Not your father's chamber music

Festival offers “profound musical experiences” as well as hilarity, personality & beer
By Ann McCreary   
    Artistic director Kevin Krentz has a simple goal for the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival that opens tomorrow (July 29) – “I just want this to be hilarious fun.”
    Hilarity and classical music may seem an unusual combination,  but Krentz says he’s planned a  festival program that aims to entertain everybody.
    “I lean toward high-octane, exciting things that I know will be crowd pleasers, rather than the esoteric ‘you better hope you like it’ kind of thing. I feel we’ve built a festival anybody would like…it’s not dry and intellectual.”
    A key part of that entertainment quality, Krentz said, comes from the musicians who will be performing at the festival and mingling with the audience afterwards. “The performers I’ve picked communicate and like to communicate.”
    Concerts will be followed by “After Glow Parties,” which invite audience members to stay and join the musicians on stage for a glass of wine  and “probe the minds and personalities behind the music making, share a laugh, and hear stories of their travels.”
    While some musicians may be shy or withdrawn,  the lineup of international performers at this festival was chosen because they are outgoing as well as gifted, Krentz said. “All the people who come here like to share with the audience.”
    For the second year, the Chamber Music Festival will be held in a meadow a mile above the valley floor at Signal Hill Ranch. The site offers fabulous views and concerts in a barn that  Krentz said is a naturally “reverberant space, with a warm sound.”
    Since last year’s debut at the Signal Hill venue, the site has undergone improvements  including a new lawn area, new outdoor lighting and chandeliers made from tractor wheels and rawhide hanging in the barn. A new concessions building called the “Ice House” has been built, offering festival-goers locally prepared, organic gourmet food and beverages.
    “The over-arching concept for the festival is that we’re trying to provide more than just the concert experience. Come early, have food and local beer and wine,” Krentz said.
    The festival offers a variety of musical events, including open rehearsals that invite people to “come see the artists hash it out.” The open rehearsals are free and will be held at various locations including the Festival Barn and Twisp River Pub. The program also includes pre-concert recitals by individual musicians, pre-concert lectures, and evening concerts at the Festival Barn on Signal Hill.
    Thursday’s opening night includes a pre-concert piano recital by Eastern Washington native Stephen Beus. Born in Othello, Beus has won numerous international piano competitions and performed as a guest soloist with orchestras around the world. According to Fanfare magazine, “His playing is strikingly original and, despite his youth, he has an interpretive voice all his own… Above all, his playing is so natural as to seem effortless and the sound he produces has extraordinary richness and depth, not quite like anyone else’s.”
    New this year to the festival is a Festival Music Camp, attended by 11 talented young Seattle musicians, ages 13-17, who were invited to participate. They will be receiving instruction from the festival’s musicians throughout the 10-day festival. The student chamber groups can be seen in free performances at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery at 6 p.m. Monday (Aug. 2), in the Sun Mountain Lodge lobby at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Aug. 3), and at Arrowleaf Bistro on Thursday (Aug. 5) at 6 p.m.
    The students will also perform in the Community Concert at the Festival Barn, which is a by-donation event on Aug. 6 at 4 p.m., and in an Emerging Musicians Concert on Aug. 7 at 6 p.m.
    The Community Concert on Aug. 6 also features chamber music performances by local young musicians who are participating in a music camp conducted by the Pipestone Institute in Twisp during the first week of August. The Pipestone camp students will also have the opportunity to take master classes from festival musicians.
    The festival has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to present a program called “Four Eras of American Classical Music.” The program includes two pre-concert lectures and features music by American composers in each of the main stage concerts.
    The backbone of the festival is the series of five main concerts held at 7:30 p.m. in the Festival Barn, on Thursday (July 29), Saturday (July 31), Tuesday (Aug. 3), Friday, Aug. 6, and concluding on Saturday, Aug. 7.
    With the goal of appealing to a diverse audience, Krentz said he strived for “programming that is very deep. I’m looking for profound musical experiences.” 
    Krentz, a cellist who is now in his third year as artistic director, said his long-term goal is to create nothing less than “a world class festival” that draws people to the Methow Valley. “I’m trying to make it a real destination festival.”
    The concerts are festival seating and tickets are available at the site and don’t need to be purchased in advance. Tickets are $22 and a flex pass for four concerts is $80. Tickets for students under 18 are $5.
    Details about the festival schedule, including open rehearsals, lectures, recitals and main concerts, are available on the website, www.methowmusicfestival.org.

File photo by Marcy Stamper: Stephen Beus will perform a “pre-concert” recital at the festival’s opening day Thursday at Signal Hill Ranch.