On opening night, Tuesday, July 13, the Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Allan Pollack, will perform in a concert entitled “The Love of Country Life”.  The opening piece, a world premiere, will be a medley of music from movies made in Mendocino, arranged by multiple Emmy Award-winning composer, arranger, musical director and Mendocino County resident Lanny Meyers especially for this program.  Grammy Award-winner Mark O’Connor’s Strings and Threads Suite is the second piece in this concert and will feature master fiddler Jeremy Cohen.  Allan Pollack will perform the saxophone solo in the world premiere of his newest composition, Albion Song, Jazz Concerto for Saxophone.  The concert will end with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastorale”.

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble will perform music from Eastern European Balkan and Slavic repertoire on Wednesday, July 14.  Now in its 24th performing season, Kitka’s a capella songs resonate with stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation and lush harmonies.  Kitka’s singers have also created original choral arrangements based on folkloric material, distilled from centuries-old vocal traditions, adding a unique contemporary sensibility to the group’s sound.  Kitka has performed on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, National Public Radio’s Performance Today and Cross Roads, and on the soundtrack for the movie Braveheart.  The group has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.

Eric Bibb, soulful blues singer and songwriter will perform on Thursday, July 15.  Known for his finger picking skill on the guitar, Bibb has the ability to use standard blues ingredients to cook up something all his own.  His lyrics often convey a message of personal experience, awareness and appreciation of life.  A performance by Bibb is an enriching experience musically and spiritually.  His music, like his personality, is intimate, assured and passionate.  He was nominated for two W. C. Handy Awards® in 2002 and was a New Age Voice Music Award finalist in 2001.  The son of ‘60s folk and musical theatre singer and television personality, Leon Bibb, and the nephew of world famous jazz pianist/composer John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Bibb has music in his DNA.

 
On Friday, July 16 and Sunday, July 18 the Festival will present two fully staged short operas performed in the same evening:  El Retablo de Maese Pedro, (Master Peter’s Puppet Show) by Manuel de Falla and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.  Pagliacci is an opera within an opera, revealing an angry confrontation between the comedian Canio and his adulterous wife Nedda. With glorious music, the blurred line between reality and theatre erupts into a drama of unforgettable passion. El Retablo is a puppet show within a puppet show, based on an episode from Cervantes’ Don Quixote.  Falla’s imaginative score, derived from ancient Spanish song, sparkles with irresistible lightness and charm.  Returning as principals this year are Julia Kierstine, soprano and Gabriel Reoyo-Pazos, tenor.

The first Saturday of the Festival, July 17, will bring the Big Band with a performance saluting Frank Sinatra with vocalist Cary Hoffman, whose voice sounds uncannily like that of Old Blue Eyes himself.  Artistic Director and conductor Allan Pollack conducts the Festival Big Band with verve, and the musicians and audience always enjoy this swinging evening.

The Festival is proud to present the Kronos Quartet, the most innovative, adventurous and imaginative string quartet in the world, on Monday, July 19.  This group has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala and the Montreux Jazz Festival, to name just a few famous venues.  Their numerous recordings have received Grammy, Deutscheschallplatten and Edison awards and they have introduced new music and new composers to an international audience numbering in the millions.  It is an honor to have a group of this caliber and renown performing on the Mendocino Coast.
On Tuesday, July 20 the Festival Chamber Players will present “Heavenly ‘Cellos and Yma Dream”.  The opening music will be Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Heitor Villa Lobos, sung by soprano Deborah Mayhan.  The program continues with Franz Schubert’s ‘cello-rich Quintet in C major and will end with the West Coast premiere of the delightful one-act contemporary opera Yma Dream, with an original libretto by Thomas Meehan (The Producers), an original score by Lanny Meyers, and performed by Meyers and Broadway baritone Douglas Webster.

The Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Allan Pollack, offers a celebration of the dance on Wednesday, July 21.  The orchestra will perform Astor Piazzolla’s Tres Movimientos Tanguisticos Porteños followed by Morton Gould’s Tap Dance Concerto featuring Brenda Bufalino, recognized as a leading exponent and innovator of tap dance and founder of The American Tap Dance Orchestra.  The second half of the program begins with Salome’s Dance by Richard Strauss and culminates with Ottorino Respighi’s Belkis, Queen of Sheba.

Thursday, July 22 brings the Festival Chamber Players and An Evening with Susan Waterfall in “Tales of a Parisian Salon”.  This program is an exploration of the great Parisian salon of sewing machine heiress Winnaretta Singer, who married royalty and became Princess de Polignac.  Her home was a gathering place for cultural luminaries including Boulanger, Rubinstein, Horowitz, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Satie, Falla, Proust, Cocteau, Monet, Diaghilev and Colette.  The program includes Gabriel Faure’s Piano Quartet in C minor, Eric Satie’s Parade, Igor Stravinsky’s Renard and songs of Kurt Weill, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.  Performers include narrator and pianist Waterfall, pianist and conductor Carolyn Steinbuck, Festival Concertmaster Roy Malan, Festival Principal Violist Don Ehrlich, ‘cellist Burke Schuchmann, soprano Ana Lucas and baritone Allen Shearer.

The last Friday evening of the Festival, July 23, brings the exuberant performance of the Brasil Brazil Show.  Under the direction of internationally renowned Brazilian born singers Sonia Santos and Ana Gazzola, this group specializes in Música Popular Brasileira, a mix of Brazilian samba and bossa nova rhythms, spiced with authentic percussion instruments, African drumming, funk, and sophisticated jazz harmonies.  Both singers have deep, warm voices, and have developed a style in which they sing, almost entirely in Portuguese, in unison, with some harmonies and solo parts.  A hot six-piece band that includes bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, percussions and saxophone backs the singing, dancing, exciting duo.
The closing evening of this 18th season, Saturday, July 24, will bring the Festival Orchestra and Chorus together in a tribute to Igor Stravinsky.  Music includes Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, excerpts from Peter Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet Overture – Fantasy, Stravinsky’s ballet, Petrouchka, and his masterpiece for orchestra and chorus, Symphony of Psalms.  Four choruses from Mendocino and Lake Counties, constituting the Festival Chorus, under the direction of Carolyn Steinbuck, will be performing in Symphony of Psalms.

The Children’s Matinee, a benefit for music programs in the Mendocino and Fort Bragg Schools, will be performed on Saturday, July 17.  This year Maestro Pollack is delighted with the opportunity to introduce opera to children (of all ages) with a performance of Falla’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show.  The Young Musicians Scholarship Program continues and the participants will present a recital on Sunday, July 18 at the Little River Inn’s Abalone Room and a concert on Saturday, July 24 at the Performance Tent.  The Piano Series will again present three lecture/recitals at 3 PM at Preston Hall in Mendocino with Paul Hersh on Thursday, July 15, Gwendolyn Mok on Friday, July 16 and Helene Wickett on Sunday, July 18.  New this year will be a special guest appearance by Julian Waterfall Pollack and Friends at the Hill House Lounge in Mendocino on Friday, July 23 at 3:00 PM.  Also new this season are a series of three daytime concerts featuring accomplished and talented local musicians.  These Village Chamber Concerts will be performed in three intimate, stunning locations in the Mendocino Village.  The Mendocino String Quartet will perform on Monday, July 19 at 1:00 PM at the Gallery Bookshop Courtyard.  The Village Jazz Ensemble will perform on Wednesday, July 21 at 3:00 PM at Panache Gallery and the Mendocino Woodwind Quintet will perform on Thursday, July 22 at 5:30 PM at the William Zimmer Gallery.

The Festival ticket brochure will be available mid-April and tickets go on sale to the general public on April 21st.  The Festival website, www.mendocinomusic.com includes a complete online brochure, program information, schedules of concerts, schedules of rehearsals free to the public, directions, web links and more.  For more information, please call the Festival office at 707-937-4041.