By Tim Badgley
Salt Bay Chamberfest musicians, from left, Sheryl Staples, violin, Benjamin Hochman, piano; Yeesun Kim, cello; and Romie de Guise-Langolois, clarinet; rehearse Geoge Tsontakis’ “Eclipse” in the Darrows Barn at Round Top Farm in Damariscotta Aug. 3. (Tim Badgley photo) |
Salt Bay Chamberfest celebrates its 20th anniversary season with the presentation of four concerts that exemplify the theme “Darkness and Light” chosen by festival founder and Artistic Director Wilhelmina Smith.
Smith said she sees the festival as an art form in and of itself. Her choice of darkness and light is developed, worked and reworked within and through each of the four festival concerts.
All four concerts will be performed in the Darrows Barn, at the DRA Round Top Farm in Damariscotta, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Smith’s husband Mark Mandarano will present a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m.
The festival opened Aug. 5 with a combination of renowned masterworks and new music. The program included a nocturne by Chopin, “Eclipse” by George Tsontakis, and concluded with Mozart’s Quintet in G minor.
“Mozart wrote this when his father was dying, so it’s a very deep and dark piece,” Smith said. “It’s got shadows.”
The theme will be further developed in the second concert, Friday, Aug. 8, which features a Franco-Chinese program infused with the ideas of dawn and the moon, Smith said. Works by Debussy and Ravel will be performed along with a world premiere by composer Wang Guowei, which he performs on the two-stringed erhu in a trio with violin and cello.
The third take on the festival’s theme features Bartók’s “Contrasts” and a piece by Beethoven on the program.
“Beethoven begins his cello sonata with a beautiful dolce C major which immediately slams into a driving A minor,” Smith said. “It conveys something is very wrong with the world.”
Smith will perform the sonata with piano accompanist Lydia Artymiw Tuesday, Aug. 12.
The final concert of the festival, Friday, Aug. 15 opens with Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
“This starts in darkness but is one of my favorite works of music,” Smith said. “The program ends with the Mendelssohn String Octet which couldn’t be more joyous, uplifting and celebratory. That’s how I want to end this 20th anniversary festival.”
Smith grew up spending her summers in Damariscotta with her grandparents who had a home here. Her mother was born in Portland who later on, with Smith’s father, bought a summer home in Damariscotta.
Smith’s father was a professor and their family life followed an academic schedule affording them ample time here every year.
“It’s very much a spiritual home and a place that I’ve always felt a real kinship to,” Smith said.
Smith, a cellist who studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia spent several summers performing and studying at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Inspired by her musical experiences there and full of youthful idealism, Smith decided she wanted to start her own chamber music festival. She contacted Nancy Freeman, then Artistic Director of Round Top Center for the Arts and Salt Bay Chamberfest was born.
“It started very humbly and very modestly,” Smith said. “We put on three concerts over one weekend in the Darrows Barn.”
There was a deep sense of enthusiasm and support from the small audiences for what Smith and her fellow performers were doing. That dedicated support from festival audiences has continued now for 20 years, Smith said.
Smith said she loves all kinds of music. When the festival began concert programs as a rule did not often combine the established musical masterworks with new composition. Through the Salt Bay Chamberfest concert programs, Smith’s intention from the very beginning was to combine the two successfully under a unifying theme. This is why she believes the festival itself is an art form.
One of the ways in which Smith uncovers new music is simply by asking fellow performers about the music for which they have a deep passion or close affinity.
“That really opened up a lot of doors in terms of new repertoire,” Smith said. “A lot of Salt Bay Chamberfest performers have long-standing musical relationships with composers.”
Smith said another way in which she expresses her art of concert programming is by creating unique collaborations between musicians and other types of artists such as poets, actors, and in one instance, a Native American drummer.
Smith said that such an approach to concert programming can definitely lead her all over the map, but it can still lead her back to Beethoven too.
Smith said that in choosing a different theme for each Chamberfest season she hopes to enrich the concert experience for her audiences. At the very root of that experience is the excellence of the performers.
“These are the most unbelievably best performers in the world playing incredible music,” Smith said.
If the programming over the course of four concerts starts in one place and moves to another point in the minds and experience of the audiences, Smith said she has reached her goal.
Within each concert as well as over the entire festival Smith said she tries to create a cohesive whole for the listener. “I really care so deeply about my audiences and their experiences,” Smith said. “That’s where the concept of creating an annual theme came from.”
Salt Bay Chamberfest is much more than the four signature concerts of the chamber music festival. A music camp for children, master classes for young performers and a family concert are all part of the annual event.
Smith’s son, now age 10, and daughter, now age 8, attended the Damariscotta River Association’s summer camp several years ago. It gave Smith the idea of collaborating with the DRA and Lincoln Theater to Salt Bay Chamberfest’s Music and Nature Camp for children, culminating in a concert feature their compositions.
Inspired by the Jon Deak’s Very Young Composers program in New York City, Smith invited Deak to work with her in establishing a similar experience for children in Maine. On a first-come-first-served basis, the program accepts up to 10 children between the ages of 9 and 12 regardless of their music experience or ability.
The campers are encouraged to develop their own method of musical notation and taught how to create music of their very own making.
James Blachly will work with the campers this year, transcribing their musical compositions which will then be performed by Salt Bay Chamberfest musicians and featured during the Family Concert at Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta, Saturday, Aug. 16 10:30 a.m. on August 16.
A master class for instrumentalists will be held Friday, Aug 8 at 3 p.m. at Schooner Cove Retirement Community at LincolnHealth – Miles Campus in Damariscotta. The class is a public music lesson in which the student not only performs for the instructor but for an audience as well. Cellist Sophie Shao will coach the instrumentalists.
Another master class will be held for young composers at 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14 at the Darrows Barn. Both master classes are free and open to the public.
For more information about Salt Bay Chamberfest call 522-3749 or visit the website at http://www.saltbaychamberfest.org.
