The Bellingham Festival of Music is a classical

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

held annually in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (locat ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, over several weeks during the summer. It was established in 1993, with American orchestral conductor Michael Palmer as its Founder and

Artistic Director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

. The festival's programming features

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ...

and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

concerts among its events, which over the years have been held at a handful of local venues including

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, succeeding a pri ...

, the

Mount Baker Theatre The Mount Baker Theatre (officially abbreviated MBT) is a 1,517-seat performing arts venue and national historic landmark in Bellingham, Washington. The theater hosts professional productions and concerts as well as community performances from t ...

, McIntyre Hall in

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

, and the White Salmon Lodge on the slopes of nearby

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

. The resident 40-member Bellingham Festival Orchestra is composed of musicians from major European and North American orchestras. There is also a Bellingham Festival Chorus which performs with the orchestra on occasion, composed of singers from surrounding Whatcom, Snohomish and Skagit counties who are selected by audition each year. In an article dated January 13, 2007 the

Bellingham Herald ''The Bellingham Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Bellingham, Washington, in the United States. It was founded on March 10, 1890, as ''The Fairhaven Herald'' and changed its name after Bellingham was incorporated as a city in 1903. ''Th ...

reported that there would not be a festival in 2007 due to cash shortfalls, according to Festival officials. However, 9 months later, in an article published on October 17, 2007 the

Herald A herald, or a herald of arms, is an officer of arms, ranking between pursuivant and king of arms. The title is commonly applied more broadly to all officers of arms. Heralds were originally messengers sent by monarchs or noblemen to ...

reported that the Bellingham Festival of Music had successfully reorganized its fiscal affairs and that its concerts would take place again in July 2008, with its board of directors promising a leaner fiscal approach that would be less administratively top-heavy but would maintain high artistic quality, and that Michael Palmer, one of the Festival's founders, would continue in his role as

. The 2008 and 2009 Festivals were successful artistically and financially. The 2010 and 2011 Festivals proved equally successful, according to Festival Treasurer Mary Pat Thuma. A virtual festival was held in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The 2021 Bellingham Festival of Music took place July 10 - 18, 2021, with a shortened schedule and reduced orchestra. The 2022 Bellingham Festival of Music will take place July 1 - 24, 2022, with a restoration of the Festival's full orchestral forces and schedule. It will be Michael Palmer's final season as Artistic Director, after which he becomes the Festival's Conductor Laureate.

External links

Bellingham Festival of Music

Michael Palmer, conductor

Bellingham Area Festivals and Events

Notes

{{coord missing, Washington Bellingham, Washington Classical music festivals in the United States Summer festivals Tourist attractions in Bellingham, Washington Music festivals established in 1993 Fairs in Washington (state)