Jazz, classical music and big-band standards are coming to Cooperstown this summer, courtesy of the rebranded Cooperstown Music Festival.
The festival, in its 13th year, was previously known as the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, but its new name reflects the diversity of programming offered in July and August, according to a media release.
"Our new name better reflects the range of music we offer, and the easy informality of the festival," explained the festival's artistic director and founder, Linda Chesis, in the release. Since 1999, the festival has offered nearly 100 concerts, including classical, jazz, bluegrass, cabaret and kids' concerts in and around Cooperstown.
"Festival concerts are vibrant, exciting and compelling _ the antithesis of what some people think when they hear 'chamber music,'" board member Patsy Manley Smith said in the release. "So, becoming the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival is a much better fit for us. We'd like to add new festival concertgoers to the core of people who come to enjoy the festival year after year. It's going to be a great summer."
According to the release, the festival board also lowered ticket prices for 2011 to encourage people to attend.
This year's festival will kick off with a performance by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem All Stars on July 3. The group will perform classic jazz under the direction of Loren Schoenberg.
Chesis said that people are encouraged to come early to visit The Farmers' Museum and the Fenimore Art Museum, which is located just across the street. Festival concertgoers can receive half-price admission at either museum July 3.
"It's a great way to spend a summer day, museums in the morning and a concert in the afternoon," Chesis said in the release.
The festival will also feature jazz performer Kurt Elling and the American and Juilliard string quartets, music from Copland House, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and a "Boston Comes to Cooperstown" concert featuring Alexander Velizon and Keisuke Wakao of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Marcus Thompson of the Boston Chamber Music Society. The festival will continue its tradition of offering free concerts for the community, with the Flute Fest on Aug. 4.
Chesis, a flutist, is chair of the Woodwind Department and a member of the flute faculty at the Manhattan School of Music.
Concerts are held in Cooperstown at The Farmers' Museum on July 3, Aug. 10 and Aug. 28, and at the Otesaga Resort Hotel on July 14 and 20, and Aug. 4, 15 and 21. Both venues seat fewer than than 300 people.
"Attending a festival concert is a truly wonderful, intimate experience. The artists are world-class, yet festival venues hold a few hundred people. There is a friendly give-and-take between the artists and the audiences that you just can't experience in a grand concert hall," Smith said in the release.
Schedules and ticket information are available online at CooperstownMusicFest.org, or by calling (877) 666-7421.
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