Sweet Days of Endless Mountain Music by the Mountain Home Staff
There’s no such a thing as too much good music. Okay, well, that sentiment will be put to the test this month as a buffet of blues, bluegrass, jazz, and classical is served at venues all through the mountains. And, please, go ahead and stuff yourself.
It’s August and the hills are green, the nights cool, the
music sweet.
And they’re back: The Endless Mountain Music Festival,
and The Hickory Project. Beethoven and the blues in churches,
a courthouse and concert halls, and bluegrass down by Stony Fork
Creek.
Summer music has echoed across the hills from Williamsport to
the Finger Lakes for generations, but the August concert schedule
in Wellsboro and Mansfield is something extraordinary. A roster
of renowned musicians who usually perform in world capitals will
make their way to the small towns in the cool hills, recalling
the turn-of-the-century when the great American composer John
Philip Sousa performed in Wellsboro with the Marine Corp Band.
The Endless Mountain Music Festival is back, which means, for
those fortunate to witness the remarkable inaugural festival last
year, he’s back – Stephen Gunzenhauser, the internationally
known conductor of the Lancaster Symphony, is in Wellsboro this
month leading his global troupe of musicians from July 28 to August
12, including Chicago bluesman Corky Siegel, one of the world’s
great harmonica masters, and renowned classical pianist Vladimir
Stoupel, in a festival of fifteen concerts billed as “Beethoven
Meets the Blues.”
Gunzenhauser, former maestro of the Delaware Symphony and the
fifth most-recorded American conductor, a Brooklyn-born globe-trotting
musician who speaks seven languages, was in Geneva two summers
ago after a performance in Skaneateles, looking for a vacation
as he recovered from minor surgery. His wife, Shelly, a nurse,
picked up a tourist brochure at the top of Seneca Lake for Tioga
County, Pennsylvania, and the rest is history. They booked a cottage
on Pine Creek for an extended stay, and fell in love with Wellsboro,
which Stephen says “is what a small American town should
be.” As they strolled by the Winkin, Blinkin and Nod statue
in the town Green, Shelly said, “This would be the perfect
place for a summer music festival.” Voila.
Last summer, backed by community institutions from Mansfield
University to Citizens & Northern Bank, Gunzenhauser brought
the first international music festival in Pennsylvania history
to Wellsboro. A festival orchestra with regionally and internationally
known musicians, and solo artists such as the renowned Hungarian
cellist, Laszlo Fenyo, and the world’s best bandoneon player,
Marcelo Nisinman, appeared in small, intimate Wellsboro venues
like the First Presbyterian Church and Tioga County Courthouse.
The musicians, accustomed to formal opening night receptions
in places like Toronto, San Francisco and Vienna, were stunned
as the people of Tioga County threw parties for them after every
concert – in arts centers and even a funeral home. Townsfolk
befriended the musicians, visitors from New York said they’d
never seen anything like it, some visitors from Lancaster bought
houses in Wellsboro (including the Gunzenhausers), and now the
maestro is back, and the festival, he says, is even bigger and
better.
“We have or orchestra of sixty up from twenty last year,
and fifteen concerts up from seven,” he said. “We’ll
have three full Beethoven symphonies. It’s like we’ve
grown from Single A baseball to Triple A or major league.”
The concerts, by internationally and regionally acclaimed musicians,
will include solo recitals, chamber music, a blues jam session,
and a 60-member festival orchestra under the direction of Gunzenhauser.
The “Beethoven Meets the Blues” theme blends classical
selections from Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Schubert with contemporary
works from twentieth century composers such as George Gershwin,
Leonard Bernstein and Darius Milhaud. Noted performers, in addition
to blues harmonica player Corky Siegel and pianist Vladimir Stoupel,
include special guest Judith Ingolfsson (violin), The Newstead
Trio with Sara Male (cello), Michael Jamanis (violin) and Xun
Pan (piano), Odin Rathnam (violin), David Wetzel (clarinet), Albert
Houde (French horn), Susan Duer (fortepiano), Gita Ladd (cello),
and Nicholas Zamoroko (piano).
Corky Siegel Jammin’ with Blind Chitlin Kahunas at The Gaslight
After world-renowned blues harmonica player Corky Siegel performs
in the Endless Mountain Music Festival at the Tioga County Courthouse
at 8 p.m. Friday, August 3, he’ll head to The Gaslight on
Main Street to sit in with the popular Williamsport blues band
Blind Chitlin Kahunas. The local band was a winner of the 2006
Billtown Blues Festival.Siegel will sit in for one set during
the 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. performance for some down-home jamming.
Other festival orchestra members, including Trevor Jones, a
renowned bass player, will be jamming with local musicians including
Dave Driscoll of Sadie Green Sales jugband and Wellsboro pianist
Pat Davis at the Penn Wells Hotel, on Monday, August 6, where
you can buy a drink or enjoy a meal and listen to the jam. Call
the hotel, (570) 724 2111, for the details, which were unavailable
at press time.
Hickory Fest On the Stony Fork
The Hickory Project brings its three days of beloved bluegrass
music, August 17-19, at Stony Fork Creek Campground in Wellsboro.
Performers include Peter Rowan and the renowned headliners Tony
Rice, Claire Lynch, and Hickory Project.
A “project” implies work.
But for thousands of locals and visitors every August, the Hickory
Project, that innovative bluegrass group with strong ties to Tioga
County, is the sweetest kind of play. The music is fine, and the
setting, the gurgling Stony Fork Creek, can’t be beat either.
We spoke to Steve Belcher, the Hickory Project’s bass
player, and he said Rowan and Rice should be a big draw. Rowan
was a member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys and Jerry Garcia’s
side project, Old and in the Way. He also wrote a well-known ode
to hemp, “Panama Red,” for the New Riders of the Purple
Sage. Belcher described Rice as simply “the best flat-picking
guitarist in the world.”
Singer-songwriter Lynch should be a crowd-pleaser, too. She’s
written songs for Patty Loveless and Kathy Mattea, and recorded
with Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt.
In addition to performing at Hickory Fest, the Hickory Project
promotes the festival, which they started five years ago and which
has gained national recognition.
So come on out to the campground, which is about nine miles south
of downtown Wellsboro Pennsylvania. Ticket prices and show times
were unavailable at press time, but you can call (570) 724-5175
or (607) 426-4434 or go to www.hickoryproject.com/Hickory_Fest/INFO/info.html
for information and directions.
A “Beatles” Reunion in Coudersport By John Snyder & Eppie Bailey
On August 25, the second annual Robert Merten “Circle of
Fifths” Music Award Benefit Concert will be held at the
Coudersport Golf Club. It will be a dinner-dance featuring music
by Jakob’s Hollow (your chance to hear me, Eppie, perform),
Brother Dietze and the Dixie Boys, and a reunion of the famous
local ‘60s rock band, Ollie and the Go Gos, referred to
as Potter County’s own version of the Beatles.
Friends of the Reverend Merten and the Potter County Fine Arts
Council established the “Circle of Fifths” as a tribute
to the clergyman and amazing musician who died January 2006. The
first award of a $2,000 scholarship was presented in June to Brian
Scott, a Northern Potter High School graduate who will study music
education at Lycoming College this fall.
Ollie is Larry Herbstritt, and he has written numerous film
and TV scores and Top Ten hits for Anne Murray, Karen Carpenter,
Melissa Manchester, and Ronnie Milsap. Ollie and the Go Gos swept
through the Twin Tiers in the late 1960s, winning the then-popular
“battle of the bands” contests and recording a single,
“My Cherie,’ which dented the Top 100 chart. This
is their fourth reunion concert after band members went their
separate directions for more than three decades. For more information,
(814) 274-0794 or jsnyder@eggdecorator.com. The dinner and dance
is $25, and tickets must be purchased in advance.
20th Annual Riverfest
What: Held along the banks of
the Susquehanna River. Live entertainment, carnival rides, boat
rides, food and craft vendors.
Where: River Road, Towanda, Pennsylvania
When: August 23 and 24 beginning at 6 p.m. and August 25 from
10 a.m. to closing with fireworks at 9:30 p.m.
Information: Mary Ann Harris (570) 268-9202 or maryanntowandab@epix.net.
- Mollie Eliot
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