Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka Music Festival Opens Virtual Season

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer

The first virtual Sitka Music Festival begins Thursday and runs through June with recorded performances coming in from artists across the country.

Music Festival Associate Director Amy Kramer Johnson said she hopes this year’s performances bring a lift.

“Doing the virtual concerts, you don’t have quite that same feeling of intimacy. But we’re doing our best to provide some joy and happiness and some musical release,” she said.

In a typical year without a pandemic, she said, the musicians perform in small, fairly intimate settings. In a normal season there would be scheduled performances at Centennial Hall and informal get-togethers with small audiences at special events, usually free, at other places around town.

But all that changed in March when the COVID-19 became a global pandemic and the in-person festival was canceled.

“It’s going to be different in that the chamber music concerts are typically a real intimate setting with the musicians and the audience. It’s a different feel, you’re not in a huge concert hall,” she said.

This year will mark the 49th season of the Music Festival.

Zuill Bailey, Sitka Music Festival artistic director, is pictured in June 2016 at a Sitka Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The festival is hosting a virtual events this season. (Sentinel File Photo)

Artistic Director and cellist Zuill Bailey said that this year has provided additional challenges and opportunities.

“The learning curve has been steep... We had to grasp the technology, get the materials, the equipment, rally our musicians, think outside the box to create a footprint for the month of June as we have had it for 49 years,” Bailey  said.

He added that the shift to an online presentation has also pushed the Music Festival forward.

“The situation has propelled us into the future in ways that we would never have been able to venture into without it,” he said.

All performances this year will be available for free online, and will also be broadcast on Raven Radio. The radio broadcast will ensure that those without good internet connection will still have access to the concerts.

Kramer Johnson said she hopes “to reach more people and have these concerts as accessible as possible during the month of June.”

Concerts will go live on the website, sitkamusicfestival.org, Thursdays at noon and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. until the end of the month. KCAW will broadcast the concerts at 10 a.m. on Mondays, June 15, 22, and 28. Concerts posted online will remain on the website until July 5.

The Thursday performances, June 11, 18, and 25, will be the complete Bach Cello Suites performed by Bailey. The June 18 concert will include violinist Ben Breen’s rendition of Bach’s Partita #3.

The first Saturday concert, June 13, will include pianist Yuliya Gorenman performing a variety of works by Schubert, Beethoven, and Piazzolla. The June 20 concert will involve Bailey on cello and Natasha Paremski on piano, performing Chopin.

The final Saturday concert, June 27, will be performed by pianist Awadagin Pratt, though the music is not yet selected.

In addition to the scheduled music, the Festival’s traditional picnic-style Crab Feed also will be held, on June 21, albeit in a modified format. The Dungeness crab meal will be served as dinner-to-go that day from noon to 2 p.m. at the UAS parking lot. The cost ranges between $30 and $50. Tickets are for sale on the Sitka Music Festival website.

Bailey said in future years, he looks forward to performing before an in-person audience, but hopes to keep the music accessible digitally.

“When everything is the way we would like, to have human contact in close quarters, we could have presentations there for our normal audience, but we could have (digital) auditors,” he said. “We will continue online accessibility.”

Kramer Johnson agreed that the online format will present additional options moving forward.

“It opens up more doors and more opportunities for us in the future to provide more content to more people,” she said.

Bailey agreed.

“Until this year, you missed it unless you were in Sitka. After this year, there is a strong potential to access the magic of Sitka,” he said.