Lauren Stevens (Courtesy photo)
Natalie Loughran (Courtesy photo)
This year’s Salt Bay Chamberfest’s chamber music festival, titled “Earth Song,” will launch on Tuesday, Aug. 5 with a paean to Mother Earth featuring Passamaquoddy singer Lauren Stevens, Mohawk composer Dawn Avery, and the all-female, traditional Wabanaki drumming group Cipelahq Ehpicik (Thunder Women).
Beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Damariscotta’s Lincoln Theater, the concert will also include a new Salt Bay Chamberfest-commissioned collaboration piece by Avery and Stevens titled “Khikan (Garden) Suite.”
The evening will conclude with Dvořák’s viola quintet, which was inspired by Kickapoo Indigenous drumming the famed Czech composer encountered during his sojourn in the U.S. in the late 19th century.
Stevens and Avery will be joined onstage by violinists Aaron Boyd and Jesse Mills, violists Natalie Loughran and Misha Amory, and cellist and SBC artistic director Wilhelmina Smith.
The concert will also be presented at the Strand Theatre in Rockland at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7
Salt Bay Chamberfest’s Wabanaki collaboration continues in Bangor at noon on Wednesday, Aug. 6 with a free presentation and performance at the Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness cultural center.
The festival’s wide-ranging and diverse programming will continue through Saturday, Aug. 16, with concerts at the Lincoln Theater, at 2 Theater St. in Damariscotta on Friday, Aug. 8, Tuesday, Aug. 12, and Friday, Aug. 15.
Salt Bay Chamberfest’s calendar of free community events includes a kids and family concert at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7 at the Central Lincoln County YMCA, at 525 Main St. in Damariscotta, and musical installations at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, at 105 Botanical Gardens Drive in Boothbay, on Friday, Aug. 8, Saturday, Aug. 9, and Thursday, Aug. 14.
For tickets and more information, go to saltbaychamberfest.org, email contact@saltbaychamberfest.org, or call 522-3749.
