HARRISON — The Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will open its 47th season of concerts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, in the historic Deertrees Theatre.
Renowned for diverse and high-quality concerts performed by world-class musicians in a beautiful woodland setting with superb acoustics, the festival has been a summer highlight for many residents and visitors in Maine.
The season opens with works from three musical groundbreakers. American composer Amy Beach successfully challenged her country’s bias against women composers. Her “Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet” is a glowing example of her gifts and her appeal. Igor Stravinsky fled his Russian musical roots and discovered American jazz — a discovery that inspired his irresistible, jazz-inflected “The Soldier’s Tale.” Antonin Dvořák thrilled international audiences with works like the “Piano Quartet in E-flat Major,” a beguiling illustration of his gift for melding classical form with the sounds and rhythms of Czech folk music.
Violinist Keiko Tokunaga, violist Laurie Kennedy, pianist Mihae Lee, bassist Andrew Roitstein and cellist Ani Kalayjian performing during the festival’s 2018 season.
Pianist and Music Director Mihae Lee will be joined by a stellar roster of new and familiar faces: flutist Laura Gilbert, clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois, violinists Min-Young Kim and Keiko Tokunaga, violist Jonathan Bagg and cellist Mihai Marica.
The program will present Beach offering “Theme and Variations for Flute and Strings, Op. 80”; Stravinsky, “Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat for Violin, Clarinet and Piano”; and Dvorak, “Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 87.”
All tickets are for open seating. They will be held at the front entrance box office and will be available on concert nights starting at 6:45. Reserved tickets must be picked up by 7.
Purchase tickets online: http://sllmf.org/tickets/ or via check mailed to P.O. Box 544, Harrison, ME 04040. For more information about ticket purchases, artists’ bios and program notes, visit www.sebagomusicfestival.org.
Season subscription holders for all five concerts will receive benefits that include savings on tickets, invitations to open rehearsals, post-concert receptions to meet-and-greet the musicians and a vintage CD from past concert performances.
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