Sitka Summer Music Festival

The Sitka Summer Music Festival (abbreviated SSMF) is a month-long classical chamber music festival in the community of Sitka, Alaska.

About

The festival occurs in early summer during the month of June with three sets of musicians. Each set of musicians plays roughly three concerts before a new set arrives taking over performing duties. This allows musicians to avoid having to set aside an entire month of their calendar to the festival and also allows them, if they choose to arrive early or stay later, to explore Sitka's splendor.

Each season of the festival consists of around ten evening concerts, the centerpieces of the festival, several free, informal "brown bag" concerts, and multiple fundraising events and cruises.

All of the evening concerts occur at the breathtaking venue of Harrigan Centennial Hall, in downtown Sitka. While it is not an auditorium (in fact it's the main hall of a convention/civic center), its glass-panel backdrop reveals a clear view of Crescent Harbor, Eastern Channel and its assortment of small, tree-covered islands dotting its water, snow-capped mountains, and an occasional bald eagle swooping down from the sky. Not surprisingly, when the Sitka High School Auditorium is constructed (expected to be finished around 2008), the festival is expected to remain at Centennial Hall, primarily because of its unrivaled view.

While most would think it implausible for a full-fledged classical music festival to survive in a community of just over 8,000, the Sitka Summer Music Festival has managed to beat the odds and persevere. Part of this is because of the unusually high awareness and interest of the arts in Sitka, but also because of a large number of summer tourists in town. Community organizations and businesses offer numerous in-kind donations to keeping the operating costs down which also contributes to the financial vitality of the festival. In addition, every musician who makes an appearance does it for "free" — with only travel expenses, room, and board covered by the festival.

In discussions with the musicians themselves, the attraction for the festival for them is the above-average audience enthusiasm and the beautiful surroundings of Sitka. It is thought by many as a "paid vacation" and these factors lead to an unusually high rate of return by musicians throughout the years.

The festival's sheet music library is housed in Stratton Library at Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka.

The current artistic director is Paul Rosenthal.

Other series

The concert series in the summer isn't the festival's only artistic offering. The festival also offers a series of Autumn and Winter Classics at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, the city where the festival's full-time office located. During February and June the festival also offers a winter and summer touring series sending a small group of musicians (a piano quintet at most) to a number of small, usually rural communities throughout the state. For example, 2005's winter tour consisted of Talkeetna, Homer, Kenai, Juneau, and Sitka. The communities the winter series visits every year tend to differ, except for Sitka, which always serves as the recipient of the finale concert.

History

The festival began in 1972 as an informal musical reunion of the students of Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky from the University of Southern California. Their concerts were a success and the "reunion" became an annual festival, growing larger throughout the years. The Autumn and Winter Classics in Anchorage were founded in 1980 and have also continued successfully since. The 2006 season will be the festival's 35th year.

Musicians

While there have been 110 festival musicians since its inception in 1972, a list of the more notable musicians is classified by instrument is below:

Bassoon

*Patricia Kindel

Cello

*Zuill Bailey
*Anthony Elliott
*Denise Djokic
*Godfried Hoogeveen
*Gregor Piatigorsky
*Nathaniel Rosen
*Peter Rejto
*Stephen Kates
*Toby Saks

Clarinet

*Eli Eban
*Michael Webster
*Russell Harlow

Double bass

*David Brown
*Jeff Levine

Flute

*Leone Buyse
*Lorna McGhee
*Maria Piccinini
*Donna Stewart

Guitar

*Jack Sanders
*Simon Wynberg

Harp

*Nancy Allen
*Rita Costanzi

Horn

*Francis Orval
*Robert Routch

Oboe

*Allan Vogel

Piano

*Arnulf von Arnim
*Doris Stevenson
*Edward Auer
*Phillip Bush
*Jerome Lowenthal
*Sung Mi-Im
*Ursula Oppens

Viola

*Atar Arad
*David Harding
*Marcos Thompson
*Milton Thomas
*Paul Neubauer
*Rainer Moog
*Randolph Kelly
*Toby Hoffman
*Leslie Harlow

Violin

*Andres Cardenes
*Arturo Delmoni
*Charles Castleman
*Christiaan Bor
*Diane Monroe
*Gwen Thompson
*Ik-Hawn Bae
*Martin Beaver
*Paul Rosenthal
*Philippe Djokic

A [http://www.sitkamusicfestival.org/allmusicians.html full list] of musicians.

External links

* [http://www.sitkamusicfestival.org Official site]
* [http://www.organicanews.com/news/article.cfm?story_id=47 Article about the festival]