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
Cellists Front and Center for Cellobration
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
One day this week Sitkans got to hear impromptu solo cello performances as they picked up groceries at Sea Mart, or paid a bill at city hall.
Later that day, students in the Sitka International Cello Seminar gathered to share their music with the public at the Mean Queen restaurant.
It was all part of the training the 11 musicians are receiving during their three weeks studying with seminar co-founders Zuill Bailey and Dr. Melissa Kraut. The seminar includes practice time alone and with each other, formal and informal lessons with Bailey and Kraut, recreational time outdoors, and, yes, chances to engage with Sitkans and perform in formal and informal ways.
“We see now how it works in this setting,” said Bailey, artistic director of the Sitka Summer Music Festival. “People have to be flexible. ... They’re learning things only this seminar can give them: the toolbelt of life.”
“Spontaneous,” agreed Kraut, co-chair of cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music. “They’re learning how to be great public speakers, an ability to engage with an audience and an ability to plan a program appropriate for a venue, an ability to problem solve ....”
“It’s what you need to be a healthy, functioning musician for the 21st century,” Bailey said.
Performances continue next week, wrapping up with Sitka Cellobration, 7 p.m. Saturday, July 20, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
Sitka International Cello Seminar musicians, from left, James Hettinga, Madelyn Kowalski and Kristiana Ignatjeva perform at Sitka Public Library this afternoon. (Sentinel Photo)
Before then there will be performances at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, on the lower level of the Mean Queen; noon Wednesday at the Sitka Public Library; and 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Ludvig’s Wine Bar.
Programs are student-driven, based on pieces the students are working on together, and with Bailey and Kraut.
Students at the Cello Seminar, now in its sixth year, come from all over the world and are working to complete their undergraduate and graduate degrees. During their time here, they stay at Stevenson Hall, the Sitka Summer Music Festival’s home on the SJ campus. The cello seminar is a program of the Music Festival.
Ivana Biliskov of Split, Croatia, is studying for her master’s degree at the University of Texas in El Paso, where Bailey is on the faculty and is artistic director of the music festival El Paso-Pro Musica. Biliskov is a teaching assistant at the university.
From a family of amateur musicians, Biliskov became interested in her instrument after hearing a live performance of a cello concerto when she was 7.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about cello, I wanted to know more about it,” she said. “Two years later, my parents decided to enroll me in a cello program.”
She continued her studies at a music elementary and high school, taking music lessons and theory classes, and didn’t look back.
“It was a natural fit for me,” she said. She came to the U.S. with a full scholarship to study cello at the University of North Texas in Denton.
She is in her first year at the Cello Seminar.
“The first year I wanted to study with great professors, but I also want to keep engaging (with) community performances and collaborating with great players,” she said. “I also want to learn more about myself, and Sitka is the place to do it. There’s a lot of peace, which is not easily found in a big city.”
Sarah Miller, who is from Bayville, New York, is studying for her master’s degree with Kraut at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She has attended other festivals around the U.S. and is now in her third year at the Sitka seminar. She enjoys the multiple opportunities to perform, the more intimate setting, and the time she gets in lessons and one-on-one with Kraut and Bailey.
“I keep coming back because I love it,” she said. “This one is different. It’s so small. We get so much exposure to the teachers and to the community that you don’t get at other festivals. You learn so much faster. You get so many more perspectives than you do at festivals.”
Each of her three years has offered her a new experience, since different musicians attend each year, and she is at a different phase of her life.
Back for her third year, she said, “I still don’t know what I want to do (with my career). I’m refining my skills I need for my future and putting it into practice in the community. Everyone who comes brings something different to the table. We work with what we have and it’s different every time.”
Tickets to the Sitka Cellobration on July 20 are $15 for general admission, and $10 for students and seniors. They are available at Old Harbor Books and the door, and online at sitkamusicfestival.org.
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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 .....