Music and a milestone Festival Amadeus celebrates 10th season

Festival Amadeus will celebrate its 10th season this summer with the addition of a new component, a concert performance of Mozart’s last opera “The Magic Flute” (‘Die Zauberflöte’). The in-concert production will be a two-night finale for the week of music that includes two chamber and two orchestra concerts with featured soloists held Aug. 8-13, in Whitefish. Additionally, two chamber concerts will be presented in Bigfork at Bethany Lutheran Church on Wednesday, Aug. 9 and Friday, Aug. 11.

“I’ve been wanting to include one of Mozart’s operatic masterpieces during our Festival and the 10th anniversary landmark seemed the perfect time to introduce his final and most enigmatic opera,” said John Zoltek, Founding Music Director of Festival Amadeus. “‘Die Zauberflöte’ is a sublime fantasy morality tale that moves between earthy comedy and noble mysticism. It will be a spectacular finale to our week of orchestra and chamber concerts!”

Orchestra Night 1: Another new component will be an orchestra concert on opening night that features the Festival Amadeus orchestra in “Lyric and Heroic” on Tuesday, Aug. 8. Guest pianist, Tanya Gabrielian will be the soloist in Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 4 in G” under the baton of Zoltek. The program will include two more of Mozart’s works; “Impresario Overture” and “Symphony No. 39 in Eb major.” The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.

This will be Gabrielian’s second appearance at Festival Amadeus since her debut here in 2014. After completing degrees in piano and viola at the Royal Academy of Music in London, she shot onto the international stage at age 20 with back-to-back victories in the Scottish International Piano Competition and Aram Khachaturyan International Piano Competition. Since then she has played in major concert halls all over the world. She is hailed by the London Times as a “pianist of powerful physical and imaginative muscle.”

Chamber Night 1: “Sonata, Suite and Solos” on Wednesday, Aug. 9, will offer an engaging duo program with Gabrielian and violinist, Yevgeny Kutik who also appears at Festival Amadeus for the second time. Their program will include two duo pieces; Beethoven’s “Sonata for violin and piano No. 1” and Stravinsky’s “Suite Italienne.”

Completing the program will be solo piano works by Chopin “Two Nocturnes” and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” and a modern solo violin work, “Arioso Doloroso/Estatico” by Michael Gandolfi.

The concert will be held in the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish at 7:30 p.m. The duo will repeat their performance in Bigfork on Friday, Aug. 11, 7:30 p.m. at Bethany Lutheran Church.

Kutik is praised for his technical precision and virtuosity and lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of standard works as well as rarely heard and newly composed repertoire. The internationally acclaimed artist is a native of Minsk, Belarus, having immigrated to the United States with his family at age five.

“Yevgeny Kutik looks and sounds like someone perfectly willing do anything, whatever it takes, to tell you what this music is saying to him,” writes The Huffington Post.

Orchestra Night 2: Prokofiev and Mendelssohn” are the featured composers on Thursday, Aug. 10 at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center. This concert features violinist Kutik with the Festival orchestra in Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor” followed by Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 4 in A Major.” Beethoven’s “Coriolan Overture” will open the concert.

Chamber Night 2: Friday, Aug. 11, brings the Fry Street Quartet back to the Festival Amadeus stage. This will be the quartet’s fifth appearance at the Festival. Their program will include Haydn’s “Quartet in B flat Major,” Debussy’s “String Quartet in G minor” and Beethoven’s “String Quartet in A minor.” Concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. Fry Street will also perform in Bigfork on Wednesday, Aug. 9, at 7:30 p.m. at Bethany Lutheran Church in Bigfork.

OPERA NIGHT: Mozart’s final opera, “The Magic Flute” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 12, and Sunday, Aug. 13, at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center. Concert-goers who purchase a Festival Amadeus five-concert or three-concert pass are also included in an Opera Night reception after the shows at the Firebrand Hotel in Whitefish.

This modern concert version will be augmented with photographic projections and English subtitles. It will feature an impressive cast of singers from across the U.S. and Montana, including Ricardo Herrera as Papageno, Kirk Dougherty as Tamino, Hanna Brammer Dillon as Pamina, Emily Peragine as the Queen of the Night, Stephen Morscheck as Sarastro and Andrew Surrena as Monostatos. The cast also includes Amy Logan, Amy Chisholm, and Katie Christiansen as the Three Women, Brad Seaman and Jim Hann as Two Priests, Rebecca Spear as Papagena and a select chorus of the Glacier Chorale.

Tickets for Festival Amadeus are on sale now. Fully transferable passes are available for $169 for a five-concert pass (two chamber, two orchestra, one opera) or $119 for a pick-three concert pass (includes one opera and choice of chamber or orchestra nights). Pass purchasers are included in one of two post-opera receptions held at the Firebrand Hotel, across the street from the Whitefish Performing Arts Center. They also receive a complimentary gondola ride to the top of Big Mountain at Whitefish Mountain Resort. Passes are not available to purchase online. Call the GSC Box Office at 406-407-7000 Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. They will also be available at the venue day of show between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 6 p.m nightly.

Single concert tickets are available online at www.gscmusic.tix.com. Prices for orchestra nights are $35 tier 1, $30 tier 2, $10 youth; for chamber nights are $25 all tiers, $10 youth; for opera nights are $49 tier 1, $39 tier 2, $25 youth. The Bigfork chamber performances are $25 general admission, $10 youth. All concerts, artists and venues are subject to change.

For more information, visit https://www.gscmusic.org or call the GSC Box Office at 406-407-7000.

North Valley Music School in Whitefish holds Camp Festival Amadeus concurrently with the Festival at Whitefish Middle School. The public has an opportunity to enjoy the process of making music when the Festival guest artists share their stories at several “Musical Journey” talks with the students. The programs are held in the lobby of Whitefish Middle School and are free of charge. The public is also invited to observe Camp Festival Amadeus classes during the week. For more information contact NVMS at 406- 862-8074 or visit www.northvalleymusicschool.org

Monday Aug. 7: 3-4 pm Camp Festival Amadeus Honor Recital by Students and soloists.

Tuesday, Aug. 8: 3-4 pm Camp FA Musical Journey with selected vocal cast from the Magic Flute, WF Middle School Lobby

6:30 pm Camp FA students will perform during intermission at the Whitefish Farmers Market, Depot Park, WF.

Wednesday, Aug. 9: 3-4 pm Camp FA Musical Journey: Tanya Gabrielian, piano and Yevgeny Kutik, violin in the WF Middle School Lobby.

Thursday, Aug. 10: 3-4 pm Camp FA Musical Journey: Quinton Morris a virtuoso violinist from Seattle and a Camp faculty member, WF Middle School Lobby.

Friday, Aug. 11: 12-1:30 pm Camp FA Student Concert Performance, featuring the full student orchestra and ensembles, onstage at WFPAC