Festival a big step for symphony
Lyric soprano Amy Pfrimmer has sung with major symphonies throughout Europe and the United States and once performed for President George W. Bush, but it didn't take much persuasion for John Zoltek, Glacier Symphony and Chorale music director, to get her to be part of the inaugural "Festival Amadeus" Aug. 4-9 in Whitefish.
Pfrimmer's grandparents, Jack and Emily Pfrimmer, live in Whitefish and she has numerous aunts, uncles and cousins in the area as well.
"I've been stalking John Zoltek for a long time," Pfrimmer said. "I've wanted to come sing where my grandparents could hear me. They'll invite their friends from the Moose Lodge and the bowling alley and there will be cousins there who could not travel and hear me other places."
Pfrimmer, who also teaches at Tulane University in Baton Rouge, La., is making her "Montana debut, besides my grandmother's living room."
She will be one of the 14 guest musicians taking part in five nights of classical music in the Whitefish Center for the Performing Arts.
The festival, with the theme "Mountains by Day, Music by Night," is the first of its kind offered by the symphony and chorale. The idea was born about a year ago as a way to offer more summer options to fans of classical music and to capitalize on the tourist and summer-resident traffic in Whitefish.
"We have traditionally been focused on winter," said Glacier Symphony and Chorale executive director Alan Satterlee. "And we aren't aware of any other weeklong classical festivals in Montana."
The music mix will be grounded in Mozart, but also will feature compositions by most of the classical heavyweights, including Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Haydn and more.
The festival will offer three nights of chamber music and two orchestra concerts. It opens with a free showing of the Academy award-winning movie "Amadeus" on Monday (Aug. 4).
"We thought it would be a fun way to open the festival as an open-door welcome to the community to get people to come in and be part of the festival," Zoltek said. "Maybe some people who would not go buy a ticket to the concerts might after they watch the movie and get caught up in what we're doing."
To add to the festive atmosphere, a Festival Tent will be set up one block south of the Whitefish Performing Arts Center on Spokane Avenue. It will be a headquarters of sorts, with all the festival information and tickets available there. Lunch will be served in the tent and light snacks and drinks will be available in the evening.
The symphony has a $75,000 budget, Satterlee said, with additional help from 11 corporate sponsors and a Montana Department of Commerce grant, given in the hopes that the festival could become a destination event that will draw people to Whitefish.
"It has been a really huge undertaking," Satterlee said. "We didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into, but we've been working on it since last fall and we feel pretty prepared."
Though smoothing out the details has required a great deal of organizational work, Zoltek said the musicians are of such high caliber that they won't rehearse until performance week.
The Festival Amadeus Orchestra is a group of musicians selected from the roster of the Glacier Symphony and Chorale, and others. The Bridger String Quartet from Bozeman and the local Glacier String Quartet are playing a few of the chamber concerts.
The guest soloists are a mix of youth and experience. Two of the headliners, Paul Coletti on viola and Roger Wright on piano, have played with the Glacier Symphony in the past.
"They were thrilled with the prospect of coming in the summer," Zoltek said. "Both have been here in the winter."
Coletti is coming directly from Prague, where he was asked to perform in a festival. He has performed solo concerts from Los Angeles to Canada, China to Mexico, and all over Europe. Currently he teaches viola at the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles.
Ilana Setapen on the violin is an up-and-coming artist who currently is concertmaster of the Riverside County Philharmonic and a concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra.
Also playing in chamber ensembles and in the Festival Amadeus Orchestra during the week will be a couple from Calgary, Brinna Brinkerhoff, violin, and Jeffrey Neufeld, piano; along with Jonas van Dyke, horn, and Megan McClendon, violin, who currently play with the New World Symphony in Florida.
Sarah Harball, a rising star from the Flathead and a viola student with Coletti, will perform a viola duet with Coletti on Friday night.
Zoltek said one emphasis of the festival is that the artists provide commentary and interact with the audience.
"Audiences will get to listen to performers speak about the music," Zoltek said. "The listener will not only hear great performances, but learn something about composers and learn about pieces from the artists themselves."
"This is how I want to brand this festival, with performances that engage the audience in what the musicians are doing."
Pfrimmer expects a long roster of family and friends to attend the concerts, so she admits she will have a built-in engaged audience, no matter how things go.
"It works out great, because they clap for you whether you do well or not," she said.
Festival tickets
Single-night tickets for the Aug. 4-9 Festival Amadeus are $15 adult, $12 senior, $10 youth for Tuesday through Thursday (chamber) night concerts; $23 adult, $18 senior $10 youth for Friday and Saturday (orchestra) concerts.
Festival Flex Passes are $80 for adults, $70 for seniors and $40 for students and Festival Super Passes are $120 and include two catered "Meet the Artist" receptions. Both are transferable and offer admission to rehearsals during the week.
Tickets are available through www.gscmusic.org and at the following ticket outlets: Books West in Kalispell; The Village Shop, and Montana Coffee Traders-downtown, in Whitefish; Glacier Wallflower in Columbia Falls; ArtFusion in Bigfork; Sliters Ace Hardware in Lakeside and at the door.
To obtain a brochure listing the complete concert repertoire and events, call 257-3241 or visit www.gscmusic.org