Albuquerque, NM

Festival Launches Santa Fe Merchants for Music Campaign
Youth Concerts Bring the Magic of Chamber Music to Life
Volunteer Profile: John Burke
2008-09 American Composer Residency Program Announced
End of Year Strings in our Schools Concerts a Great Success

Youth Concerts Bring the Magic of Chamber Music to Life

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s 2008 Youth Concert Series brings the magic of chamber music to life with engaging, educational and interactive performances specifically created for young people. The fun-filled, free-to-the-public late morning series of five concerts is held at St. Francis Auditorium, and is generously sponsored by Community Bank. Featuring Festival artists, the Youth Concert performances offer a variety of music drawn directly from the Festival’s regular programming. This season’s artists and performance dates are:

Guitarist Simon Wynberg and narrator Jonathan Richards on Monday, July 21 at 10 am
Imani Winds on Monday, July 28 at 10 am

The Perlman-Schmidt-Bailey Trio on Monday, August 4 at 10 am
The Orion String Quartet on Friday, August 8 at 10 am
Percussionists Joseph Ferraro, Gregg Koyle, Jeff Milarsky, and Dave Tolen on Tuesday, August 12 at 11 am.
For more information on the Festival’s Youth Concert Series, please contact Kristen Tidwell, Development & Outreach director at 505.983.2075 ext. 108.

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Volunteer Profile - John Burke

John Burke is entering his second season as a volunteer with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. (His wife, photographer Barbara Hadley, also volunteers.) Having lived for 35 years in the cultural metropolis of Washington, DC, the couple relocated to Santa Fe three years ago, having found the city to have a wonderful combination of the cultural offerings that they were accustomed to on the East Coast. A former organist who studied the instrument from the age of 12 and performed all through high school and college as a church organist, John enjoys all kinds of music (he also played French horn during high school). He and Barbara became involved with the Festival through friends who also volunteer. Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Newsletter recently spoke with John at his home in Santa Fe:

As a volunteer for the Festival, what are your responsibilities?

I serve as an Usher at the St Francis concerts. I enjoy ushering the concerts. I also usher for the Desert Chorale and the Santa Fe Film Festival. Last season, I ushered mainly for the Festival’s individual singers’ performances; this year I’ll be working more at some of the ensemble chamber music performances.

What do you like about St Francis Auditorium?

It’s a wonderful space; it’s quite beautiful, small and intimate.

What do you like about the Lensic?

It’s a great space too. Coming from DC with the Kennedy Center, it’s a fairly intimate hall. There are no seats where you don’t have good sound.

What do you feel it is about the Festival that makes it so special and unique?

One of the things I’d have to say is the location. Santa Fe is very unique and just an incredible place. Considering the size of the city, the talent that the Festival attracts is pretty incredible. They want to come to Santa Fe and perform because they obviously like being here. The audiences that go to concerts are very responsive and really supportive. Many of the concerts sell out at both halls. I remember one concert where I ushered for Benedictine monks performing chants. It’s interesting to have the opportunity to hear some things you wouldn’t normally experience. Another wonderful thing is that you get to meet the artists after they perform at St. Francis.

When visitors from out of town come to Santa Fe, in addition to the Festival, what other activities or restaurants, stores do you suggest they visit to round out their trip?

My wife Barbara and I have two grandkids, ages 3 and 5 in LA. For small children, the Children’s Museum is wonderful. We also like to go to Harry’s Roadhouse and the Cowgirl, which has a very funky, Santa Fe style. It’s very popular, absolutely packed at lunch time, and it attracts an eclectic group of people.

If you had to describe the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in three words, what would they be?

How about three phrases? Variety, a gift to Santa Fe, and - for the serious classical music lover.

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Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s

2008-2009 American Composer Residency Program: Featuring Renowned Artists

Roberto Sierra, Joan Tower, Gunther Schuller and George Tsontakis

The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival has announced its 2008-09 American Composer Residency program. The program, which celebrates the importance of chamber music and its evolution in the United States, runs through the 2008 and 2009 summer seasons. It will provide members of the Santa Fe community and visitors to the Festival with the opportunity to interact with some of today’s most highly acclaimed American composers through pre-concert discussions, master classes and recordings. The 2008 season will feature contemporary composers Roberto Sierra (pictured above), Joan Tower and Marc Neikrug; the 2009 season will feature Gunther Schuller and George Tsontakis.

Made possible through a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius initiative, the Residency activities will revolve around the works of American composers participating in the Residency program, and presented by the Festival during the Festival’s 36th and 37th seasons. Concerts during the 2008 and 2009 summers feature the works of American composers Roberto Sierra, Joan Tower, Gunther Schuller (pictured above), George Tsontakis and Marc Neikrug.

Festival guests and local community members will have the opportunity to interact with some of today’s most renowned American composers in a few ways:

Concertgoers will enjoy free pre-concert discussions an hour before each performance featuring a visiting composer’s work, led by Festival artistic director and fellow composer Marc Neikrug or Steven Ovitsky, and consisting of an interview with the composer and Q & A with the audience. 2008 Concerts featuring the pre-concert discussions include: July 27th and 28th, August 20th and August 24th.

Composition students from the University of New Mexico and the College of Santa Fe will have the chance to interact with award-winning composers. They will attend a dress rehearsal and performance of each composer’s work and participate in master classes and seminars led by the composers.

The residency will also provide future audiences with the opportunity to get to know these American composers and their work a bit better through the last portion of the project. All performances, pre-concert discussions and master classes will be professionally recorded both on audio CD and DVD for archival and educational purposes. The information will be available for download from the Festival’s website at a future date, as well as being broadcast on the Festival’s nationally syndicated radio series.

For more information on the American Composers Residency Program, please visit the Festival’s website at www.sfcmf.org.

By going to the site, you can learn a lot more about the festival’s programs and the artists performing this summer.
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