Chestertown’s 2024 National Music Festival Includes Something for Everyone

Chestertown’s renowned National Music Festival has announced its June 2024 concert schedule. From June 2-15, the Festival will bring together 28 esteemed mentors and 100 promising apprentices, presenting over 30 events, ranging from majestic symphonies to intimate chamber music, pre-concert talks, and master classes, plus dozens of free open rehearsals. Mentors are professional musicians who teach and perform all over the country and the world; apprentices are young professional musicians on the cusp of their careers. Festival musicians come to Chestertown each season from about a dozen countries and 30 US states.

This year’s mentors will include Brazilian guitarist Camilo Carrara, a long-time audience favorite; Yoshiaki Horiguchi (bass) and Diana Loomer (percussion), who are both alumni of the Festival; and several mentors who have been with the Festival since its inception in 2011: Dana Goode (violin), Jared Hauser (oboe), Jeff Keesecker (bassoon), Tom Parchman (clarinet), and Jennifer Parker-Harley (flute).

New to the mentor faculty this year is Emma McGrath, a British violinist who will travel all the way from Australia, where she is the concertmaster of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Her illustrious career includes a London debut in the Purcell Room at age 10, tours all over the world, and solos with orchestras ranging from the Seattle Symphony to the Royal Northern Sinfonia. She will be featured as a concerto soloist with the Festival Symphony Orchestra on June 8.

Festival alumnus Alexander Humala will return to Chestertown this season as a guest conductor. He is currently the Music Director of the Krakow Philharmonic in Poland.

Another musician traveling to Chestertown from overseas is Caitlin Redding, a soprano who splits her time between Barcelona and Berlin. She will be the soloist in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and will sing a variety of songs by Gottschalk and Berg, both with the orchestra and in chamber music settings. She will also give a recital at Emmanuel Church on Sunday, June 9, to raise funds for the lunches that the church provides to

Festival musicians. When Redding travels to the Festival in June, she will be coming home – she is a Kent County native who grew up in Galena.

Concert schedules, tickets, and Festival Passes are available on the Festival’s website, nationalmusic.us. The Festival has just launched a new website and more user-friendly ticketing system, and there are no fees to purchase tickets online.

Highlights of the much-anticipated 12th season include:

• Monumental symphonic works, including Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony;
• Concerto performances featuring several mentors, including violin mentors James Stern and Emma McGrath in Berg’s Violin Concerto and MacKenzie’s Pibroch Suite, respectively; Renate Falkner in Shulman’s Theme and Variations for Viola; and Yoshiaki Horiguchi in Martin’s Concerto for Double Bass;
• Chamber music by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Gershwin, and Nielsen, among others;
• A free Family Concert and Instrument Petting Zoo, featuring string instruments;
• Forest Music, a unique performance art event in collaboration with Adkins Arboretum (tickets available at adkinsarboretum.org).

One performance that is already garnering attention throughout the region is the CATcerto, featuring Nora The Piano Cat and composed by Mindaugas Piecaitis, using videos of Nora playing the piano. This beautiful 5-minute work will be presented in memory of Nora The Piano Cat, the Festival’s official mascot, who recently passed away at age 19. The composer will travel from Europe to conduct his work, which features videos of Nora projected onto a large screen and accompanied by a live orchestra.

In collaboration with Nora The Piano Cat LLC, Chestertown’s Cat Colloquium, and the Animal Care Shelter for Kent County, the Festival will present the First Annual Feline Fun Fest on Sunday, June 9 in downtown Chestertown. This free, family-friendly event will feature musical performances, art activities, videos of Nora The Piano Cat, and more. Several local businesses will participate by offering cat-themed products.

“Whatever your musical tastes, we have performances you will love,” said Festival Artistic Director Richard Rosenberg. “In addition to our flagship orchestra concerts, try our ‘Lunchtime Chamber Bites,’ our special Family Concert, or our Market Music in Fountain Park and enjoy!”

Lunchtime Chamber Bites are short, free concerts featuring performances and discussion with the artists. The Family Concert and Market Music concerts are also free, as are several other events. All rehearsals are free and open to the public. Venues for concerts and rehearsals range from local churches to Washington College to the Kent Cultural Alliance’s Raimond Cultural Center, and more. Concert and rehearsal schedules are available on the Festival’s website, nationalmusic.us.

For apprentices, the National Music Festival advances the lives and careers of these promising musicians by providing access to world-class mentors and performance opportunities. Apprentices are chosen in a highly competitive process and attend the Festival on scholarship, free of charge. The Festival is a true community effort as Chestertown area residents open their homes as host families for apprentices and mentors, and Emmanuel Church in downtown Chestertown provides free lunches for the musicians on weekdays.

Visit the Festival’s website for the complete 2024 Festival concert schedule and repertoire and to purchase tickets or Festival Passes: nationalmusic.us. A number of concerts are free, as are all rehearsals.

The National Music Festival is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org) and the Kent Cultural Alliance (kentculture.org). For more information about the Festival, visit the website at nationalmusic.us or contact [email protected] or (443)480-0221.