{"id":18596,"date":"2014-05-02T13:19:50","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T17:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=18596"},"modified":"2014-05-03T06:32:16","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T10:32:16","slug":"stratford-summer-music-festival-drums-up-six-weeks-of-fun-and-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2014\/05\/02\/stratford-summer-music-festival-drums-up-six-weeks-of-fun-and-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Stratford Summer Music Festival drums up six weeks of fun and music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Stratford Summer Music Festival announced the program line-up for their fourteenth\u00a0season, starting July 14th through August 24th.<\/p>\n

The six-week festival will feature over 100 concerts and festivities, including music from Canada, Cuba, Germany, Haiti, Ireland, Russia, USA, and even Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

Highlights to the festival this year include a TorQ Percussion Quartet <\/a>residency on Tom Patterson Island, renamed – \u201cTom Percussion Island\u201d. Visitors will find a slew of percussion instruments to try, including a large drum made from the trunk of a hollowed-out tree, a labyrinth of gongs, and a dinosaur made out of musical instruments for the kids to explore.<\/p>\n

Artistic Producer John Miller, said, \u201cit’s all about showing young people that percussion is fun, and who better to help us do that than TorQ.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TorQ<\/a>
TorQ Percussion Quartet. Photo: Bo Huang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Yan<\/a>
Jan Lisiecki and Hilary Hann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"pianist,<\/a>
pianist, Daniel Clarke Bouchard and Ellen DeGeneres<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A big draw will also be Jan Lisiecki and Hilary Hann, who will be performing Brahms:\u00a0 Violin Sonata #1, and Chausson\u2019s Concerto for Violin and Piano with String Quartet, Op 21, (with guest artists, The Annex Quartet).<\/p>\n

Young pianist Daniel Clarke Bouchard, who recently made an appearance on Ellen this past\u00a0April, will also be stopping by for his first appearance at Stratford Summer Music. Of course the ever-popular Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra will be back with two programs of works by Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to recognise it\u2019s the diversity of tastes,\u201d Miller states. \u201cWe try to reflect the Canadian fact as well\u2026We\u2019ll have a choir from an orphanage in Haiti, we\u2019ll have some Zimbabweian marimbists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other fare includes Montr\u00e9al indie band Stars<\/i>, as well as the world-famous Glenn Miller Orchestra. There will also be a tribute to the late Stompin’ Tom Connors, featuring Whiskey Jack and festival favourite Se\u00e1n Cullen.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John A. Miller photo by V. Tony Hauser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At a time when other festivals seem to be struggling to survive, one can\u2019t help but notice the Stratford Summer Music Festival\u2019s ever-growing popularity.<\/p>\n

Besides old-fashioned hard work, John Miller chalks up some of the success to fate. It was back in 1993, after buying a summer home Stratford, that providence first came knocking.<\/p>\n

Miller describes, \u201c\u2026the moving truck was there. I was tired, exhausted, and hungry, and I went downtown and the first person I met was the mayor [David Hunt]\u2026\u201d who asked, \u201cSo when can we have music again in Stratford?\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller recalled the moment vividly, \u201cIt was the first question, of the first man I met, on my first day back, December 16, 1993 – and that planted the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second push to rekindle music in Stratford came in 1999, when Miller found himself sitting across from cellist Yo-Yo Ma, \u201cThe great figure of music at that time…\u201d Ma had been in Stratford to receive the Glenn Gould Prize, and had spent the evening watching David Young’s play Glenn<\/i>. When the night was over and everybody else went to bed, Miller and Ma started chatting about the potential for a music festival in Stratford. \u201cAnd at the end of the night, he said to me \u201cOkay John, you get it started, and I will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the final push Miller needed, and wasted no time setting up a home office to administer the new festival. And as if the fate had approved, \u201c\u2026I went to the post office and asked what boxes they had.\u201d One of those boxes \u201cwas number 1013 \u2013 my birthday is October 13th, and I thought, alright let\u2019s do it,\u201d Miller explained.<\/p>\n

By the year 2001, the Stratford Summer Music Festival has become nothing short of a dream come true for Miller, who confessed that though Yo-Yo Ma still hasn\u2019t taken him up on his offer to come yet, he is confident it will happen eventually.<\/p>\n

One of the features that sets it apart from the festivals bigger brother, (the Stratford Festival), is affordability. \u201cAbout a third of our programs are free, \u201dMiller stated. Looking at the ticket prices most are well within reach to the average music lover, mostly hovering around the $45 mark.<\/p>\n

Miller said he was able to keep the tickets low with the help of, \u201cKey institutions that really saw the merit of what we were doing…\u201d\u00a0 He names the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund as being central to keeping the festival in the black.<\/p>\n

In terms of programming, it takes years and years of planning. \u201cIf I want Yo-Yo Ma, I can\u2019t just phone up his agent in New York and ask what\u2019s Yo-yo doing this summer,\u201d Miller says. \u201cThe agent would say, \u2018if you\u2019re talking July 2017, then maybe we can talk.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides hunting for funding and the day-to-day operation end of things, Miller is most at home on the programming end of things. He says he takes great pride in hearing feedback from the festival\u2019s patrons. \u201cI really love it when we go shopping\u2026 and people will stop me and say: \u2018I never thought we would like such and such a group.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller has learned that in many cases festival patrons will come to the festival planning to enjoy one particular form of music, and leave with a totally unexpected appreciation for another. \u201cTime and again, I\u2019ve learned of people that started with their kind of music and they\u2019ve ultimately moved over and tried something else,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI can\u2019t think of any artists, when leaving us said anything other than, \u2018I want to come back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After chatting with Miller, I couldn\u2019t help but walk away thinking about what it takes to create a world-class music festival, one which feels charged with a mission to achieve something great. It takes a leader, someone who can paint an image that people are attracted to.<\/p>\n

Miller adds, \u201cI think I am a teacher in a way; that\u2019s a good metaphor, and an important part of what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

For the official Stratford Summer Festival Calendar, as well as tickets, and lodging info, visit here<\/a>, or call 1-866-288-4313.<\/p>\n

Michael Vincent<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Stratford Summer Music Festival announced the program line-up for their fourteenth\u00a0season, starting July 14th through August 24th. The six-week festival will feature over 100 concerts and festivities, including music from Canada, Cuba, Germany, Haiti, Ireland, Russia, USA, and even Zimbabwe. Highlights to the festival this year include a TorQ Percussion Quartet residency on Tom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[117,29,4557,59],"tags":[4618,1764,4616,3363,4617],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/Torq-Bo-Huang.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-4PW","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18596"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18602,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18596\/revisions\/18602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18596"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}