Playing like blazes

SUMMER used to be a time to kick back and relax. It may still be for classical music lovers who head to outdoor venues where they can spread blankets on lawns, uncork a bottle of wine and listen to the soothing strains of a symphonic selection or a soulful soloist.

In this new millennium, however, the backstage preparations at many such star-kissed locales have become as frenetic as during the “regular” classical season. Maybe even more frenetic.

About 20 U.S. orchestras pay year-round salaries, so their managements have a vested interest in keeping their players as busy as possible during the summer months. And though these musicians don’t have to look for additional work, if they want to, they’ll find plenty of opportunities. Summer has long been the season for music festivals, and such events in this country, not to mention elsewhere on the globe, are proliferating as never before.

The classical music summer, in short, is hot.

Exact figures are hard to come by, but in the last five years alone, summer festivals and workshops in America have doubled, from about 100 in 2001 to more than 200 this year, according to Chamber Music America, a national service organization.

Among the newest is the Festival del Sole in the Napa Valley. Its inaugural concert next Sunday is scheduled to include Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, violinist Joshua Bell and the Russian National Orchestra led by Alan Gilbert. The week that follows will bring a slew of offerings devoted to art, fine dining, wine and “wellness” as well as music. Hard on its heels will come Napa’s 12th annual Music in the Vineyards, Aug. 9 to 27, which presents chamber music performances at places bearing such names as Frog’s Leap and Rutherford Hill.

“Absolutely, the number of summer music festivals in America has grown exponentially,” says Christopher Beach, artistic director of the La Jolla Music Society, whose SummerFest will celebrate its 20th anniversary season Aug. 3 to 20. “It’s the number of smaller festivals that has grown. A lot of them seem to be focused in the West -- Portland, Seattle, Menlo, La Jolla, Santa Fe, San Luis Obispo. Maybe it’s the extraordinary weather. But California has laid claim to summer festival land.”

“Every time somebody discovers a spectacular natural location, a music festival springs up there,” says San Francisco Symphony flutist Timothy Day, who plays at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, where you can take a boat trip down the Colorado River to hear a concert in a wilderness grotto.

So just how busy can musicians get?

Consider a few pages from pianist Jon Kimura Parker’s datebook two summers ago: New York Philharmonic, July 3 and 4; Minnesota Orchestra, July 9, 10 and 11; Dallas Symphony, July 16; solo recital in Portland, July 18; chamber music in Seattle, July 21; Baltimore Symphony, July 23; Buffalo Philharmonic, July 25; Philadelphia Orchestra, July 27.

“It was completely crazy,” Parker recalls. “But actually it was a fantastically exciting month. l had a really great time.”

This summer won’t be much different. In addition to the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, held May 27 to June 24, and other dates, Parker will hit a real crunch in August. He is booked to play for La Jolla SummerFest on Aug. 13, and normally he would rehearse for two days before the concert. But on those days he’s got a gig at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. So he plans to fly to L.A. on Aug. 8, drive to La Jolla for rehearsals on the 9th and 10th, drive back to L.A. for the Bowl dates, then back to La Jolla right after leaving the Cahuenga Pass.

“That kind of scheduling really isn’t necessary,” he says. “The fact is, I have a lot of friends in San Diego and the La Jolla area, and there’s no way I’m going to turn down the L.A. Philharmonic. That’s how it works.”

For some overachievers, even that pace of concertizing may not be enough.

Percussionist Jonathan Haas has an active concert career (one specialty is Philip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra, written for him). But he also plays and teaches at the summer Aspen Music Festival in Colorado at the same time that he runs a musicians contracting company (Gemini Music Productions) and a percussion rental company (Kettles and Company).

“The music business has gotten where you have to fill up your year with as much stuff as possible,” Haas says. “Especially in New York, you try to pack in as much as you can because the marketplace is shrinking so badly. I’m lucky. It’s all accelerated. But my schedule has been like this for about 18 years.”

Haas notes too that the vision of a laid-back summer doesn’t always jibe with a seasonal set of responsibilities. Students in summer programs, he says, “want that experience to be truly valuable. ‘I don’t want my teacher on the golf course or playing tennis,’ they say. ‘I need him to be at the concert to give me coaching.’ ”

And some musicians look back on more hectic summers.

“What I remember from the late ‘70s and most of the ‘80s is that we played even more concerts at Hollywood Bowl than we do now,” says Mark Kashper, associate principal second violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and concertmaster of the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony. “There was no Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at that time. So we played almost the whole summer, four concerts a week, and almost every concert had a different program. We still play most of the weekends, but our schedule is not as tough, as difficult and intense, as it was 25 years ago.”

Welcoming change

DESPITE the pressures of travel and rehearsal, many musicians see summer festivals as a way to get out of such intense and often anonymous orchestra routines.

“There’s usually a real hook that makes summer festivals totally different from day-to-day showing up, cranking out a concert, not that it’s ever just cranking out a concert,” says flutist Day. “But festivals are always unique. There’s always something special about them. When I’ve gone to the Moab Festival, I’ve ended up staying with two park rangers. They’ve taken me to places on hikes that very few people have seen before. It’s very therapeutic. It’s not just about the music.”

Mainly Mozart pianist Anton Nel describes another benefit: “Summer festivals mean seeing a lot of your families all over again,” he says, putting stress on the plural. “Not only do you spend a lot of quality time with people you really like, but you get to make music with a lot of your friends, who happen to be world-class musicians. That’s just a treat. And in some places, like Seattle, the artists tend to stay with host families, not in hotels. You make incredible friends.”

The pleasure of this company can lead to yet more opportunities.

“Several of my friends have started their own festivals,” says Nel, who typically plays between 30 and 50 concerts in the summer months. “That’s not something I could ever do. I don’t have such a good business sense. But it’s a good excuse to have your friends play with you.”

Parker and his wife, violinist-violist Aloysia Friedmann, for instance, founded the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival in Puget Sound in 1998. That’s where Parker will be before his mad dashes to La Jolla and L.A.

“We have lot of colleagues we can call,” he says. “We can say, ‘We’ll make music, feed you well, have a great time.’ Most festivals don’t pay that well, but there’s a great sense of getting together.”

Indeed, many musicians can substantially supplement their incomes by working in the summer. (The average minimum salary for musicians in major American orchestras has been estimated at $58,000.) But La Jolla’s Beach says, “A true and general rule is that artists make their money in the fall, winter and spring and get to play with colleagues they love in the summertime in beautiful places. It is a rejuvenating experience.”

Perils of overplay

BUT there are down and even dark sides to such busy summers.

“I have to compete for musicians,” says violinist Cho-Liang Lin, the music director of La Jolla’s SummerFest. “I often coordinate with Santa Fe so the musicians can go to Santa Fe and then go to La Jolla or vice versa. I also check with Hollywood Bowl to find out who they’re bringing and take advantage of some musicians coming to the West Coast. It’s better to share musicians rather than fight for them.”

There are also risks associated with playing too much.

“People do get injuries pretty frequently,” says violist Dana Hansen, who joined the L.A. Phil three summers ago. This season, she says, “I can think of two people who are making sure they don’t play too much, so they don’t strain problems they have already. That’s another reason to have some time off.”

“If you’re a violinist,” says percussionist Haas, “if your bow arm is moving constantly 365 days a year, you have potential rotator cuff problems or carpal tunnel syndrome. Same with pianists. Being a timpanist or a percussionist, I can do it around the clock. There’s not really a lot of injuries I can bring upon myself.”

“Anything can happen to anybody,” counters the Phil’s Kashper. “Injuries do happen, but it’s not clear what is better: If you take a rest and don’t play and then start playing, that might be stressful for your muscles -- from a lot of activity to no activity, back to activity, as opposed to a steady regimen.

“If you play the right way, with relaxed muscles and without too much strain -- which is what we all try to do -- then one should be able to last for a long time.”

But there’s a stress that isn’t often talked about: how to balance all these opportunities with family life.

Many musicians try to bring their families along. Violinist Andres Cardenes works in trips to Sea World for his kids, Isabel-Annik and Marco Valentine, when he’s in San Diego. Lin takes daughter Lara swimming at Aspen, where he teaches and performs for five weeks before SummerFest.

“She enjoys a little time off, while I work myself silly,” he says.

Parker, on the other hand, says he came close to a “meltdown” in the middle of his recent Mainly Mozart schedule when he and Friedmann started feeling they were neglecting their 7-year-old.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to spend with Sophia,” he says. “That’s what hit me last week, looking at my schedule. It’s always difficult if you’re a performing musician and traveling a lot. It seems harder this summer than in the past. Sophia is more verbal about saying, ‘Daddy, I want you here now.’ It starts getting to be a bit too crazy.”

Still, he has to rein in his feelings.

“I should absolutely underline I am not normally one to whine about anything,” he says. “Any musician complaining about being busy somewhere deep down knows how lucky he is.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

A festival atmosphere in the West

Southern Californians are well positioned to take advantage of the whirl of activity that has come to characterize summers in classical music. Besides the obvious venues -- the Hollywood Bowl, of course, and the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater -- a variety of summer music festivals is available to music lovers able to get out of town. Here’s a select list, arranged chronologically:

Music Academy of the West

Santa Barbara, through Aug. 12

Highlights of the 59th season include Rossini’s comic opera “Il Viaggio a Reims” (Aug. 4 and 6) and orchestra concerts led by Michael Stern (Saturday), Giancarlo Guerrero (July 22) and Pavel Klinichev (Aug. 12).

www.musicacademy.org

Aspen Music Festival

Aspen, Colo., through Aug. 20

Founded in 1949, the nine-week summer festival includes soprano Renee Fleming in recital (July 27) and music director David Zinman conducting the first Western U.S. performances of Ned Rorem’s opera “Our Town” (July 29, 31; Aug. 2).

www.aspenmusicfestival.com

San Luis Obispo

Mozart Festival

San Luis Obispo,

Friday through July 23

Scott Yoo begins his first season as music director of the 36-year-old festival Friday with a program featuring Vladimir Feltsman in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27. Morro Bay native Kent Nagano will conduct Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Marc-Andre Hamelin on July 21.

www.mozartfestival.com

Carmel Bach Festival

Carmel, Saturday through Aug. 5

In the Monterey Peninsula festival’s 68th season, Bruno Weil will conduct Bach’s “St. John” Passion next Sunday and July 23 and 30 and Handel’s “Israel in Egypt” on July 21 and 28 and Aug. 4.

www.bachfestival.com

Festival del Sole

Napa, next Sunday through July 23

The new weeklong festival combines music, food and wine at various Napa Valley locations.

www.festivaldelsole.com

Santa Fe

Chamber Music Festival

Santa Fe, N.M.,

next Sunday through Aug. 21

Pianist-conductor Jeffrey Kahane and the Colorado Symphony open the 34th season with two different Mozart programs, next Sunday and July 17. An Aug. 4 program will be devoted to the music of contemporary Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg.

www.sfcmf.org

Music@Menlo

Atherton, Calif., July 24 through Aug. 11

Like other festivals this summer, the 4-year-old Silicon Valley start-up is focusing on Mozart’s 250th birthday, juxtaposing his chamber works with pieces from the Baroque through the modern era.

www.musicatmenlo.org

Cabrillo Music Festival

Santa Cruz, July 29 through Aug. 13

Marin Alsop will conduct three world premieres in this adventurous, award-winning festival founded in 1982: Frans Lanting’s “LIFE: A Journey Through Time,” with music by Philip Glass, July 29; Greg Smith’s “The Melodic Life,” Aug. 6; and Michael Gatonska’s “The Whispering Wind,” Aug. 12.

www.cabrillomusic.org

La Jolla Music Society

SummerFest

La Jolla, Aug. 3 through 20

The 20th-anniversary season includes four commissioned premieres: a string quartet by Leon Kirchner, Aug. 6; Bright Sheng’s Three Fantasies for Violin and Piano, Aug. 7; a new piano and cello duo by Magnus Lindberg, Aug. 8; and a new wind quintet by Wayne Shorter, Aug. 18.

www.lajollamusicsociety.org

Music in the Vineyards

Napa, Calif., Aug. 9 through 27

The 12th annual festival features music by 22 composers in a dozen wineries, estates and other Napa Valley settings.

www.napavalleymusic.org

Music From Angel Fire

Angel Fire, N.M., Aug. 18 through Sept. 4

The 23rd season includes a new work by Michael Daugherty, the festival’s 2006 composer in residence, to premiere Sept. 3. The opening-night concert features Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 1.

www.musicfromangelfire.org

Orcas Island

Chamber Orchestra

Eastsound, Wash.,

Aug. 21 through Sept. 1

The ninth annual season of this northern island festival pairs Michael Daugherty’s “Dead Elvis” and Stravinsky’s “Soldier’s Tale” with works by Poulenc, Mozart and Loeffler, Aug. 25 and 26.

www.oicmf.org

Moab Music Festival

Moab, Utah, Aug. 31 through Sept. 16

The 14th season opens with a boat trip down the Colorado River to a grotto for a program with works by Schumann and Brahms plus Latin classics.

www.moabmusicfest.org

-- Chris Pasles