The First Family of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. From left, Laila Storch, Aloysia Friedmann, Sophie Parker, Jon Kimura Parker (Jackie) and Martin Friedmann.

Updated August 4 at 4:30 p.m.

The Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, now in its 13th year, has always been known as “a family affair,” starting with the marriage of its Founder and Artistic Director, Aloysia Friedmann to Pianist and Artistic Advisor Jon Kimura (Jackie) Parker the day after the first, 3-day Festival, in 1998.

Since its first days, the Chamber Music Festival has included brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children and shirt-tail relations in its end-of-summer festivals. This year, through long-range planning over years, Aloysia has assembled an international cast of musicians and new artists that play well into the family “tapestry” of the festival, from August 12 to 28.

In a recent interview, Aloysia says that her programming usually starts with an with coordinating her visiting artists’ availability. Many festival musicians have had to decline an invitation in previous years, but they stay on Aloysia’s “dance card,” and as soon as they’re available, she starts planning a program around them.

Such was the case in the husband-wife team of Deborah and James Dunham, and the brothers Benny and Eric Kim, whom Aloysia has known since they were students at Juilliard Music Conservatory. So, as she worked with their preferences in repertoire, the Duets Duos and Duels concerts, scheduled for Aug. 13 and 14, were formulated. (Aloysia says Jackie Parker is usually the “brains” behind the naming of the concerts.

Duets, Duos and Duels will feature:

Glinka Trio Pathétique for clarinet, bassoon and piano
Ravel Sonata for violin and piano
Glière / Proto Suite for viola and bass
Brahms Piano Quartet in A Major

The fact that Benny and Eric Kim would only be free for those first concert dates “drove an expansion of the festival,” said Aloysia. This year, the festival will span two weekends, from Friday August 12 through Saturday, August 28. “When I knew the Kims were coming, I really wanted to program the Brahms,” said Aloysia. “A major, major, really magnificent work for piano and strings, the Brahms Piano Quartet in A Major will be the finale of the Duets, Duos and Duels concerts.

Aloysia says, “In terms of chemistry, it will be exciting for audiences to see Bennie and Erik; they’re a lot of fun as individuals.”

She adds, “James and Debra Dunham suggested the Glière/Proto composition; and it will be charming, sweet and fun to see the husband and wife performances.”

The husband-wife duo played into the next concert series, Clara and Robert, celebrating the bicentennial of romantic composer Robert Schumann, and his partnership with his wife Clara. This two-night series is the first time the OICMF program features only one composer in concert, although many other festivals and series focus on a particular composer or genre, such as viola quintets, according to Aloysia.

The Clara and Robert concerts include:

Robert Schumann Märchenbilder for viola and piano
Robert Schumann Sonata for violin and piano in D minor
Clara Schumann Three Romances for violin and piano
Robert Schumann Piano Quartet in E-flat Major

Aloysia will plan the violin ini the Sonata for violin and piano in D minor, and it presents a challenge for her. In past years she has concentrated on viola performances, and feautred guest violinists. But she welcomes the challenge to perform the piece with husband Jackie Parker.

For her part, Clara Schumann was a “brilliant composer and pianist and had a performing career,” but when it looked like she was becoming involved with Schumann, Clara’s father (who taught both her and Robert Schumann) took her on tour, specifically to “get her away from Robert.”

“She was also a mom,” says Aloysia, “and I think she realized at a certain point, a woman composer wouldn’t be accepted.”

Laila Storch, Aloysia’s mother, will give the pre- and post-concert talks for this series. Aloysia says, “She has a wealth of knowledge about Schumann, and it is fascinating to hear my mom speak: she truly speaks well to enlighten the audience and to put things in context.”

The story of the Schumann family has the makings of a soap opera, with Clara’s father disapproving of her marriage to Robert, her need to be the family breadwinner in the face of Robert’s mental state, and the relationship between Clara and their friend, composer Johannes Brahms.

Brahms is also included in this year’s program (at the Fandango Series Aug. 24 and 25); Aloysia says, “Both Robert and Clara Schumann and Brahms were very involved in passion, love and work struggles that we in the 21st century can relate to.” .

Aloysia’s programming also responds to audience’s desires to celebrate historic Chamber Musicians’ anniversaries – last year, the OICMF observed the 100th anniversary of music wunderkind Felix Mendelssohn. This year, the festival notes Schumann’s and Chopin’s 200th birthdays and Samuel Barber’s 100th Birthday celebration in the Masterworks Unlimited concerts on August 20 and 21:

Masterworks Unlimited

Schubert Quartettsatz
Chopin Pollonaise Brillante for cello and piano
Ravel / Kato Ma Mère l’Oye for violin, viola, cello, bass and piano
Beethoven String Quartet in F minor, Serioso
Mendelssohn Sextet in D Major for piano, violin, 2 violas, cello and bass

Last year, Aloysia had hoped to program Mendelssohn’s “unknown” Sextet in D Major for piano, violin, 2 violas, cello and bass last year, but she didn’t have a double bass. “I knew I wanted to program this piece when I learned that James and Deborah [Dunham] would be here; it’s a fun piece, not profound.”

She also solicits the preferences of her performers, and when James Dunham introduced Ma Mere l’Oye (Mother Goose) by Ravel and arranged by Roland Kato, Aloysia gave the go-ahead.

Andrew Staupe, a doctoral piano student of Jackie Parker, will perform the Chopin Pollonaise Brillante with Anne Martindale Williams on the cello — a “short, great work for these two instruments.”

Classical Guitarist Eliot Fisk, another artist who was not able to participate last year, will come this year from the family summer home in Granada, Spain, along with his wife, Zaira Meneses, “ a brilliant guitarist in her own right,” says Aloysia. The program for the Fandango series, on Aug. 24 and 25, will include major solo guitar pieces to feature Fisk, “one of the world’s greatest classical guitarists and entertainers,” and the last direct pupil  of Andres Segovia.

Vivaldi Concerto in G Major for two guitars
Scarlatti Sonata for solo guitar
JS Bach Chaconne in D minor, arr. for solo guitar
Barber Adagio
Beethoven Grosse Fuge
Rodrigo Fandango for two guitars
Falla La Vida Breve
Mexican and Latin works for solo guitar
Boccherini Fandango for guitar and string quartet

Through her discussions with Eliot and Zaira, Aloysia was “made aware of a lot of the repertoire for guitar and chamber music; we had a lot of collaboration. Boccherini’s Fandango is “a fun piece; the last movement includes a Fandango, a castanet effect on cello, though perhaps Zaira will perform on the castanets.”

Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge is  one of his last works, and Aloysia says. “People think very classical when they think of Beethoven, and can be surprised by how avant garde this work is. It’s good for everyone to realize how controversial Beethoven could be.”

Ballad to Frederico Garcia Lorca, the Spanish playwright killed in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, was written with Fisk in mind, and premiered in 2006 with the Miró Quartet. The Miró Quartet returns to Orcas Island his year, with Sandi Yamamoto, who was on maternity leave last year.

The Fandango series may seem like a “Wagnerian” program, says Aloysia, in terms of its length. She adds, “At this festival, everyone gets so much music. But because of the variety, it won’t seem long. The musical guests have been extraordinarily generous.”

The combination of artists also drives programming, as will be obvious in the Quintessential Quintets on August 27 and 28.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco Fantasia for guitar and piano “an unusual combination”
Chopin Three Waltzes arranged for two guitars
Balada Caprichos No. 1 for guitar and string quartet (Homage to Frederico Garcia Lorca)
Albéniz Córdoba for solo guitar
Piazzolla History of the Tango for violin and guitar
Schumann Piano Quintet in E-flat Major

Aloysia looks forward to combining Zaira Meneses and Chee-Yun in performance, “With Zaira’s classic looks, wouldn’t it be great to have she and Chee-Yun on stage together performing fun pieces?” she thought. She worked with Fisk and Meneses to present a rich concert of classical guitar music.

Aloysia says, “I knew I wanted to end the concert with the Schumann Piano Quintet – it’s an exciting ending – joyous, brilliant, everyone loves it!”

“Programming is a multi-level task, I struggle and I may not feel very good about the way things are lining up and then all of a sudden, I feel really good! And it’s absolutely terrific! Each and every concert!

George Shangrow’s Music Lovers’ Seminars were again planned into this season’s festival; his death last weekend prompted Executive Director Victoria Parker to say, “We all feel a tragic loss of both a warm friend and a clear guide to music; he made  everyone feel he was speaking to us personally, with a wink… or a sigh.”  With the loss of  Shangrow, the first series of Music Lovers Seminars will not take place: those who have purchased tickets may apply them to other Music Lovers Seminars or to tickets to concerts that are still available. Alternatively, the first series’ tickets may be contributed as a gift towards an endowment fund in Shangrow’s name for the Spring Music Lovers’ lecture, says Parker.

Guest lecturers are being sought for the other Music Lovers Seminars, which take place over two days preceding each of the remaining concert series at St Francis Church in Eastsound.

In addition, the Champagne Tribute at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, August 13 before the evening concert has been changed to be a tribute to Shangrow, for those who knew him, says Parker.

The Children’s Concert on Wednesday, August 25 will introduce the youngest Music Lovers to the Festival’s classical music repertoire. Free “Courtesy” tickets for the Children’s Concert are available through the Chamber Music Festival office at 376-6636, 866-492-0003, or online at www.orcascenter.org

Tickets for most OICMF 2010 concerts are available. “ We have very productive wait lists,” says Executive Director Victoria Parker, noting that waiting lists are re-established two to three hours prior to each concert. Chamber Music Festival office at 376-6636, 866-492-0003, or online at www.orcascenter.org

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