Mendelssohn is known as one of history's great musical prodigies. "Genius or rating composers is kind of hard to quantify," said Michael Barrett, co-director of the Moab Music Festival. "That he wrote some real masterpieces when he was a teenager -- that's good enough for me."

This year marks Mendelssohn's 200th birthday, an anniversary that will be celebrated at the 17th annual festival on Sept. 11, with a performance of the composer's sparkling Octet for Strings in E-flat Major.

"I know a lot of songwriters who are one-hit wonders," said Barrett, a pianist who lives in New York City. "For anyone to remember their work five years later is a huge accomplishment. Two hundred years later, Mendelssohn's music probably reaches more people each year than during his entire lifetime."

Violist and composer Kenji Bunch is excited to perform the Mendelssohn work during his first visit to Utah's redrock country. "I think [Mendelssohn's music] is as fun to play as to listen to," said Bunch in a telephone interview from his New York home. "As a composer, I value Mendelssohn's accessibility. I like to write things that people can connect with." Bunch will also perform two of his own solo viola compositions during the festival.

Ayano Ninomiya is also eager to perform the Octet, which she grew up as a musician playing at least once a year with friends. Born in Japan but raised in the United States, the prize-winning New York violinist is now a member of Australia's Tinalley String Quartet. "It's always a new experience," she said of playing at the Moab festival, because of the different energies and styles of the professional musicians who come together there. She's still somewhat breathless recalling playing in last year's grotto concert along the Colorado River, which she termed "absolutely stunning, like a dream come true."

Among the festival's many concert locations, the Colorado River grotto site may be the most memorable, not only for musicians, but for concertgoers. "There are those red rocks: how they absorb the warmth of the sun and reflect the sound of an instrument; how they provide resonance to eye and ear simultaneously," said Jamie Bernstein, daughter of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein and regular festival concertgoer.

And it's not just the sound or the music. Part of the concert experience is the trip to the venue, traveling by jet-boat to the grotto. "Getting there is a windy, gorgeous ride, snaking between the canyon walls that rear up on either side, their formations morphing endlessly with every bend of the river -- and that deep blue Utah desert sky overhead. Thrilling!" she wrote in an e-mail interview.

Barrett and his wife, violist Leslie Tomkins, founded the festival in 1992 and direct programming together. It's their intention that the concerts feel informal. "There are no barriers between musicians and audience, no backstage green room," Tomkins said. "Sometimes performers change into concert clothes behind a tree."

Barrett makes sure there is enough musical variety to match the changing landscapes. Besides the festival's classical music core, each season features other genres. This year during the first week, Cuban pianists Jorge Luis Prats and Chuchito Valdés highlight their island's jazz and classical Latin music traditions. The next week, fiddle player Paul Woodiel will host a concert of Scandinavian music performed on traditional instruments, with a concert title that displays his wit: "Norse by Norse (West)."

Moab's picturesque backdrop sometimes provides a touch of the unexpected. Tomkins recalled a canyon wren that liked to sing along with a Bach cantata. This year, she expects nothing less when Schubert's "hilariously appropriate" "Trout" Quintet -- that's the popular name for Schubert's Piano Quintet in A major -- is performed along the banks of the Colorado River. Maybe the string players will use fishing poles instead of bows.

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