Welcome Letter

SELF+SOUND

Welcome to Summerfest 2021!

I am beyond proud to welcome you back to The Conrad for my third SummerFest as Music Director. One of the great joys of a music festival is the feeling of coming together, both artistically and personally. That feeling will be especially poignant and intense this summer, more so than any other time in my life.

Throughout the festival we will explore the theme of Self + Sound, discovering how music can turn solitary self-examination into a communal experience and how our individual stories can become an inspiration for great art.

We’ll be looking at how composers wrote themselves, their life, and their identities into their music; we’ll hear Rachmaninoff and Sibelius flying the musical flag of their respective nations; Shostakovich and Smetana writing their autobiography in the form of a string quartet; and Janáˇcek, Franck, and Brahms confessing unrequited love in musical notes.

I’m thrilled to bring back the Synergy Series, co-produced with Clara Wu Tsai, for a series titled American Perspectives. As part of that exploration, we will focus on the American identity, considering the various elements that make a piece sound distinctly American. From gospel and jazz to iconic landscapes, we will celebrate the ways in which this distinct sound coalesces a mosaic of influences and backgrounds.

I’m also pleased to present our first chamber opera, Marc Neikrug’s A Song by Mahler, which we commissioned and are premiering together with three other major arts organizations. To curate our Takeover @ The JAI series, we’ve enlisted Gabriela Lena Frank, Composer-in-Residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra and one of the most sought-after composers of our day.

As always, at the heart of the festival is an amazing group of musicians, and I’m delighted to bring back some favorites, as well as introduce many new faces.

I look forward to us all coming together for a healing and inspiring summer of music.

Inon Barnatan SummerFest Music Director