This year’s Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival is paying tribute to those we have lost.
“This year has seen a lot of change and it’s reflected in our programming,” said Artistic Director and Founder Aloysia Friedmann. “It took me a lot longer than usual to create an overarching theme. I was kind of in a rut for a few months after my mother Laila passed away. She had a wonderful life and died at 101 here at our home on Orcas. I knew all along that I wanted to dedicate the festival to her memory quietly but publicly.”
The 26th annual event also honors former OICMF board president Sam Coleman, who passed away this year.
The concerts run from Aug. 4 to 19 and take place at Orcas Center unless otherwise noted. Five of the mainstage concerts will be live-streamed. They start at 5:30 p.m. on August 5, 9, 12, 16 and 19 and will be available live and for 3 days after the performance. The free recordings will have multiple camera angles and high-quality sound production. For tickets to the festival, full programming line-ups and to register for the live-streaming, visit www.oicmf.org.
The festival features a mix of newcomers including violinist and violist Yura Lee, flutist Sandy Hughes, oboists Ann Lemke and Mary Lynch VanderKolk and accordionist Iwo Jedynecki as well as returning artists OICMF Artistic Advisor and pianist Jon Kimura Parker, the Miró Quartet, violinist Nikki Chooi, oboists Nathan Hughes and Alecia Lawyer and cellists Bion Tsang and Oliver Aldort.
The concerts are divided into five programs — “Trailblazer,” “Orcas~trations: Voice of the Whale,” “From Darkness to Light,” “Mystical Winds” and “Romantcarctica” — that include pre-concert discussions, composer talks and receptions. Each program also features the work of a living composer, which Friedmann says is “very unusual.”
Her mother Laila Storch was an acclaimed oboist as well as author, baker, linguist and matriarch. Her spirit is reflected in the music presented.
“There are shorter works this year and there is oboe in every single concert,” Friedmann said. “The first week we have three remarkable women oboists who are trailblazers — and my mom certainly was a trailblazer.”
The first program of the festival features a wide range of music, including the West Coast premiére of “Trailblazer,” a work honoring Storch’s legacy, written by contemporary composer Alyssa Morris. Works by Johann Sebastian Bach, a composer Storch loved, will also be performed.
”Voice of the Whale” was created in memory of Coleman and highlights classics such as Samuel Barber’s famous Adagio for Strings and Ennio Morricone’s “Gabriel’s Oboe” and the contemporary work “Vox Balaenae” by George Crumb.
“From Darkness to Light” features John Williams’ heartrending theme from “Schindler’s List” and works by Dmitri Shostsakovich, Johann Christian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as the Northwest premiere of Emmy-winning composer John Wineglass’ haunting piano quintet “And the Summer Was Over,” inspired by Alice Walker’s short story “The Flowers.” Friedmann and Woman in the Woods founder Michell Marshall will interview Wineglass prior to the concert and offer a reading of the story.
“Mystical Winds” starts off with back-to-back performances of Benjamin Britten’s “Pan” for solo oboe and Claude Debussy’s “Syrinx” for solo flute. The program also features the Northwest premiere of “Microfictions, Vol. 1” by composer and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw.
“Romantarctica” concludes the festival, and is dedicated to series sponsors David and Amy Fulton. It features Norwegian composer Henning Kraggerud’s eponymous piece for flute, viola, and strings. Storch’s favorite works by Johann Sebastian Bach will be performed, including his famous Prelude from Partita No. 3 in E Major.
Visual art by Martha Farish, Susan Singleton, and Michael Lundgren will be woven throughout several of the concert programs.
On Aug. 12 at 2 p.m. at the Orcas Library, Marshall will speak with Wineglass about his creative process behind “And the Summer Was Over, and then she will read aloud Walker’s story. Other free community events include a children’s concert on Aug. 9 at 1 p.m. on the lawn of Orcas Center and an open rehearsal for seniors on the Mainstage of Orcas Center on Aug. 18 at 1 p.m.
“One of the things that is wonderful to see post-COVID is that we are back to doing more community and free events around the island. We have hamlet concerts again in Olga, West Sound and Deer Harbor,” Friedmann said. “It makes me so happy to make these connections again in ways we haven’t been able to do for a while,” she said.
