Title: Above the Staff

19th Festival stars Joshua Bell and Mozart

Jeremy Denk, piano
Joshua Bell, violin

The 19th Bellingham Festival of music will once again celebrate classical music with an incredible array of international artists including Joshua Bell, who has been called “the greatest American violinist active today”.
Having completed his Beethoven cycle in 2011, Maestro Michael Palmer is focusing the 2012 sea-son on Mozart, opening with the overture to La Clemenza di Tito and closing with the “Great” Mass in C Minor. There will be performances of Mozart’s three last symphonies, No. 39,40 and 41 and Piano Concerto No. 21 with soloist Jeremy Denk who dazzled Festival audiences last season with his electrifying performance of the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1. Between the opening and closing all-Mozart concerts is a pot pourri of contrasting color and style with works by Barber, Dvorak, Debussy, Elgar, Haydn, Ravel, Respighi, Rodrigo and Sibelius.

Joshua Bell will make his Festival debut on July 9 playing the Barber Vio-lin Concerto and the Ravel Tzigane. The other notable debuts are world renowned cellist, Lynn Harrell, who will be making his Festival debut with Elgar’s Cello Concerto and guitarist Sainz Villegas who will perform a Rodrigo rarity, Fantasia para un Gentilhombre. Joining him on July 18 will be Festival favorite, Rita Contanzi, playing Rodrigo’s Concierto Serenta for Harp and Orchestra.

Vol. 2012 No.1

Did you know:

  • The 19th Festival is the first one to have no performances of symphonic pieces by the Bellingham Big B’s: Bach, Beethoven or Brahms

  • Bellingham is the city in the US with the second highest per capita number of arts organizations

  • The Festival will return to the Mount Baker Theater on July 9 for Joshua Bell’s performance to accommodate the ex-pected overflow crowd.

  • Festival Orchestra members come from as far away as Florida and as close as Ferndale.
Maestro Michael Palmer
Maestro Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer, Majestic Maestro

Michael Palmer is best known as the artistic director of the Bellingham Festival of Music from its inception in 1983 but since his professional conducting debut at age 21 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra he has conducted major orches-tras throughout the US, Europe and Asia. As musical director of the American Sinfonietta he lead 10 years of successful concert tours to major European concert halls. He has had more than 40 broadcasts of his performances with the Bellingham Festival on NPR. He is now the Charles Thomas Wurm Distinguished Professor of Orchestral Studies at Georgia State University.

Don’t miss our Young Artist Concert Lindsey Nakatani on Jan 7
At Christ the Servant Luthern Church on Lakeway.