VIDEO: Linda Chesis Chats 2013 Cooperstown Music Festival

Linda Chesis and the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival from Kyle Yecke on Vimeo.

Birds of Paradise, Greek mythology, and a piece Mozart called "the best work I have ever written," all are featured in Opening Night of the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival on July 7 at 7:30 pm at the Otesaga Hotel, 60 Lake Street in Cooperstown, NY. Click below to watch an interview with artistic director and founder Linda Chesis!

The Festival will premiere a new multi-media work that integrates a live performance of Robert Sirota's 2008 composition Birds of Paradise for flute clarinet and piano with video footage and wildlife sound recordings from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds-of-Paradise Project. At the pre-concert talk at 7 pm, Cornell Lab scientist Ed Scholes, composer Robert Sirota and Festival artistic director Linda Chesis will discuss their collaboration. Scholes, an evolutionary biologist, spent 8 years and 18 expeditions scientifically documenting all 39 species of the birds-of-paradise family with National Geographic photographer Tim Laman.

Chesis will be performing Opening Night with James Roe, oboe; Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet; Adrian Morejon, bassoon; Zohar Schondorf, French Horn; and Pedja Muzijevic, piano. The Birds-of-Paradise Project video that will be shown at the Festival was edited by Jim Berman, Creative Director of Zapcast Creative.

Two composers' musical portraits of Pan and Syrinx will be performed: "Pan" from Britten's Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op. 49 and Syrinx by Debussy. Mozart's celebrated Quintet for Piano and Winds, the Poulenc Sextet and Francaix Quartet round out the evening's program.

Tickets are available online, CooperstownMusicFest.org and by phone through Brown Paper Tickets, 800.838.3006. Tickets also will be sold at the door, as available. Tickets are $25 for adults; $15 for students 6-18.

The Festivals popular and free Pro Am Performances, which pair highly accomplished amateur musicians with professional artists, will be held July 9 at 7:30 pm at Pathfinder Village in Edmeston, July 10 at 7:30 pm at Grace Church in Cherry Valley, and July 11 at 7:30 pm at Christ Church in Cooperstown. A fourth free performance, theFlute Fest with the NYSMF International Flute Institute, will be held August 1 at the Otesaga.

The Festival's 15th season continues at the Otesaga Hotel with REBEL Baroque Ensemble August 4 at 3 pm, andJazz with vocalist Hilary Kole August 11 at 7:30 pm. The Festival also presents three Wednesday evening (7:30 pm) concerts at The Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown: Vienna 1: The Imperial City August 7, Vienna 2: A Tradition of Innovation August 14, and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra August 21. For more information, go to www.CooperstownMusicFest.org or call 877.666.7421.

Pictured: Linda Chesis. Photo Credit: Matt Dine

To post a comment, you must register and login.