SEBAGO-LONG
LAKE
MUSIC
FESTIVAL
The
Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival is an organization devoted to presenting and
promoting high-quality chamber music performances in the lake region of Western Maine. Founded
in 1972 by bassoonist Homer Pence and other professional musicians who summered
in the region, and administered by a board of local volunteers, the festival has
grown into a well-known and popular institution. Continuity has been maintained
since the early years through the ongoing involvement of a core group of
musicians. Laurie
Kennedy,
Principal Violist of the Portland Symphony, is the present Music Director.
The
musicians are all string, wind or keyboard artists of the highest caliber,
experienced and respected professionals who come year after year because they
enjoy playing chamber music together, and who communicate this enjoyment to a
devoted audience which has heard them perform many times. Participating artists
come from all over the country, and have, in recent years, included principal
players from the Minnesota Orchestra, the Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit
and Indianapolis
and
Portland Symphonies, the Orpheus and St. Luke's Chamber Orchestras, and members
of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, in addition to many well-known chamber
artists.
The
Festival presents a wide variety of chamber music. Every concert includes music
for different, sometimes unusual instrumental combinations and from different
periods ranging form the 17th century to the present. Familiar works
are
balanced with lesser known ones, and the programs are balanced within the season
and from season to season to provide ongoing enjoyment and enrichment for the
audience.
Historic
Deertrees Theatre, located at the top of
Long
Lake
in Harrison, Maine, is the picturesque setting for the
Festival's five-concert series on the last three Tuesday evenings in July and the
first two in August. Originally built for summer theater and opera productions
in the early thirties, the restored Deertrees offers superb acoustics and
proximity to the stage that combine to bring the audience into close rapport
with the musicians. In addition to the regular series concerts, which have been
broadcast during the winter over the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, the
Festival offers popular Music for Kids concerts at several locations in the
region, and outreach performances in outlying towns.