers and to extend the walls of our living room,” as she puts it.

Thanks to funding secured from the Chamber Music Association of America (CMA)  for outreach to new audiences and atypical venues, Orcas Island hamlets will experience the world-renowned Miró Quartet in their community locales. The community concerts will take place Thursday, Aug. 9, starting in Olga at the Community Center or “Energetic Club,” continuing mid-day at West Sound Community Center and in the  late afternoon at Deer Harbor Community Center. Receptions follow each concert.

Each village will take care of the tickets for the individual concerts, and for the receptions following the August 9 performances. Anyone is welcome to attend the concerts, as long as there are tickets. Orcas Shuttle vans will be engaged to transport islanders to each venue.

Hamlet appearances by the Miró Quartet are organized — in partnership with the Quartet, the Orcas Island Library District, Orcas Island School District, Orcas Island Senior Services, Orcas Island Public Library, Deer Harbor Community Club, West Sound Community Club, Olga Community Club, and Islands Symphonia — with support from the Chamber Music America (CMA) Endowment Fund.

In addition to the CMA grant for the hamlet performances, the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival also received a special honorary award funded by the Sewell Family Foundation: the “Guarnari String Quartet Award,” this year awarded in tribute to the Miró Quartet  (as the Chamber Music Festival’s Quartet-in-Residence) and OICMF’s strong track record in music outreach and education.

Gavin Goodrich listens to the Miró Quartet performing Kevin Puts’ new work “Credo”, which they will be performing only at the Lopez Concert during this season’s Chamber Music Festival. Tickets to the Aug. 10 event at Grace Episcopal Church can be purchased at the Lopez Farmers Market booth. Gavin is 12 years old, and a piano student of Becky Johnson on Lopez. Becky is a concert co-sponsor and volunteer.

First-ever Concert on Lopez

On Friday, Aug. 10, the first-ever OICMF concert on Lopez Island will be celebrated with a performance, reception and then dinner with the artists. The Lopez concert will feature OICMF Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann in a special appearance with the Miró Quartet. Together, they’ll perform the String Quintet in G Major by Johannes Brahms. The Miró Quartet also performs Mozart’s Haydn Quartet, and the “Credo” by contemporary composer Kevin Puts, who won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music

Though Friedmann has been open to the idea of performing on Lopez Island for awhile now, the logistics kept it from happening for many years. Meanwhile Lopezians Micki Ryan (former Orcas Island Historical Museum director), her husband Bill Clemens, Ginni Keith (veteran OICMF volunteer) and Rick Strachan have often made the trip to Orcas for many of the Chamber Music Festival concerts, always wishing they could make a concert happen on Lopez.

Micki Ryan says, “Bill [Clemens] and I have always felt a little sad that so many people on Lopez never have the opportunity to experience the exceptional quality of the Chamber Festival music, and to meet the musicians at the receptions afterwards. We know that many on Lopez love classical music, and we also know that it’s that late night ferry that makes it difficult to travel to Orcas.

“Former Lopez Center Director Susan O’Neill and I were enthusiastic about a Lopez performance and tried to make it happen but fundraising made it terribly expensive, and we didn’t think we could raise the money. But talking with Ginni and Rick on the ferry trips to and from the Orcas concerts, we’d toss around ideas about how to make this happen. It’s such a shame to have the opportunity be so close but seem so far.

“Last fall we had an organizing meeting with Aloysia and came away from that meeting with a venue, program, and cost estimate and it looked very do-able — so we started doing it! Bill and Rick stepped right up to the plate in fundraising, and we personally contacted each donor to help make it happen.”

The Lopez visit of the Miró Quartet is made possible by the generous support of eighteen concert co-sponsors from Lopez Island. The concert will be held at Grace Episcopal Church, overlooking Lopez Village and Upright Channel at 5 p.m.

Among those donating in-kind services are Spencer’s Landing Marina and Sunset Builders Supply.

Tickets are sold at the Lopez Bookshop, Paper, Scissors & Rock and at the Lopez Saturday Market. Ticket costs are $25 for adults, $10 for music students, and free for volunteers.

Concert volunteers receive free seating; contact Micki Ryan at 468-4442 if you would like to attend the concert and reception at no cost in return for setting up, taking tickets, ushering or assisting with the reception.

Post-concert reception sponsors are asked to contribute $50. Concert co-sponsors (minimum $100) will receive preferred seating in the first three rows and an invitation to the dinner.  Vita’s Cafe and Holly B’s Bakery and the Bay Cafe are providing dishes for the reception and dinner. Dinner tickets are available only to sponsors, for $25.

Ryan promises “uniquely Lopez” entertainment at the dinner, performed by jazz vibraphonist Hawk Arps.

“I hope people will love this concert so much, there will be no question we’ll do it again,” says Ryan. “Our expectations are to grow and expand because as soon as we opened up ticket sales this year, immediately people realized what a great thing this was, started buying their tickets.”

She urges music lovers to purchase their tickets right away, as she would hate to have to turn away people at the door of Grace Church on Aug. 10.

To contact Micki Ryan, call 468-4442 or email mickiryan@rockisland.com??

Lopez concert co-sponsor Gary Alexander, who is the host of “The Classical Hour” on Radio KLOI, Lopez Island, plans to interview members of the Miró Quartet on a live and streaming broadcast, www.kloi.org, on August 10.