Violist Leslie Harlow was just finishing up her studies at Juilliard when she was hired to sub for the Utah Symphony. After arriving here, she quickly fell in love with the Beehive State and decided to remain.
She also decided to start a summer chamber music festival in Park City. That was in 1983, and the following year her dream became a reality. Thirty years later the Beethoven Festival Park City is going stronger than ever. It’s the oldest summer festival in Utah and one of the oldest in the Intermountain West region.
The festival kicks off its 21-concert anniversary season on July 7 and runs through Aug. 11. In those five weeks there will be concerts in the Park City Community Church and at Temple Har Shalom. There will also be outdoor concerts in Park City’s City Park, presented in collaboration with Mountain Town Music.
Beethoven Festival co-directors Leslie and Russell Harlow.
While Harlow was eager to start a festival she had no idea how to go about it. As a student at Juilliard and living in New York City she knew a number of musicians, either by reputation or because she had performed with them, and that gave her a core group of players to invite to Park City for the festival’s inaugural season.
“I knew [cellist] Jeff Solow, because I played with him at the Skaneateles Festival,” Harlow said in a phone interview with Reichel Recommends. And it was through Solow she became acquainted with violinist Paul Rosenthal’s playing. “Jeff invited me over to dinner, and afterwards he played a recording of Paul playing a demanding piece he had written for violin. Jeff also told me about Paul’s Sitka Summer Festival in Alaska.”
Sitka was one of the major influences for Harlow’s festival, and it was Rosenthal who holds the distinction of being Harlow’s first invitee. “I called Paul to invite him to play at my new festival,” she said, expecting that it might be a difficult sell. But Rosenthal surprised her. “When I asked him to come and play he immediately said yes. Then he asked me, ‘When do you want me to come and what do you want me to play.’ After he said that, I thought, ‘Hey, this might not be hard after all.’”
Jeffrey Solow
In addition to Rosenthal, the first year roster included, among others, Solow, pianist Doris Stevenson and violist Paul Neubauer. Also appearing were two Utah Symphony members, concertmaster William Preucil and violinist Andrés Cárdenes, who succeeded Preucil as concertmaster.
Three of the charter members will be returning this summer: Rosenthal, Solow and Stevenson. They’ll be appearing during the festival’s fourth week, from July 28-Aug. 3.
Also coming to Park City this summer are cellist Armen Ksajikian, a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; violinist Manuel Ramos, a former member of the St. Louis Symphony and now artist-in-residence for the State of Mexico at Belles Artes; pianist John Jensen; clarinetist Lee Livengood from the Utah Symphony; Brigham Young University violinists Alexander Woods and Monte Belknap; Utah Valley University cellist Cheung Chau; and violinist Blanka Bednarz. All of these players have performed at the festival in the past. Some, like Jensen and Ramos, have been long time members of the festival roster.
Several musicians will be making their festival debut this summer: Salt Lake City pianist and accompanist Melissa Livengood; University of Utah mezzo-soprano Kirsten Gunlogson; flutist Lisa Byrnes, and oboist Robert Stephenson from the Utah Symphony; and the Dalí String Quartet.
“We’re really thrilled that they could all be here this year,” Harlow said.
They’ll be playing a wide ranging repertoire that will include music by Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, de Falla, Stravinsky, as well as by Utah composer Ramiro Cortes and a David Carlson work commissioned by the festival a few years ago. (To view the complete festival schedule, click here.)
In addition to the concerts, there will also be number of the popular salon concerts that take place in private residences in Park City and Salt Lake City.
Today, Harlow co-directs the festival with her husband Russell Harlow, a clarinetist and former associate principal clarinet of the Utah Symphony. Russell Harlow already had considerable experience running a series before becoming the festival’s co-director, since it was he who founded the NOVA Chamber Music Series in 1977. He directed NOVA for about a decade before handing over the reins to fellow Utah Symphony member, violinist Barbara Scowcroft. Both Leslie and Russell Harlow will also once again be featured performers this year.
Thirty years is a long time, but Leslie Harlow takes it all in stride. “It’s just how we live,” she said. “Looking back, I’ve spent half my life doing it, and Russ has been at it longer, when you count his years running NOVA.
“We just love it and wouldn’t have it any other way.