The Las Vegas Music Festival
On Stage & Off Stage
In the past six years the Las Vegas Music Festival has come a long way - from thirty students and seven concerts in 1999 to this year's one hundred-twenty students and twenty concerts. This remarkable growth is the result of efforts both on-stage and off-stage.
On-stage , the festival grows in number and quality every year. Participants this summer come from Las Vegas, twenty U.S. States, and twelve foreign countries. They will work together in an intense but rewarding environment of artistic, technical, and cultural exchange with our artist/faculty. The Piano Institute celebrates its fifth year this summer with a roster of world-renowned performer-teachers and our new Percussion Institute promises a third successful year. Our faculty comes from the premiere conservatories, universities, orchestras and concert stages throughout the world. Observing the passage of the art from generation to generation - master to novice - is one of the most exciting aspects of the festival for both our participants and audience. In many cases, three generations of teaching and learning are represented in the concerts, classes, and seminars you will hear and experience this summer.
This summer's concerts offer a musical perspective spanning centuries from Johann Sebastian Bach to American composer James Stephenson to the young Chinese composer Huang Ruo. Listeners will enjoy the juxtaposition of new and old styles, the challenge and discovery of new music, and the realization that, somehow, all eras of music relate to each other - both forward and backward in time. Techniques and styles may change, but the profound, timeless issues of the human condition remain the focus of our artistic expression.
Each year, the festival offers something new either as a special feature or an enhancement of our existing programs. For the first time, the festival will offer five piano recitals featuring six pianists from the Piano Institute faculty. The addition of the Young Artist program, now in its third year, offers younger students just the right challenges to grow without being overwhelmed by the intense performance pace of the main festival. Over seventy masterclasses, seminars, and lectures will take place with topics ranging from "The Psychology of Performance" to "Taking Auditions". A particularly interesting performance of the Dvorak Violin Concerto on August 14 will feature violin virtuoso Charles Castleman. His teacher's brother, Frantisek Ondricek, premiered the concerto in 1883. Mr. Castleman learned the piece from the part used for the premiere.
Off-stage the Las Vegas Music Festival Board members and staff continue to strengthen the "Festival". They are continually active in establishing better ties with the community, expanding its support base, and developing it into a solid partnership between government, education, foundations, business, and private individuals. New Friends of the Festival are established seemingly every day from private individuals donating frequent flyer miles for faculty travel, to new corporate donors supplying monetary and in-kind support, to volunteers offering help with publicity. The Board is fostering a true sense of community ownership and pride in the festival in what George Stelluto calls Building Cultural Infrastructure ã . The festival's new Advisory Board promises to add perspective and expertise on building the festival's organizational future. The Las Vegas Music Festival stands on the solid foundation of its past accomplishments and looks into the twenty-first Century from the perspective of a long-term cultural servant to the city, the country, and to the art of music . Our thanks go out to everyone, on-stage and off, who have helped continue this cycle of musical learning, growth, and achievement for another year.
