Submitted by Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival

The Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival returns to Lopez Island on Sunday, Aug 5. The festival offers the engaging music education program “Know the Score” at 1 p.m. at Port Stanley Schoolhouse, followed by the early evening concert “Music Among Friends” at 5:30 p.m. at Lopez Center.

“We open our 21st season with the greatest work written for piano four hands,” Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann announced, “and finish with the stunningly beautiful Brahms G Major viola quintet. Mozart and Turina round out this elegant program.” Friedmann and the Festival’s Artistic Advisor (and Friedmann’s husband) Jon Kimura Parker surround themselves with musical friends, and the Lopez audience will recognize artists from past Festival concerts at Lopez Center and enjoy hearing musicians who are new to the Festival.

Parker is joined by Scott Cuellar to open the evening with Schubert’s above-noted piano four hands Fantasie in F minor. Cuellar has been Professor Parker’s doctoral student at Rice University in Houston.

There are plenty of other friendships on stage. Another familiar face to Lopez audiences is cellist Desmond Hoebig. He and Parker became friends as child musicians in Vancouver, British Columbia, roomed at Juilliard together, and now both teach at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

Returning to Lopez is violinist Benjamin Beilman, who opened our 2017 concert program with passion and youthful fire. Carmit Zori, an Israeli artist who was encouraged by Isaac Stern to come to the United States as a young teen, also performs on violin.

Cellist Barry Gold joins Friedmann, Beilman and Cuellar for the Joaquin Turina Piano Quartet in A minor. Violist Toby Hoffman joins Friedmann, Zori, Beilman, and Hoebig to close the program with the Johannes Brahms Viola Quintet in G Major, Op. 111.

The concert will be followed by an evening reception. Meet the artists and enjoy a delicious appetizer buffet sponsored by John and Susan Pohl. Tickets to the concert are $27 for adults and $10 for those 18 and under, available online at www.lopezcenter.org, at Paper Scissors on the Rock, at the Lopez Bookshop and Lopez Farmers Market. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door.

Presented by Jonathan Pasternack, music director of the Port Angeles Symphony, the afternoon Know the Score music education program provides insightful backstory to these composers and the music. The lecture takes place at the Port Stanley Schoolhouse at 1:00 p.m. on the same day as the concert, Aug 5, and includes music samples and an afternoon buffet. Tickets for the two-hour lecture are available at Paper Scissors on the Rock, Lopez Bookshop, Lopez Farmers Market and at the door; $25 for adults and free for those 18 and under. A courtesy ticket may be obtained for youth 18 and under at the same ticket venues. Pasternack’s brilliant and fast-paced talk is sponsored by Bill and Kathie Kreager, and hosted by Gary Alexander.

Seniors are invited to the Open Rehearsal for Seniors at Orcas Center on Friday, Aug 17, at 1:00 p.m.. Please sign up at “Senior Lunch” at the Lopez Senior Center to make arrangements for group transportation to Orcas and back to Lopez, including lunch with the Orcas seniors and free rehearsal seating.

Additional volunteers and artist sponsors are always welcome to assist in producing the Lopez concerts of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. Please contact Micki Ryan at lopez@oicmf.org.