CHESTERTOWN — Chestertown’s renowned National Music Festival will bring together almost 30 esteemed mentors and 100 promising apprentices, presenting more than 30 events ranging from majestic symphonies to intimate chamber music, pre-concert talks and master classes, plus dozens of free open rehearsals.
Opening night is Sunday, June 1.
The festival continues through June 14.
Mentors are professional musicians who teach and perform all over the country and the world, while apprentices are young professional musicians on the cusp of their careers.
Festival musicians come to Chestertown each season from about a dozen countries and 30 U.S. states.
This year’s mentors include Yoshiaki Horiguchi (bass) and Diana Loomer (percussion), who are both alumni of the festival, as well as several mentors who have been with the festival since its inception in 2011, Dana Goode (violin), Jared Hauser (oboe), Jeff Keesecker (bassoon), Tom Parchman (clarinet) and Jennifer Parker-Harley (flute).
On Friday, June 6, National Music Festival Artistic Director and co-founder Richard Rosenberg will conduct the NMF symphony orchestra in a program of movie music, starting with Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which was famously used in the Walt Disney movie Fantasia.
Violin mentor Emma McGrath, who is traveling from Hobart, Tasmania for her second season with the National Music Festival, will be the soloist in Korngold’s sumptuous violin concerto, which incorporates music from several of his film scores for Errol Flynn “swashbucklers,” including The Prince and the Pauper and Anthony Adverse.
The second half of the program will feature exhilarating music from the Star Wars movies by the legendary John Williams.
Several mentors and two apprentices will be featured as concerto soloists during the festival.
Laura Ramsay, a student at the University of Michigan, was selected through a highly competitive application process to attend the NMF as a saxophone apprentice and will perform on June 7 as the soloist in Jaques Ibert’s jazzy and tuneful 1930s Concertino da Camera.
Also on the June 7 concert schedule is Frank Martin’s Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments. Trumpet apprentice Brandon Hebert of Louisiana has been awarded the opportunity to perform as a soloist alongside mentors Jennifer Parker-Harley (flute), Jared Hauser (oboe), Thomas Parchman (clarinet), Jeffrey Keesecker (bassoon), Michelle Stebleton (horn) and Michael Kris (trombone).
The guest conductor for the June 7 orchestra program is Matthew Kraemer, who serves as music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans as well as the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.
Concert schedules, tickets and National Music Festival passes are available on the festival’s website, nationalmusic.us.
Highlights of the much-anticipated 13th season include:
• Music from the cinema, including John Williams’ riveting score from three Star Wars flicks, as well as a short, long-lost 1907 Pathé film about a jilted pig in a tuxedo;
• Monumental symphonic works, including Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 and Hindemith’s Symphonie: Mathis der Maler;
• Concerto performances featuring mentors and apprentices; in addition to those mentioned above, mentors Elizabeth Adams (violin), Joseph Gotoff (cello) and Minji Nam (piano) will be the soloists for Beethoven’s lighthearted Triple Concerto on June 13;
• Chamber music by Haydn, Korngold, Milhaud and Stravinsky (his 1920 Ragtime), among others;
• A free family concert featuring woodwind instruments followed by an instrument petting zoo;
• Forest Music, a unique performance art event in collaboration with Adkins Arboretum. Tickets are available at adkinsarboretum.org.
“Whatever your musical palate, we have events you will love,” NMF Artistic Director Richard Rosenberg said in a news release. “In addition to our huge flagship orchestra concerts, try our free ‘Lunchtime Chamber Bites,’ our special Family Concert or our Market Music in Fountain Park and enjoy!”
Lunchtime Chamber Bites are short free concerts featuring performances and discussions with the artists.
The family concert and Market Music concerts are also free, as are several other events.
All rehearsals are free and open to the public.
Families with children are especially welcome at rehearsals, according to the news release. Attending open rehearsals is a wonderful way to introduce young children — and even their grandparents — to concert music.
Venues for concerts and rehearsals range from local churches to Washington College to the Kent Cultural Alliance’s Raimond Cultural Center, and more.
Concert and rehearsal schedules are available on the NMF’s website, nationalmusic.us.
“For our talented, competitively selected apprentices, the National Music Festival advances the lives and careers of these promising musicians by providing access to world-class mentors and performance opportunities,” the news release states.
Apprentices attend the festival on scholarship, completely free of charge.
The festival is truly a community effort.
Chestertown area residents open their homes as host families for apprentices and mentors, Emmanuel Church in downtown Chestertown provides free lunches for the musicians each weekday, and many local restaurants offer discounts to musicians.
Visit the festival’s website for the complete concert schedule and repertoire and to purchase tickets or festival passes.
A number of concerts are free, as are all rehearsals.
The National Music Festival is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org), Kent Cultural Alliance (kentculture.org), Mid-Shore Community Foundation (mscf.org), The Peoples Bank (pbkc.com) and by tax-deductible contributions from music lovers.
For more information, visit nationalmusic.us, email info@nationalmusic.us or call 443-480-0221.
