The Sitka Summer Music Festival is a month-long classical chamber music festival in

Sitka russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

About

The festival takes place in early summer during the month of June with three groupings of musicians. Each group of musicians performs three

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...

s before a new group arrives to perform the next three concerts. Each season of the festival consists of around ten evening concerts, the centerpieces of the festival, as well as several free, informal "brown bag" concerts and multiple fundraising events and cruises. All of the evening concerts occur at the breathtaking venue of Harrigan Centennial Hall, in downtown Sitka. While it is not an

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

(rather, the main hall of a convention/civic center), its glass-panel backdrop reveals a clear view of Crescent Harbor, Eastern Channel and its assortment of small, tree-covered islands dotting its water, snow-capped mountains, and an occasional bald eagle swooping down from the sky. The organization's offices are located in Stevenson Hall on the campus of the former

Sheldon Jackson College Sheldon Jackson College (SJC) was a small private college located on Baranof Island in Sitka, Alaska, United States. Founded in 1878, it was the oldest institution of higher learning in Alaska and maintained a historic relationship with the Presb ...

in Sitka. Stevenson Hall is part of the National Historic Landmark District created in 2001. The hall was built in 1911 as part of the central campus. The festival's sheet music library is housed in Stratton Library, also on the campus of the former Sheldon Jackson College. The artistic director is Zuill Bailey.

Other series

The festival also offers a series of Autumn and Winter Classics at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, where the festival's full-time office is located. During February and June the festival also offers a winter and summer touring series sending a small group of musicians (a

piano quintet In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a pian ...

at most) to a number of small, usually rural communities throughout the state. The winter series visits different communities each year, Sitka notwithstanding, which always hosts the finale concert.

History

The festival began in 1972 as an informal musical reunion, organized by Paul Rosenthal, of the students of

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-born American violinist. Born in Vilnius, he moved while still a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood. Fritz ...

and

Gregor Piatigorsky Gregor Piatigorsky (, ''Grigoriy Pavlovich Pyatigorskiy''; August 6, 1976) was a Russian Empire-born American cellist. Biography Early life Gregor Piatigorsky was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. As a child, he ...

from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

. Their concerts were a success and the reunion became an annual festival directed by Rosenthal, growing larger throughout the years. The Autumn and Winter Classics in Anchorage were begun in 1980 and have also continued successfully since. The festival went virtual in 2020 as officials blamed 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 identi ...

as grounds for cancelling live concerts.

Musicians

While there have been 110 festival musicians since its inception in 1972, a list of the more notable musicians classified by instrument is below:

Bassoon

* Patricia Kindel

Cello

Zuill Bailey James Zuill Bailey, better known as Zuill Bailey (born 1972) is a Grammy Award-winning American cellist, chamber musician, and artistic director. A graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the Juilliard School, he has ...

* Anthony Elliott *

Denise Djokic Denise Djokic (born 13 November 1980) is a cellist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. ''The Strad'' magazine has called her instantly recognizable for her "arrestingly beautiful tone colour". Career Djokic is a native of Halifax. She grew up in a large mus ...

* Godfried Hoogeveen *

* Nathaniel Rosen * Peter Rejto *

Stephen Kates Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

* Toby Saks * Jeffrey Solow

Clarinet

Eli Eban Eli Eban is an Israeli-American clarinetist and son of the late Israeli diplomat Abba Eban. Education Eli Eban was born in New York City and received his early musical training in Israel, studying the clarinet with Richard Lesser and Yona Et ...

* Michael Webster *

Russell Harlow Russell Harlow, a clarinetist, grew up in Los Angeles and lives in Utah. He is the co-director of the Beethoven Festival Park City (formerly named Park City International Music Festival)

Double bass

* David Brown * Jeff Levine

Flute

Leone Buyse Leone Buyse (born 1947) is the Joseph and Ida K. Mullen Professor of Flute and Chair of Woodwinds at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Prior to a full-time career teaching, Buyse spent over 22 years as an orchestral flutist, including ...

Lorna McGhee Lorna McGhee (born 1972) is a Scottish flutist and teacher, currently serving as Principal Flute of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2012. In addition, she is an Artist Lecturer in Flute at Carnegie Mellon University. Past positions include ...

* Maria Piccinini * Donna Stewart

Guitar

* Jack Sanders * Simon Wynberg

Harp

* Nancy Allen * Rita Costanzi

Horn

* Francis Orval *

Robert Routch The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...

Oboe

* Allan Vogel

Piano

Arnulf von Arnim Arnulf von Arnim (born 1947 in Hamburg) is a German classical pianist and teacher. Von Arnim studied in Germany and France and attended classes by Claudio Arrau and Wilhelm Kempff. He is the winner of several prizes - Viotti (Vercelli), Busoni ( ...

* Doris Stevenson *

Edward Auer Edward Auer (born December 7, 1941 in New York City) is an American classical pianist. In 1965, he became the first American to win a prize in the VII International Chopin Piano Competition. Due to his frequent and subsequent touring in Poland, M ...

Phillip Bush Phillip Bush (born January 4, 1961 in Ridgewood, New Jersey) is an American European classical music, classical pianist, with a career focusing primarily on chamber music and contemporary classical music. Early life Phillip Bush was born to an Am ...

Jerome Lowenthal Jerome Lowenthal (born February 11, 1932) is an American classical pianist. He has served as chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School in New York. Additionally, Lowenthal is on the faculty at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbar ...

* Sung Mi-Im *

Ursula Oppens Ursula Oppens (born February 2, 1944) is an American classical concert pianist and educator. She has received five Grammy Award nominations. Biography Ursula Oppens was born on February 2, 1944, in New York City into a highly musical family fr ...

Viola

* Atar Arad * David Harding *

Marcus Thompson Marcus Thompson (born 1946) is a violist and viola d'amore player known for his work as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and educator. Thompson is a founding member and is currently artistic director of the Bost ...

* Milton Thomas *

Paul Neubauer Paul Neubauer (born in Encino, California, in 1962) is an American violist. Neubauer was a student of Paul Doktor, Alan de Veritch and William Primrose. In August 1980, aged 17, he won the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and Worksh ...

* Rainer Moog * Randolph Kelly * Toby Hoffman * Leslie Harlow

Violin

* Andres Cardenes * Arturo Delmoni * Charles Castleman * Christiaan Bor * Diane Monroe *

Gwen Thompson Gwendoline Linda Louise Thompson (born 30 March 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian violinist and music educator. She has been a member of two notable chamber music ensembles with whom she has made several commercial recordings: the Master ...

* Ik-Hwan Bae *

Martin Beaver Martin Beaver (born 10 November 1967) is a Canadian violinist best known as first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet. Beaver joined the Tokyo String Quartet as its first violinist in 2002 and remained until they disbanded in 2013. As a part ...

* Paul Rosenthal * Philippe Djokic
full list
of musicians.

References

External links

*
Article about the festival
{{coord, 57.049901, -135.333442, region:US_type:landmark, display=title Music festivals established in 1972 1972 establishments in Alaska Annual events in Alaska Classical music festivals in the United States Music festivals in Alaska June events Summer festivals Tourist attractions in Sitka, Alaska Chamber music festivals