Sights & Sounds of the Festival

A Vibrant 2025 Festival Season in Bellingham

The 2025 season was filled with energy, inspiration, and community spirit! We were thrilled to welcome world-renowned artists—Simon Trpčeski, Sterling Elliott, Simone Porter, and the Calidore String Quartet—to the Bellingham Festival of Music for a series of exhilarating performances.

We celebrated the season finale in collaboration with the Festival Chorus, and proudly marked our second year with the Conducting Institute Fellows. Festival musicians engaged with our community through four outreach concerts, and Simone Porter led an inspiring masterclass for local Bellingham youth. We also featured the Conducting Institute Fellows in a special “Chamber Music at the Leo” performance at the Hotel Leo.

A heartfelt thank you to our generous home hosts, who opened their doors to 72 musicians this summer, to our dedicated Festival Chorus, and to you—the Bellingham community—for your incredible support in making the 2025 festival season a resounding success!

Together with new artistic director, Marcelo Lehninger, and pianist Stewart Goodyear, the Bellingham Festival Orchestra performs George Gershwin’s Concerto in F for piano and orchestra.

This performance is live from the July 6, 2024 concert.

GEORGE GERSHWIN
Concerto in F for piano and orchestra
I. Allegro 0:06
II. Adagio- Andante con moto 13:32
III. Allegro agitato 25:31

Marcelo Lehninger, conductor
Stewart Goodyear, piano
Bellingham Festival of Music Orchestra

Marcelo Lehninger and the Bellingham Festival Orchestra perform Dvorak’s 9th symphony during Lehninger’s inaugural year as artistic director.

This performance is live from the July 6, 2024 concert.

Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”
I. Adagio- Allegro molto 0:05
II. Largo 13:16
III. Scherzo. Molto vivace 25:21
IV. Allegro con fuoco 33:07

Marcelo Lehninger, conductor
Bellingham Festival of Music Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s The Hebrides Overture, “Fingal’s Cave” Op. 26 , played by the Bellingham Festival Orchestra under the baton of 2025 Conducting Institute fellow, Ryan Dakota Farris.

Photography by Jim Richardson

Performed live at the Performing Arts Center at Western Washington University on July 11, 2025.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY
The Hebrides Overture “Fingal’s Cave” Op. 26

Ryan Dakota Farris, conductor

Photography, Jim Richardson

Bellingham Festival of Music Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor, op. 56, the “Scottish”, played by the Bellingham Festival Orchestra under the baton of its artist director, Marcelo Lehninger.

Performed live at the Performing Arts Center at Western Washington University on July 11, 2025.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Symphony No. 3 in A minor op. 56 “Scottish”.
I. Andante con moto – Allegro un poco agitato 00:00
II. Vivace non troppo 00:15:25
III. adagio 00:19:55
IV. Allegro vivacissimo – Allegro maestoso assai 00:30:04

Marcelo Lehninger, conductor
Bellingham Festival of Music Orchestra