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Chamber music is an intimate game of cozy musical conversations among a few players. The Park City Music Festival presents those musical interchanges in small spaces and casual places: in elegant Park City-area homes; within the friendly confines of Park City Community Church; and in free concerts from the bandstand of the town's City Park.
The musicians are expert soloists and chamber musicians drawn from a network of friends and friends-of-friends from across the United States and beyond. They speak to their audiences between selections and mingle with longtime followers during intermissions.
The strands of those connections all lead to violist Leslie Harlow and clarinetist Russell Harlow, the couple who founded the casual chamber-music series 28 years ago.
Leslie Harlow said she designed the festival for people with musical tastes like her own. "I would love to go to an intimate concert where I could have something cool to drink, where there are people to talk to and where I don't have to dress up — but I can if I want," she said. "Something relaxing and beautiful and inspiring."
Performances are meant to stand up to expectations of serious music fans while appealing to neophytes, too. "You don't have to be a chamber-music fan," Leslie Harlow said. "We talk about the music, and Russ tells about the composers. It's always fun and comfortable."
The series opens July 16 and runs through Aug. 20. Some of the featured artists are Utahns, such as Brigham Young University professors Monte Belknap and Alexander Woods, both violinists; and soprano Serena Konig Benish and tenor Tyler Nelson, of the Utah Valley University music faculty.
Other artists travel to the Park City Music Festival from around the nation, dropping in for a week or two of performing. One of those is Dutch pianist Rober Moeling, a music professor at Houston's Rice University. "At this festival, it feels like the audience has become a family, so it's like playing for friends," Moeling said. "The festival is very laid-back, and there are no stringent schedules. We get together at Leslie and Russell's house to rehearse — there's a wonderful piano. We cook together, exchange anecdotes and catch up on what's happening in our lives."
Moeling said his colleagues at the festival are top-notch. "[The Harlows] have really found people who are at the top of chamber players in the United States."
Each concert serves as something of a chamber-music variety show, including ensembles of varying size — perhaps a solo, a duet, a quartet or some other configuration. The Harlows' presence ensures that Russell's clarinet will be heard at least once on most concerts, as will Leslie's viola. Vocal music is included on some concerts, as well as piano music.
Because the ensembles don't practice together except when they come to Park City, concerts present a spontaneous mood. "We take some musical chances and pour a lot of energy into the music," Leslie Harlow said. "It's a little more improvisatory, and that makes for very exciting concerts."
Mountain music
The Park City Music Festival, now in its 28th year, opens July 16 and runs through Aug. 20. Featured artists include violinists Monte Belknap and Margaret Baldridge, clarinetist Russell Harlow, violist Leslie Harlow, cellist Jeffrey Solow and pianist Robert Moeling.
This year's theme • Several Beethoven quartets will be featured, and the cycle will continue on the Harlows' other Park City Music Festival series in fall, winter and spring.
Park City or bust • In a light-hearted effort to heighten Beethoven's profile, the Harlows have been taking a bust of Beethoven with them to public locations in Park City and photographing it — à la the Travelocity gnome — for display at concerts. They offer half-price tickets to anyone who shows up with Beethoven busts, T-shirts, scores, CDs or wigs. Leslie Harlow promises that if you show up dressed as Beethoven, she'll take your photo, too.
When • The opener is a free concert Monday, July 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the City Park Bandstand near Park Avenue in Park City.
Ongoing • Regular events include free Monday concerts at City Park, Thursday concerts at Park City Community Church, Saturday salon concerts in Park City-area homes and Sunday concerts at Park City's Temple Har Shalom.
Tickets • For Thursday and Saturday concerts, $20; $15 students/seniors, available at the door; 10-punch card $150; $100 students/seniors
Info • Performance schedule, pricing and artist information at http://www.pcmusicfestival.com.