By Oregon Coast TODAY
It can’t always be smooth sailing.
For Mei-Ting Sun, artistic director of the Siletz Bay Music Festival, one of the monster challenges of gathering 58 top musicians from around the world and assembling them in a small Oregon town for an 11-concert, 10-day series recently came roaring to life — just weeks before the festival’s Thursday, Aug. 14 start date.
One of the musicians, scheduled to perform in both the chamber and the orchestral sections of the festival, was forced to withdraw due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict, leaving a substantial gap in the carefully prepared program. A quick scrambling of personnel was required.
“We had to pivot, and because it was so late, it was difficult to find a replacement,” said Sun, speaking from his home in England, where he serves as Professor of Piano at London’s Royal Academy of Music. “We had to find a way to perform the music we had planned.”
Fortunately for Sun and for the festival, the comradery and collegial familiarity among the core of musicians who have returned year after year for 13 seasons provided a measure of flexibility. Although they are scattered across the United States and Europe, the level of trust and confidence those musicians have in each other’s artistry allowed Sun to make substitutions and keep the program intact.
The chemistry of Siletz Bay Music Festival musicians, especially in the chamber music series that comprises more than half of the festival’s concert offerings, is an essential ingredient in an event that brings musicians together from far and wide and allows little time for rehearsal. The quality of the festival’s music is greatly enhanced by the experience that many of the musicians have had playing with each other, and Sun said he relies upon that chemistry and shared experience in programming music that would otherwise be out of reach in a festival setting.
New director leaving his mark
Since assuming leadership of the festival following the death of his mentor, the much-revered festival founder, Yaki Bergman, Sun is quietly bringing his own stamp to the event while preserving Bergman’s original vision.
“The vision that Yaki had and which I continue to maintain is to present a combination of older and younger musicians,” he said, “and to program adventurous music alongside the familiar favorites, music that isn’t played very much outside of conservatories and that audiences don’t usually get to hear.”
In adding new players to the mix, both Sun and his predecessor have taken great pains to recruit new musicians who are a good fit with the core group of veterans. This year, the chamber music ensemble will include newcomers Georgi “Jojo” Dimitrov, a Bulgarian guitarist, and Portland-based horn player Daniel Partridge.
“I’m always on the lookout for good musicians,” said Sun, noting that the two new artists will be bringing a new musical dimension to the festival’s range and capacities. Sun pointed to two pieces that will be performed at the Aug. 20 “Sweet and Spicy” concert that could not have been performed without the addition of Dimitrov and Partridge.
“The Dohnanyi sextet, which is very infrequently performed outside of a conservatory environment, presents great difficulties,” he said. “You need a horn and you need a clarinet, which we happen to have this year. And then there’s the Hummel ‘Potpourri,’ which was written to include a guitar and, as it happens, we also have a guitar this year. Adding the new musicians has helped us find music that’s rarely heard but is truly great.”
Guitarist Dimitrov will also be performing with the orchestra later in the festival as the soloist on Joaquin Rodrigo’s iconic “Concierto de Aranjuez.”
“Having such great chemistry among our musicians allows us to present risky programs” Sun said. “And that’s been one of the things that has made this festival so special: the rewards for programming risky music are huge.”
Sun made his festival debut in 2014 and has appeared at each of the 10 festivals that have followed. His artistry on piano has made him a favorite among festival audiences. In addition to acting as artistic director, he’ll be performing at five of the festival’s chamber concerts, including at the opening night recital, and will be heard as a soloist with the orchestra on the closing night performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
The chamber music portion of the festival runs from Thursday, Aug. 14, though Wednesday, Aug. 20 and will include three concerts at Lincoln City Cultural Center, two at the Congregational Church of Lincoln City, including one free event on Tuesday, Aug. 19, and a concert at Newport’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center on Saturday, Aug. 16.
The festival also features a jazz concert on Thursday, Aug. 21, at Chinook Winds Casino Resort, a free performance of the family classic “Peter and the Wolf” at Regatta Park Bandshell on Saturday, Aug. 23, a fund-raising benefit concert on Friday, Aug. 22, and two orchestral concerts, also at Chinook Winds, on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 23-24.
For more information and to purchase tickets for Siletz Bay Music Festival, go to www.SiletzBayMusic.org or call 541-264.5828.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lincolnchronicle.org ’
