Sales to the general public start Wednesday, June 18

The second decade of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (OICMF) will begin June 18 with an always-early morning general public ticket “rush.”

Since its “spontaneous” beginning nine years ago, the “Early Bird” ticket sale has become an event of its own, as eager music-lovers queue up for the first places in line to buy tickets to what is now an internationally acclaimed two-week festival in late August.

The festival was the brain child of Aloysia Friedmann, its Artistic Director, who with her husband, Jon (Jackie) Kimura Parker, Artistic Advisor to the OICMF, bring world-renowned musicians to Orcas Island. Valerie Anders is President of the OICMF Board of Directors.

Victoria Parker, Executive Director of the festival, gives high praise to the OICMF volunteers, and to Artha Kass, Box Office Manager for the Orcas Center, who make all the cogs and wheels turn for the festival’s running start.

“They are all poised to greet the OICMF ticket purchasers on that first day. The attention to detail and the work done that leads up to the event – developing the ticket order form, sign-in register, ticket purchase policies, creating the ticket faces, runners between order table and ticket office, telephone procedure and queue, the myriad of choices people make– are phenomenal, not to mention the set-up of the welcome party with tea, coffee, cakes, fruit, juice, and real tablecloths. Oh, and the music of OICMF performances wafting on the early morning breeze – really early,” she concludes.

This year, the “Early Birds,” will once again gather at the crack of dawn at Orcas Center on the morning of June 18, enjoying Poletti’s renowned “Meatloaf” cake, tea and coffee, while anticipating the Box Office opening. They bring their books, their knitting, their chairs and their dogs as they wait until 9 a.m. to buy performance tickets for the festival, slated for Aug. 18 to 30. Prior to June 18, OICMF donors of $750 or more were able to purchase their tickets through the OICMF office.

Mary Poletti says that, in a very small way, the Early Birds celebration is “a reflection of the thoughtfulness Aloysia and Jackie and Valerie and the OICMF Board bring to every detail in consideration of the community. It always reminds me of Rosalie Chantiny, whose thougthfulness was exceptional.”

Artha Kass of the Orcas Center and Annette Garver, OICMF Volunteer Coordinator, say “People vie to see who’ll get here first – some come as early as 5:30 – and while they wait, they have a party. It’s worth getting here just to have some of Mary’s cake.”

About 8 a.m. Victoria Parker, Executive Director of the festival, and Marilyn Andrews will set up a table and hand out numbers and ticket forms. Annie Moss Moore and Annette relay the tickets to the Box Office for processing at 9 a.m. and the ticket sales move indoors, and Artha and Patty Monaco process the data – “so we move really fast, because they understand how the software program works as they read the data to us,” said Artha. Victoria and Marilyn assign seats as close to each purchaser’s stated preference as possible.

When the center opens and phone orders start to come in, Annette carries a portable phone and she assigns numbers to the orders, which are transferred to Candy Ver Brugghen to fill in seating preferences.

“With Annie kind of floating, it works like clockwork,” said Artha.

Candy is the new kid on the team this year, as she steps into the position held in the past by Orcas Center former staff member and volunteer Judith Struthers.

While the most fun is to be had in the Early Bird rush hours, ticket sales continue throughout the day, until 4 p.m., Box Office closing time. “It’s a tremendous surge of energy and incredible fun,” said Artha.

Thanks to extensive donor support, general ticket prices to concerts of this internationally renowned event are a great value – $30 for most concerts, and $38 for the August 26 and 27 “Orcas-trations” concerts, featuring OICMF Artistic Advisor Jon Kimura Parker, (who with his wife, Aloysia Friedmann, festival Artistic Director, is an island resident) and the Miro Quartet, the Festival’s String Quartet in Residence.

The Early Birds started when neighbors Sue Wood, Mary Poletti, and Karen Blinn joined other early ticket-buyers. Mary is still one of the first in line. “It’s become a tradition of its own, like many things on Orcas Island,” she said. “All kinds of people line up – a cross-section of island people it might take you years to know.”

Artha agrees, saying, “These are the real everyday folks whose passion is music and who deeply appreciate the festival. “

Artha says that, although the lines start early, tickets are available throughout the day, and “it’s rare that any concerts are sold out that day.” She dispells the myth that concerts sell out early, and says, “even if concerts sell out in advance, we have wait lists that are so alive and so active; I don’t think we’ve ever had someone miss out who was on the wait list or who could work with us.”

She adds that if ticket purchasers turn in their tickets for re-sale because planned dates don’t work out, a tax-deductible charitable contribution form is available to them, through Victoria.

Which is not to advise waiting. From its first year, when the two planned concerts sold out and a third concert was added, the chamber music festival has been widely celebrated by Orcas Islanders, their guests and other island visitors.

This year, the OICMF’s “In Music” program was awarded a grant by the Orcas Island Community Foundation for “IM: In Music for Young Ones” in full complement to OICMF/MAG funding for 2008, with partial OICF support funding for ’09 and ’10. Victoria Parker said, “We are able to begin what I imagine to be on-going music enrichment opportunities for both our young ones plus activity/training experience for teachers.” In March, violinist Monique Mead was the OICMF’s Musician-in-Residence at the Orcas Island Public Schools as part of In Music, and she will offer Orcas’ young violinists a ‘Class with a Master’ at some point during the Festival time when she returns to Orcas Island. Mead said, “My intent is to give these school children incentive to practice over the summer and to give them a boost of inspiration for the beginning of school.”

Other awards have come to the OICMF: the two-disc retrospective DVD/CD “The First Ten Years,” produced by John Gorton’s West Sound videos with festival recordings provided by Al Swanson, was recently awarded a “Excellence” rating in the Communicator Awards given by the International Academy of the Visual Arts.

Chamber Music America has awarded the OICMF the “CMAcclaim Award for significant regional artistic impact.” The award will be given during the Festival with CMA Executive Director, Margaret Lioi, here from New York to present.

On June 18, the Box Office will open at 9 a.m. for in-person orders and at 10 a.m. for telephone sales. Tickets will be sold in the order that people arrive, and Kass says, “It’s a high-energy, fun day. We work at an incredible pace, but we’re a slick team, I must say. We’re very good at what we do.”

For more information, go to www.oicmf.org, or call 376-6636.