The Hot Springs Music Festival opens Sunday, inviting musicians from across the globe to Hot Springs for two weeks of melodious sounds.
The festival will offer daily rehearsals and nightly concerts at 7 p.m.
"This year features some spectacular music, including two world premiere performances," Lynn Payette, executive director of the Hot Springs Music Festival, said in a news release.
The orchestral highlights include a June 6 performance of the music of Berlioz, Boulanger, and Saint-Saëns; June 11 features the music of Britten and Dvorák; and the June 15 finale features the Hot Springs Music Festival Chorus, singing a new English text to the Sibelius Finlandia, prepared by Laura Rosenberg, co-founder of the Hot Springs Music Festival, and Payette. That evening also includes a harp concerto by living composer Bright Sheng, and the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances.
"The Hot Springs Music Festival -- I try to avoid the word 'classical,' because that automatically makes people tend to shut down," Payette told The Sentinel-Record. "But what really takes place within the broad umbrella of classical is just dynamic, interesting, modern, creative music in many styles and performed in unexpected ways and I hope people will attend rehearsals and then find out 'Wow, that piece of music is amazing. I want to hear the concert.' There's going to be a lot of unexpected things in unexpected combinations of instruments that I think people will find entertaining if not uplifting."
The festival will continue its tradition of presenting an Opening Fanfare at 6:15 p.m. Sunday in the lobby of the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa, followed by the 7 p.m. Mentor Showcase in the Arlington's Crystal Ballroom.
On Monday, audiences will have the opportunity to get a firsthand look at the creative process with the event "Inside Looking Out."
"That's an evening event where members of the audience sit within the orchestra for a rehearsal ... a very early reading of a piece of music and they get to experience the creative process of how music that already sounds really good -- because these are very talented young musicians -- how do we make this become great music? And what's involved in the fine tuning process of taking something that's already quite amazing and making it something that's quite remarkable," she said.
"The audience gets to experience that first hand and sit next to their favorite instrument or an instrument they're most curious about. It's a good chance to mix and mingle with the young musicians and the mentors. I really hope that families will take advantage of this, especially any young student in band -- they are most welcome and encouraged to attend."
As part of its Outreach Program, the festival will feature the University of Nevada Las Vegas String Quartet in a special concert at the Garland County Library at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The UNLV String Quartet will also perform in Hot Springs Village at 3 p.m. June 9 in the Good Samaritan Chapel.
Potpourri concerts that offer apprentices an opportunity to perform music of their choice will take place June 7 and 14, and the always-popular Piano Night will take place June 10. These programs are all 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church.
"We have our basic schedule which is daily rehearsals. Most are open to the public," Payette said. "Anything at ASMSA is not because that's their policy, not ours. And then nightly concerts. We have three full orchestra concerts throughout the festival and then just imaginative and wonderful combinations of chamber music concerts on the other nights."
Season 24 will also mark the final season for Maestro Peter Bay as the music director, who has served the festival for the past eight years.
"He is currently the music director of the Austin, Texas Symphony and, unfortunately, he has new obligations contractually with the Austin Symphony that require him to do programming and concerts there through the month of June," Payette said. "I could just tell in his voice when he made the phone call that this was very hard for him. This festival has been very important to him on many levels and we probably wouldn't have the national and international reputation that we currently enjoy without Peter's wonderful guidance.
"For people in this community who have appreciated Peter Bay's contribution, I hope they will turn out and support him. We're hoping that great music will also be our way to support him. Having the community attend the events and express their appreciation to Peter I know would be greatly appreciated. He's been incredibly valuable to this festival in many ways and he will be sorely missed."
Orchestra concerts and chamber concerts are $20 and $10, respectively. Student tickets for any event are $5.
Call 501-623-4763 for more information. Visit http://www.hotmusic.org for the daily schedule and ticket information.
Local on 05/31/2019