FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sitka Festival a Time for Old Friends, New Music
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Violinist Tom Stone promises to “bring the heat” at the outset of the Sitka Summer Music Festival.
And later in this year’s concert series a festival pianist will take on one of the most challenging pieces she’s ever played.
“It’s kind of the Bible of classical Western music,” said pianist Yuliya Gorenman, of the Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I.
Both musicians also have their eyes on the chance the Sitka festival gives them to catch up with colleagues from around the world as well as their friends in Sitka, and perhaps to work in a fishing trip at some point during the festival.
The Cypress Quartet performs at Odess Theater in 2016 at a noon Sitka Summer Music Festival concert. After 20 years the quartet disbanded. However, the quartet’s Tom Stone and Cecily Ward return to Sitka this year as part of the Sitka Summer Music Festival. (Sentinel file Photo by James Poulson)
The festival this year runs June 5 through July 1. Sixteen acclaimed musicians have been invited to perform classical chamber music for the month.
Executive Director Kayla Boettcher said regular festivalgoers will have plenty of chances to see new faces and old friends, including longtime festival performer Doris Stevenson.
The regular evening concerts at Harrigan Centennial Hall are Fridays and Saturdays – with one Thursday concert. In addition there will be informal performances and social and educational concerts on six days a week all month long.
The artistic director of the festival is Grammy-winning cellist Zuill Bailey, who will play in seven of the eight evening concerts, including the opening weekend, when Prokofieff, Piazzola, Ruehr, Turina and Rachmaninoff are on the program.
Many of Bailey’s friends are making their way to Sitka to perform. Gorenman and Bailey have been friends since their days at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute. Stone has played here in past years as a member of the Cypress String Quartet, which played their last time together in 2016.
“This season is deeply personal for Zuill, in that it’s a collection of his closest friends,” Boettcher said.
Bailey’s sister, Allison, will make her festival debut, playing violin in three evening concerts.
Gorenman, who lives in Washington, D.C., said she’s been looking forward to returning to Sitka for her third appearance at the festival. This time she’ll be here for two weeks.
“You can ask me this anywhere, but I say, my favorite place to play is Sitka, Alaska,” Gorenman said. “The view is to die for, the view from the piano – you can see the mountains and water. It’s out of this world.”
The highlight for her will be showcasing the famous Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, part 1 and 2.
Book I is 24 pairs of short pieces (prelude and fugue) in all 24 keys, which will be presented in two parts. The total length of the piece is about two hours, and it’s rarely played in its entirety.
“It’s kind of an experience,” Gorenman said. “In my entire life I’ve never seen it performed as one piece. ... It’s totally dynamic. From the first to the second, from the second to the third. When you think it can’t get any better, it just does.”
Gorenman has made two appearances at the festival, in 2015 and 2017. She said she’s looking forward to connecting with some friends she made.
“I also get to do amazing things: play the world’s greatest chamber music with world-class musicians,” she said. “They’re friends, too. This is my third time so I get to know lots of people already, I won’t be the new kid.”
Gorenman has other pieces on her plate in the four concerts she’s scheduled to play. Book I, part 1, is June 22, and part 2 is June 28. It will be the second time she has played the entire piece. The first was at a concert in Washington, D.C., which allowed her to realize a dream she’s had since she was a teen in the Ukraine, which at the time was part of the Soviet Union.
“When I was 16 I wrote what I was going to do,” she said. “Number one, I was going to play this piece. Number 2, play all of the Beethoven sonatas. It’s a wonderful thing to list your dreams being fulfilled.”
Gorenman is a professor at American University. She was born in the Soviet Union, and raised in Kazakhstan. She received her music degrees from St. Petersburg Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory and Peabody. She also is president of a construction company in D.C., called A Major Construction.
Stone said he’s looking forward to coming back to Sitka as an individual artist, and getting a chance to play a concert with a fellow quartet member, Cecily Ward. Stone will play both violin and viola.
“This is the longest we’ve gone without playing together,” Stone said. He said he believes Sitkans will take to the Latin selections in the first few weeks of the festival.
“We’ll bring a little heat to Sitka,” in pieces like the piano trio by Pizzola and the Turina Piano Quintet, he said. “That’s going to be really fun. Some of the Spanish music is new to me, and I’m really excited. I think it’s a great change of pace, the music is really sexy and fun to play, and more pleasing on the surface. ... It’s nice to have music that’s entertaining and spicy as well.”
Stone, who lives in San Francisco, received his music training at the Eastman School of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Besides his career as a musician, he works for a startup videogame incubator and publisher, does nonprofit consulting for young professional musicians, and is an adviser on rare instruments.
He’s looking forward to being in Sitka again, going to some of his favorite restaurants and “just being there, and seeing old friends.”
Besides the evening concerts in Centennial Hall, the calendar is chock-full of other concerts, including the free Cafe Concert 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday in June at the Mean Queen, Bach’s Lunch (free brown bag concert) 12:15 p.m. every Thursday, and special events on Sundays. These include a family concert at Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi on June 10, the annual Crab Feed June 17, a concert cruise June 24, and a brunch concert July 1.
At 5:45 p.m. every Tuesday music educator Susan Reed will give a presentation at Stevenson Hall on the coming week’s concerts. The public is invited, and admission is free.
Tickets to festival concerts and events are available on the festival’s website and at Old Harbor Books. Those with questions may call 747-6774.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....