Mendocino Music Festival
Photos © Mendocino Music Festival
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| Country and Region | United States — California |
|---|---|
| Type of Festival | Music |
| Location of Festival | Mendocino, California USA |
| Festival Contact Information | Mendocino Music Festival |
| Festival Description | “Music on the Edge of the World” — Join the thousands of music lovers who have discovered the most scenic music festival around and the only music festival that takes place overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Perched on the Mendocino Headlands State Park on the enchanting Mendocino Coast of northern California, home of redwoods, restaurants, wine tasting, whales, and countless outdoor activities, Mendocino Music Festival offers a most eclectic lineup of talent on this, our 27th season. |
| Festival Dates | July 13 - 27, 2013 |
| Festival Links | http://www.mendocinomusic.org |
Festival Story:
Established in 1986, the Mendocino Music Festival was the dream of former principal bassoonist of the San Francisco Symphony, Walter Green (1926–2007), Allan Pollack and Susan Waterfall. The Festival is a magical blend of fine music by outstanding performers in one of the most enchanting sites in Northern California. Evenings include orchestra concerts, Big Band, chamber music ensembles, dance, blues, jazz, world, folk, bluegrass and popular contemporary music. Daytime concerts include lecture/recitals at the Piano Series, a performance by participants in the Emerging Artists Program, and small concerts in intimate venues throughout the historic towns of Mendocino and Fort Bragg. The festival takes place every July, for two weeks. 2013 is our 27th Season!
Festival Events:
Programming 2013:
- Saturday July 13, 8:00pm — FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Opening Night
Allan Pollack, Conductor
James D’Leon, piano
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
The Festival opens with fiery and lyric themes from Verdi, the jubilant music of Prokofiev, and the romantic favorite, Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto. James D’Leon, who thrilled everyone in last season’s piano series, returns to perform the Rachmaninoff.
- Verdi: I vespri siciliani: Overture
- Prokofiev: Cinderella, Suite No. 1
- Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
- Sunday July 14, 2:00pm — Alison Brown Quartet
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- The Alison Brown Quartet is “bluegrass plus.” Their sound has been likened to a combination of bluegrass, country, and jazz. Brown is a banjo virtuoso who has earned a Grammy as well as bluegrass music’s highest accolade for an instrumentalist: the International Bluegrass Music Association Banjo Player of the Year in 1991. She played with Alison Kraus’s Union Station and Michelle Shocked and has been honored for preservation of Irish music.
- Sunday July 14, 8:00pm — An Evening with Jorma Kaukonen
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- Kaukonen will turn the white tent blue with his own interpretations of American roots music, blues, and Americana. Founding member of two legendary bands, the Jefferson Airplane and the still-touring Hot Tuna.
- Monday July 15, 3:00pm — James D’Leon
Venue — Preston Hall
James D’Leon, featured in the Festival Orchestra performance of Rachmaninoff, returns to the Piano Series with his “Exciting pianism filled with powerful emotion” (Philadelphia Inquirer).
- Mendelssohn, Variations sérieuses, Op. 54
- Corigliano, Etude Fantasy
- Mompou, Pájaro Triste
- Albeniz, Corpus Christi en Sevilla
- Montague, Southern Lament
- Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
- Monday July 15, 8:00pm — Festival Chamber Players
Venue — Presbyterian Church Sanctuary
Works from Takemitsu, Barber and Schubert expertly performed in an intimate setting by ensembles drawn from the world-class Festival Orchestra’s principal players.
- Takemitsu, and then I knew ‘twas wind, for flute, viola and harp
Tracy Kraus, flute
Don Ehrlich, viola, harp - Barber, Summer Music for Wind Quintet
Mindy Rosenfeld, flute
Thomas Nugent, oboe
Arthur Austin, clarinet
Carolyn Lockhart, bassoon
Kevin Rivard, french horn - Schubert, Quintet in C Major
Roy Malan, violin
Baker Peeples, violin
Don Ehrlich, viola
Stephen Harrison, cello
- Takemitsu, and then I knew ‘twas wind, for flute, viola and harp
- Tuesday July 16 3:00pm — Village Chamber Concert
Venue — Preston Hall
Carolyn Steinbuck, piano
Mindy Rosenfeld, flute
Marcia Sloane, cello
- Bach: Orchestral Suite #2 in B minor
- Hindemith: Sonata for flute and piano
- Harrison: Suite for cello and piano
- Haydn: Trio in G Major, Hoboken XV:15 for piano, flute and cello
- Kodaly: Epigram #7
- Hans-Andre Stamm: Suite for flute, cello and piano Nicole Welch, cello
- Tuesday July 16, 8:00pm — The House Jacks
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- The House Jacks is “the original rock band without instruments” (SF Chronicle). The band’s pioneering innovations laid the groundwork for the current a cappella renaissance. From Carnegie Hall to the World Expo, from Brazil to Sri Lanka, Rolling Stone to CNN, and in live performance with Ray Charles, James Brown, Train, and LL Cool J, The House Jacks continue to electrify audiences worldwide.
- Wednesday, July 17 8:00pm — POCO Benefit for MMF
Venue — Tent Concert hall
- POCO is “All Fired Up” with their new album of that name, and plans to rock their trademark blazing instrumentals and soaring harmonies at a fabulous benefit concert made possible by the generosity of an anonymous POCO fan.
- Thursday July 18 3:00pm — Robert Schwartz
Venue — Preston Hall
Hailed by Hugh Wolff of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as “one of the finest pianists of his generation,” Schwartz has performed extensively in the U.S. and abroad in recent seasons. His playing has been described as “crystal clear and his poetic insights remarkable” (Scranton Times).
- Bach, Partita No. 4 in D Major
- Chopin, Polonaise-Fantaisie
- Debussy, Préludes, Book 1
- Thursday, July 18, 8:00pm — Julian Pollack Trio, Hot Club of San Francisco
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- From jazz standards to American folk melodies to contemporary indie rock songs to Pollack’s own compositions, the Trio’s aim is music “beautiful, moving, yet modern,” according to Julian Waterfall Pollack (“…emerging, young, and poised…a pianist with an earnest air” – The New York Times). “Old jazz songs, American folk melodies, and rock tunes can create a lot of feeling and vibe with very simple materials. We want to utilize those materials and convey the sentiments of those styles…and then improvise.”
http://www.julianpollackmusic.com - Hot Club of San Francisco
Opening the show, Americas finest gypsy swing band in the style of Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli will have you tapping your feet to Le Jazz Hot or Jazz manouche, as its called in its birthplace, France. It’s Gypsy jazz, mysterious rhythms at once sophisticated and flamboyant, romantic and melancholy. The quintet—named for Reinhardt’s famous Quintet of the Hot Club of France—is led by the godfather of American gypsy jazz, guitarist Paul Mehling.
Paul Mehling, Solo Guitar
Evan Price, Violin
Clint Baker, Bass
Isabelle Fontaine, Rhythm Guitar
Sam Rocha, Rhythm Guitar
http://www.HCSF.com
- From jazz standards to American folk melodies to contemporary indie rock songs to Pollack’s own compositions, the Trio’s aim is music “beautiful, moving, yet modern,” according to Julian Waterfall Pollack (“…emerging, young, and poised…a pianist with an earnest air” – The New York Times). “Old jazz songs, American folk melodies, and rock tunes can create a lot of feeling and vibe with very simple materials. We want to utilize those materials and convey the sentiments of those styles…and then improvise.”
- Friday July 19 3:00pm — Kim Nalley, vocals
Venue — Preston Hall
- A 3 1/2 octave range that can go from operatic to gritty blues on a dime, projection that can whisper a ballad yet can fill a room with no microphone, and the ability to scat blistering solos without ever losing the crowd’s interest–or the intense swing.
- Friday July 19, 8:00pm — Opera: Il Signor Bruschino
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- Expect a Master Class for Opera Lovers with the maestro, soloists and orchestra, followed by a delightful performance of Rossini’s one-act farce, directed by Allan Pollack.
- Saturday July 20, 3:00pm — Thelonius Monk Jazz Sextet
Venue — Preston Hall - Saturday July 20, 8:00pm — Big Band Night
Kathleen Grace, vocals
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- A smashing evening with the Festival Big Band Orchestra, led by Allan Pollack, who plays a mean saxophone.
- Sunday July 21, Day-long series begining at 2:00pm — Umi no Hi: A Celebration of Japan’s Ocean Day
- The centerpiece of the Festival’s World Series, this day devoted to the influence of the ocean on Japanese culture and music brings together haiku poetry, the music of the shakuhachi—a Japanese vertical bamboo flute, contemporary taiko, and the legacy of Japan’s great twentieth century composer Toru Takemitsu.
- Sunday July 21, 4:00pm — GONNA, Contemporary Taiko
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- This exciting contemporary taiko ensemble—celebrating their tenth anniversary by visiting the U.S. for the first time with the help of the Mendocino Sister Cities Association—performs kumi-daiko (multi-drum, multi-players) complemented with the addition of marimba.
- Sunday July 21, 2013 8:00pm — Ocean That Has No East, No West
The Life & Legacy of Toru Takemitsu
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- Susan Waterfall’s multi-media production, featuring guitarist Shin-Ichi Fukuda, brings to life the artistic world of Japan’s great composer Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), a seminal figure in modern composition.
- Sunday, July 21 6:00pm — Bento Supper by the Sea
Venue — Tent Picnic Area
- Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine, usually in a box-shaped container. Proceeds benefit Otsuchi, Japan (sister city of Fort Bragg), devastated by tsunami.
- Monday July 22 3:00pm — Gloria Cheng
Venue — Preston Hall
- Grammy-winning pianist Gloria Cheng, described by the New York Times as “an invaluable new-music advocate,” is widely hailed as a compelling and eloquent performer of new works. She is often cited for tapping the emotional core of contemporary music, and for exploring significant interconnections between composers.
- Tuesday July 23 8:00pm — Calder Quartet with Gloria Cheng__
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
With Gloria Cheng, piano, Benjamin Jacobson, violin; Andrew Bulbrook, violin, Jonathan Moerschel, viola; Eric Byers, cello
- Performances & Series 2013 Calder Quartet with Gloria Cheng is called “outstanding” and “superb” by the New York Times, the Calder Quartet defies boundaries through performing a broad range of repertoire at an exceptional level, always striving to channel the true intention of the work’s creator.
- Wednesday July 24 3:00pm — Middle East Peace Concert, Dror Sinai Trio, Rhythms of Harmony
- TBA
- Wednesday July 24, 8:00pm — Festival Orchestra, East and West
Shin-Ichi Fukuda, guitar
Venue — Tent Concert Hall Shin-Ichi Fukuda, guitar
- Japanese guitar virtuoso Shin-Ichi Fukuda learned the concerto To the Edge of Dream directly from the composer. He will perform this and Rodrigo’s rhythmic and spirited concerto inspired by the famed Gardens of Aranjuez in a program that opens with Sheng’s spell-binding Fanfare from China Dreams and concludes with Debussy’s beloved La Mer.
- Sheng: Fanfare from China Dreams
- Takemitsu: To the Edge of Dream
- Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
- Debussy: La Mer
- Thursday July 25 3:00pm — Jacqueline Schwab
Venue — Preston Hall
- Schwab plays “gorgeously spare piano” (The Boston Globe) yet “sounds as if she has an orchestra at her fingertips” (Sing Out)
- Thursday July 25 8:00pm — Cherish the Ladies
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- Cherish the Ladies has become the most successful and sought after Irish-American group in Celtic music.
- Friday July 26 8:00pm — Pedrito Martinez Group
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- The Pedrito Martinez Group is a small band with a huge sound, and roots planted firmly in the Afro-Cuban Rumba tradition and in the bata rhythm and vocal chants of the music of Yoruba and Santeria.
- Saturday July 27, 8:00pm — Festival Orchestra and Chorus
Venue — Tent Concert Hall
- The Festival Orchestra, Chorus, and soloists join forces for a powerfully inspirational program of music based on traditional biblical themes. Bruch’s Jewish prayer for cello solo and Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony with soprano soloist set the stage for the dramatic choral works to follow. Bernstein’s stirring Psalms, Mozart’s serene hymn, and the Hallelujah from Beethoven’s oratorio end the Festival on a wave of joyous exaltation.
- Bruch: Kol Nidré
- Bernstein: Symphony No 1 Jeremiah
- Bernstein: Chichester Psalms
- Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus
- Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives, Hallelujah
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