About The Birch Festival:
The Birch Festival is a new non-profit music festival based throughout Berkshire County. We aim to hold a week-long festival each autumn and spring, integrating the musicians we bring to perform into schools and the community.
A 501(c)(3) organization, The Birch Festival seeks to build new audiences through accessibility and availability, while offering innovative, distinctive, and collaborative programming.
Proposed Date: Monday, May 20, 2024
Birch Festival Guest Artists:
This iteration of The Birch Festival includes world-leading musicians for a performance of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) on Sunday, May 19th. Many of these musicians are leading players in the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in their respective fields.
Yevgeny Kutik - Soloist, Teacher, and Artistic Director of The Birch Festival Edwin Barker - Principal Double Bass, Boston Symphony Orchestra TobyOft - Principal Trombone, Boston Symphony OrchestraRobert Patterson - Assistant Professor of Clarinet, Boston University Rick Ranti - Assistant Principal Bassoon, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Retired) Tom Siders - Assistant Principal Trumpet, Boston Symphony
Mike Williams - Percussion, Artistic Director, Cappella Clausura
Proposed Outreach- General 50 minute Program:
20 minutes: The Birch Festival guest musicians will play 15-20 minutes of musical highlights from L’Histoire du Soldat. The BirchFestival will provide information about the highlighted pieces and a follow-along handout for students.
15 minutes: The musicians will share their backgrounds and musical experience with students, and their connection with and interpretation of the piece.
15 minutes: Conversation (question/answer session) between the students and the musicians.
*We have found that this portion of the workshop provides an important time for students to create personal connections with the musicians.
Concert Vouchers:
As part of the mission of The Birch Festival, we offer free tickets to our concert on May 19th to Berkshire County students and their guardians (one adult). Students (and teachers!) are also welcome at this performance. Event location TBD.
Thank You
Thank you for your support of The Birch Festival. We believe in music, community, and working together, and are excited to see how we can collaborate.