Marrowstone Music Festival performances begin today, July 28, on campus

The Marrowstone Music Festival presents its 2011 orchestral season from July 28 through Aug. 7 in the Performing Arts Center Concert Hall on Western Washington University’s campus.

The six-concert series features an eclectic mix of symphonic classics and rarely played works performed by three orchestras, internationally acclaimed faculty-artists and exceptional guest soloists.

This is the 11th season that Marrowstone will be in residence on Western’s campus in the Performing Arts Center, where it will conduct its studies, rehearsals and performances. In addition to faculty from around the world, Marrowstone will feature three WWU music faculty on its staff for the season – Grant Donnellan, violin; Eric Kean, viola; Jeffrey Gilliam, piano – as well as WWU students as interns and a WWU Music alumnus, Ryan Dudenbostel, as a conductor.

All performances listed here will be held in the PAC Concert Hall:

• Faculty Chamber Music Concerts – A Faculty Chamber Music Concert will be offered at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 28, and Thursday, Aug. 4. The Marrowstone faculty list includes some of America’s most distinguished orchestral and chamber musicians. Members of the Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle Symphony Orchestras will be represented, as will internationally acclaimed teachers, performers and soloists. These distinguished musicians will join for rich and eclectic concerts featuring classic works by Bach, Brahms and Tchaikovsky; exciting Latin tangos by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla; and cutting-edge music by American composers Cynthia Folio and Frank Wiley.
• Marrowstone Chamber Orchestra Concerts – Festival Musical Director Stephen Rogers Radcliffe will lead the Marrowstone Chamber Orchestra in concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 30, and Saturday, Aug. 6. The July 30 performance will feature a tribute to longtime Marrowstone faculty member Alice Render who, in her long career with the Chicago Symphony, performed in every position in the horn section. The program will include Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 4” and the “Cello Concerto” by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by 2011 Marrowtone Concerto Competition winner Chas Barnard. The Aug. 6 concert will feature renowned cellist Joshua Roman performing two works by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, his “Silent Woods” and “Rondo in G Major for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 94.” The concert also will be an opportunity to hear the highly accomplished Marrowstone faculty perform as soloists in Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major.” Featured soloists include Jill Felber, flute; Rebecca Henderson, oboe; Fritz Gearhart, violin; and Roy Poper, trumpet.
• Festival Orchestra Concerts – Marrowstone will present a Festival Orchestra Concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 31, and Sunday, Aug. 7. More than 200 talented young musicians from all over the country will tackle challenging orchestral masterpieces. The July 31 performance will feature Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” and Alexander Glazunov’s “The Seasons.” The orchestra will perform Gustav Mahler’s monumental “Symphony No. 1 in D Major” – also known as “Titan” – on Aug. 7. Among the distinguished conductors joining maestro Radcliffe are Chicago Symphony Orchestra principal horn Dale Clevenger and international Dudenbostel.

Tickets are available through the WWU Box Office and cost $21 for general admission and $15 for seniors, WWU faculty and staff and students. A limited number of tickets are also available at Village Books and the Community Food Co-op.

WWU Box Office hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and one hour prior to the performance. For individual tickets or disability accommodations, contact the WWU Box Office at (360) 650-6146 or visit http://www.tickets.wwu.edu.

Since 1943, the Marrowstone Music Festival has been the premiere orchestral training program of the Pacific Northwest. Operated by the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, the festival’s internationally acclaimed faculty artists work directly with talented students from all over the United States to present outstanding performances of orchestral and chamber music in the city of Bellingham each summer.

For more information about the Marrowstone Music Festival, please visit http://marrowstone.org/ or call (360) 650-2220.