A Wonderfully Different
23rd Season!
The 23rd Season of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival was an amazing, different, very happy success! Hosted online from Orcas Island by Aloysia Friedmann (with tech wizard Jackie Parker behind the scenes and the camera), we enjoyed 12 nights of brilliantly-mic’d, multi-camera virtuosity as the Miró Quartet brought the entire Beethoven String Quartet Cycle to our homes!
A stunning pre-concert slideshow, created by Festival photographer Barry Carlton with luscious Beethoven piano pieces performed by Jon Kimura Parker set the stage. We were then greeted by Aloysia, who launched our evening from her island home. Soon we were off to Austin, Texas, with informative and entertaining introductions by members of the Miró, followed by the most amazing live performance of the quartets. We enjoyed “Intermezzo Speakers” – a panoply of folks connected to the Festival, from Artists to Board and Staff Members to friends and associates of every imaginable ilk. Each evening ended with an interactive session between Aloysia and Daniel, Will, John, and Josh with their usual humor and panache, fielding questions as they came in real time.
Then came Closing Night, the Encore Evening – 11 OICMF Artists in various combinations, coming to us live and recorded from nine different locations!
Behind the scenes, the nationwide technical team worked magic to bring all these events together. They were in Vermont, California, and Chicago while the performers were in Washington and Texas (and, for closing night, far beyond!) Viewers tuned in from up and down the west coast and much of Texas, as well as Tennessee, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Toronto, and Japan (and these were just the people who joined in the “virtual lobby” chat).
While we all missed the camaraderie of in-person concerts (not to mention the applause, the receptions, and the parties…), everyone had the best seats in the house, able to see flying fingers and concentrating faces up close. All that, while kicked back on the couch, beverage and snacks of choice in hand, dressed in…well…whatever! Ahhh….
We are so grateful to everyone who made this possible, from the performers (and their tolerant and helpful families) and visual artists and designers to the technical wizards at OurConcerts.live and Deer Point Studios, from our amazing sponsors to all who watched this truly unique, different, very special Classical Music with a View.
